Intro to Religion Blog

I had first read The Alchemist in high school because my sister had recommended it to me. At first I thought it dragged on a little but I kept reading and found it to be one of my favorite books. All of the magic and sayings in it are so interesting and it really does make you think about what would happen if you weren’t afraid to follow your heart and find your destiny. I have found that this book has many concepts of a pilgrimage and I will show how it does in my project/presentation.

It is crazy to think that Elvis religion can be percieved as an actual example of a religion. I just feel like it is so different from any other religions that we have studied. Before we starting analizing the article, I thought for sure that it wouldn’t have nearly enough elements needed to be a religion. But after looking at the elements it became clear that most of the elements are clearly there. This religion definitely has rituals, ultimate reality, myth, community, worldview, material expression and moral code. They also have a pilgrimage to Graceland. The pilgrimage has a lot of examples of both the Turner and Eliade model. There is communitas, limin, metaphorical death, and return. There is also sacred space, relics, axis mundi, ritual, and reenactment. We discussed in class how a pilgrimage can only be a pilgrimage if you actual believe in the sacredness of the journey and are actually changed by the pilgrimage. If you don’t experience either of those than you are simply just a tourist.

When reading about Goddess Pilgrimage, I was surprised to find that only women make these pilgrimages. I know that it is mostly women that are Paganists, but, I thought that the idea of Paganism was that men and women are equal. I also thought it was interesting that the author kept comparing pilgrimage to tourism, as I haven’t thought of the similarities between the two.  I do know that you can have life changing experiences when you’re just traveling and when you least expect it. I think that these experiences would relate more to the Turner model of pilgrimage than the Eliade model.

I have never really thought about Christianity being sexist. I am questioning weather paganism just came from the belief that western religions are sexist or if it’s been around for longer than western religions. I think that men and women should be treated equal and that this religion might be trying to make the world a more peaceful place.

I wasn’t really aware of Paganism and all the beliefs that stem from this religion. It would be interesting to see if the different beliefs – like Wiccan – are religions by themselves. I would have to see if all of the aspects of religion that we talked about today would be apparent in those beliefs.

Learning about Hinduism and non-western religions, I am very interested because it is something that I don’t know much about. I find it very interesting that they believe in monism and that everything is one ultimate reality. Their belief that animals are included in that ultimate reality prevents them from killing animals for food. I think that its interesting that they’re putting their religion before their survival because people are starving and dying from that. Since they believe in reincarnation, though, they believe that their life is going to be better in their next life according to how they lived their previous life. So to them, it is worth not being able to eat meat and since they believe that animals part of the ultimate reality, it probably doesn’t even phase them like it phases me.

I thought Malcom X’s description of the hajj was very enlightening. I wasn’t aware that there are a lot of different races that are Muslim and it was interesting to know that the hajj is part of the reason Malcom X made such a difference in American civilization. He saw that there was racial equality among the muslims in Mecca and began to think there was hope for America. He never gave up on trying to end racism and had a great impact on the civil rights movement.

It was nice to learn about the Islam religion because I feel like I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t even realize that muslims are the only people allowed in Mecca. I can now relate to Islam and I now know what the religion is all about.

I thought it was interesting that today was the jewish new year or Rosh Hashana because I had never heard of it before and new years is such a big deal here in America and I know that we do have a fair amount of Jewish population here. I have read that Jewish people think of their holidays and beliefs as ethical exceptionalism which on a religious level is good but socially may lead to discrimination.

I really enjoyed reading Unlikely Disciple a lot more than I thought I would. I thought it was really nice that he was so open-minded and tried to get a long with everyone even though he did have some different beliefs. This book made me surprised that there are still universities out there that are so strict. I visited the Liberty University website and it looked like any other college site. I would never have guessed that the school would have so many requirements and rules to follow. I think this book would be really good to read if you were thinking about going to Liberty because of how he describes daily life on campus.

Kevin definitely had a pilgrimage according to both the Eliade and Turner model. He wouldn’t have if this experience hadn’t changed him. I think that every college student should read this book whether they are christian or not because maybe there would be less of a stereotype and barrier between people that have different beliefs.

When thinking about what the definition of a pilgrimage is, I would have to say that I have always thought similar to the Turner definition rather than Eliade. I have always thought that pilgrimage means that people have a journey to reach a certain goal or to find a spiritual identity/reason for living. I didn’t really think of it as people trying to go to a sacred space to feel safe because I thought that people would have to go through a journey that might not be so safe in order to find their true identity. I do think that both Eliade and the Turners are correct I just didn’t realize that there were different reasons for pilgrimage.

When looking at all four theorists (Frazer, Durkheim, Marx, Freud) and their theories about religion, I find myself relating to Durkheim’s theory the most. I think that he has the most believable definition compared to the other theorists. I do not believe that religion is the product of magic and that everyone will forget about religion and start to believe in just science as Frazer said because I don’t think that it’s possible for everyone to abandon religion all together. I also don’t believe in any of Freud’s theories of religion because I don’t think that religion is neurosis and I don’t believe that people have Oedipal guilt. I think that Marx’s theory can be true in some cases and that people have abused religion in order to get what they want, however I don’t believe that is the root of religion or the human condition.

Durkheim makes the most sense to me because he talks most about how religion functions to stabilize society and bring together the people of a community to share common ideas about what is “sacred.” I think that this theory is the best because it is familiar to me and I believe that it is how my religion is based.