Dylan Stephenson

Faith, Religion, and Society

SLA 150 05

Professor Justin Leavitt Pearl

11/27/17

New views of Religions

The class as a whole has taught me a lot. In regards to specifics such as religions like

Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Along with that, other topics were covered such as just regular

historical events, and different things such as catholic social thought.

Prior to attending the class and learning about these religions I did not know very much

information about the Jewish religion and culture. I knew a few general things, but not very in

depth. The most surprising thing I learned is probably the section when we cover the treatment of

the Jews by the Egyptians. Learning about the nearly genocide of the Jews was not something I

had heard before. To know that more than once the religious group was tried to be completely

destroyed was appalling. Hearing these stories gave me a much larger respect for the religion as

a whole.

When we went into the section about the religion of Islam, I knew little to nothing. I was

most worried about his section because I was not familiar with it. After learning much

information about the religion of Islam, I found out a few interesting facts. One I found pretty

interesting is that the Quran can not be thrown away or disrespected. It is the sacred book of the

Muslims and they believe that throwing away or any discarding of the book or any parts is very

disrespectful. This is something I have never thought about or noticed because, I figure someone
would just throw out an old copy rather than never get rid of it. I think this is not only a religious

difference between myself and Islam, but also a cultural difference.

Christianity is similar to both Judaism and Islam in various amounts of ways. All 3 of

these religions are monotheist, which means they believe in one God. They all also contain the

importance of God and the relationship between his prophets. Specifically Jesus in Christianity,

Moses in Judaism, and Muhammad in Islam. Along with that, all religions seem to be generally

peaceful. They all preach peace within their religion. This was unexpected because I would see

in the news bad things about violence within these religions rather than their true nature.

Something I was not aware of when pertaining to all three religions was that the Muslims

believe they are superior to both the Jews and Christians because they feel that the Quran is the

final word of God. The religion of Islam thinks that the Christians and Jews both are behind and

are following outdated books with corrupt information. For this reason, they disagree with the

Judaism and Christianity teachings and ideals. I thought that maybe in general all of these

religions would respect each others views, rather than openly state the others are ‘wrong’.

I now feel with a better understanding of each of these religions, I can more accurately

comprehend the reasoning behind many of the decisions and cultural aspects of them. I respect

them much more, knowing that they are not so much different from the religion I believe in, but

rather just look at things in other ways. For those reasons I now respect and accept these

religious beliefs around myself much more than I did prior to this class.