Blog Number 4

Posted by: beatlesbeatlesbeatles on: February 15, 2012

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In Class: In class this past week, we talked about the goals, functions and problems of religion.  We worked in small groups, which was a nice change in pace. It was especially interesting to see how the class voted when it came to the most important functions and biggest problems of religion.  I found myself agreeing with most of my classmates.  It was also interesting that we, as a class, found it necessary to distinguish between organized religion and faith.

Readings: Some of this week reading delved deeper into Muhammad.  One of the articles in the Cambridge Companion discussed the historical proof that Muhammad existed, which tied in nicely with the class discussion we had last week.  One of the major problems our class had with religion was its abstractness, or lack of proof, so it was interesting to see the proof of an aspect of Islam.

Islam: This week, I read an article about Islam and Valentine’s Day. The article took a deeper look at some of the stereotypes associated with Islamic ideas about love and romance.  Apparently, the traditional idea is no sex before marriage, chaperoned date etc.  This article said that those ideas are a little archaic and that many Muslims have a much more modern, normal approach to dating.  One women said, “I’m a Muslim, non-virgin. Unmarried” and expressed how good it felt to say out loud! It was an interesting look at Islam’s ideas about love, which I am excited to learn about later in the semester.

Response: In response to several classmates’ posts, I realize I need to brush up on my Syrian current events.  Reading this weeks blog posts shocked me and I plan on reading more into the massacres and fighting going on in the region.