Madeline Brandley

PHIL 2350
Professor Atkinson
April 25, 2020

Philosophy of Religion 2350 – Reflection

As I began to register for the 2020 Spring semester, I came across the class titled

“Philosophy of Religion” and signed up for it as quickly as I could (only after I had searched for

Mr. Shannon Atkinson on ratemyprofessor.com). I’ll let you know with confidence his reviews

were some of the best I’d seen. If it says anything before the semester even began my life was

flipped upside down and I still couldn’t bring myself to drop this class. I was very eager to begin

and start to learn about this new subject I had only ever lightly touched upon.

In this class, I discovered many different things I didn’t expect to discover about not only

just the world but myself too. One of those things was validation, validation in the feelings I

always had about religion and religious practices. I discovered truth about other religious

practices and philosophies. I believe learning about things like this brings us closer as a

collective, showing us how we can learn more about each other, our cultures, the reasons behind

each of our beliefs. As you’d normally assume, a class like this might be anything but the
opposite due to what we usually see when religion is being discussed. It showed me how I can

empathize with people who believe in things that I do not. This class was one that shifts your

perspective on the world, one that opens you up to an entirely new viewpoint. It was a very

informationally dense class to say the least. I do not find this to be negative as I truly want to

absorb every informational concept given to me but, it did make it slightly challenging. This is

partly a projection of my own life speaking just to be clear. I had quite a bit going on that I have

consistently been trying to balance during this whole semester so, my thinking it was

informationally packed could just my own illusion.

I really liked this class especially for the way that it was organized and taught. Professor

Atkinson constructed it in such a way that it took you from ground zero and weaved in and out of

every concept he could to help us understand everything as a whole. I really valued Shannon’s

high expectation of us and his ability to be direct when we were presenting him with anything

less than. I often notice general education professors being a bit more lenient, this issue is

understandable, but I appreciated the fact that I felt like my mistakes were never looked past. I

do very well with constructive and direct criticism, this was something Mr. Atkinson provided

consistently. He always created a safe environment that felt as if we could talk in confidence

about any idea (regarding the subject of course). Answers were always provided with kindness,

humor, and obvious intelligence. Shannon constantly pushed us to dive deeper into each concept,

to consider the perspectives you didn’t know existed before. I would like to say that Professor

Atkinson is a teacher I will not forget, one that has made an impact not only on my educational

journey but in my general life as well. This is a class and a Professor that I would highly

recommend taking to anyone.