Judaism, Christianity and Islam are some of the oldest institutions of religion in the world.

The one aspect that all three have in common, yet they all have a different opinion on, that I found most interesting is God. In Christianity, for example, God serves as the Alpha and Omega, the end all/be all, the creator and the ultimate judge we will have to answer to one day. He is the one who created man, and He is the one who sent down his physical self in the form of Jesus Christ. In Christianity, God as Christ is the Messiah—the one man who was appointed to deliver His message of salvation through Christ. Most Christians, from what I gathered in class, believe that unless a person chooses to accept Christ as the savior of all sins, they will suffer the consequence of going to Hell. I honestly believe that whatever God may be in charge and responsible for everything we as a human race are exposed to, would have a better reason to send someone to eternal damnation. I can’t speak based on extensive research or knowledge on the topic, but I can speak based on experience in the church. Granted, my exposer to Christianity was through the Catholic Church, but it was exposure to the Christian God and the Christian religion nonetheless. The only problem or concept that I can’t really wrap my brain around when it comes to Christianity is the exclusivity. Unlike some of the other religions we’ve learned about, Christianity seems to put its followers on a pedestal that only those who have heard and understood “the word” can reach. However, what if what they believe isn’t true? And why does the religion insist upon trying to reach out to others based on a set of stories compiled in one book? What if the person doesn’t believe like you? Are they really automatically condemned to a place congregations of Christians are taught to fear? To me, Christianity serves as a comfort mechanism for certain human being, like most other religions do; however, Christianity was never said to be the one and true religion—therefore, I wish that some would try and approach it not as such.

In Judaism, I found it interesting that the Maimonides said that one couldn’t say God exists—as soon as someone does, a limit is placed on God. The best a person can do is to say that God doesn’t exist. I also thought it was interesting that in Judaism, God is amoral. I can relate a little better with Judaism simply because I do think there is a divine being, but I don’t necessarily believe that divine being sent himself down in the form of a human. I liked learning and hearing about the history of Judaism and how many of the traditions haven’t changed from the time it started. Learning about the 613 mitzvot was interesting—especially how those 613 were supposedly only given to the Jews. I think it’s very commendable and admirable that studying is everything in the religion. Learning about the true nature, history and tradition of whatever religion a person associates themselves with is so crucially important, in my opinion, because it shows that the person isn’t just jumping on a bandwagon, but that they also value the religion itself.

Islam has always been a part of the Muslim culture that I’ve wanted to learn more about, simply because it has always interested me. I must admit that after September 11, my interest rose. I wanted to know why certain people from that religion and culture would kill in the name of their God or religion. That concept seemed so foreign to me, and then, I thought about how many radical Christians there were, and are, here in the U.S. There are members of the Ku Klux Klan, for example, believe that the actions and mentality are totally justified based on their interpretation of the Bible and other Christian theology. However, anyone who knows better should understand that their hatred and violence has no merit or is any kind of representation of Christianity. There is a quote that always comes to mind when I think of how people misunderstand Islam. It’s from a show that used to run called The West Wing. There’s a scene where one of the characters on the show asks a group of students an analogy. “Islam extremists are to Islam as _____ is to Christianity. No one knew the answer the man who asked the question answered with “the KKK.” I think it’s so important for people to have an open mind and learn about whatever it may that they fear or resent. Islam is in fact a religion, just like any other religion. In fact, Islam is one of the three great religions. I disliked seeing how the religion itself was being challenged in the video we saw in class. Islam has a god, a message, a “bible” (the Qur’an) and a prophet. When looked at like that, one could say that the religion’s structure isn’t that much different than Christianity. Sure, Jesus may not be the one and only messiah or prophet but the religion even recognized him.

All in all, the class taught me so much more than what I thought I knew. I appreciate how open everyone was (maybe not so much towards the end), but I am happy to say that I think everyone respected each other as much as one could hope. I’m glad that I went into this class not knowing how to feel about religion. Now I can look at them all (at least the ones we learned about) and have some knowledge behind my argument of each one holding some truth. I don’t subscribe myself to any one religion, simply because I think that’s doing a disservice to my capacity to learn. I can’t express how really glad I am that I took this class.