Final Blog

This semester in Religion 305 has been an interesting one for sure. I have learned a lot about the bible that I did not initially anticipate heading into the course. I have also learned a lot about myself and my viewpoints that I did not expect at all heading into this course. Religion 305 has made me question why I look at things the way I do, and the way that outside influences may be affecting my viewpoints in my day to day life. One of the biggest things that I will take away from Religion 305 is that to understand someone else and their views, you really need to try and look at something from their situation and perspective. We all have different social locations, and we cannot fully understand why someone may feel the way that they do about something until we try and look at the issue from their social location. Although that is pretty much completely impossible for us to fully do, if you can somewhat put yourself in someone else’s shoes, it will really help you understand where they are coming from in their beliefs towards a particular issue. If you cannot put at least attempt to put yourself in someone else’s social location, you will not be able to understand where they are coming from at all. My favorite thing about Religion 305 was definitely the in class discussions. We read a lot of different readings this semester, and a lot of them left you very confused after you were finished with them I felt like; however, the in class discussions helped clear up the readings each class, and they offered some very thought provoking discussions. One of my favorite things about our in class discussions was how Dr. Stein lead them. I felt like in class you could not just make a blanket statement like “I feel like…” because Dr. Stein would always question you on why you felt like that or ask more questions that provoked you to think more about what you had said, and it really led to more in depth thinking and discussions I felt like. Religion 305 definitely made me do a lot more thinking about myself and my personal social location and views than I was anticipating when I signed up for a Religion class last semester, and I feel like it has made me grow both as a person and a student.