Religious studies midterm

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVx3Hr809Sc copy paste link to see my video
2. In Indonesia the villagers believe that the volcanoes are their gods. For many years now the villagers sacrifice animals to the volcanoes gods so they don’t get upset with the villagers. It is believed that when the volcanoes erupted it was because either not enough sacrifices were mad or the villagers were doing something wrong. Indonesians adapted this tradition because Indonesia is made of volcanoes and there are many active volcanoes around that region (part of the ring of fire), this factor affected their lives greatly because when they erupt it can be a deadly tragedy. If there were not any active volcanoes in Indonesia, they would not consider them as their gods. Even today some of the villagers still believe there is such thing as a volcano god, I read in the National Geographic that recently the volcano had many signs that it was going to erupt soon, so some of the villagers sacrificed a goat together, finally most of the villagers left because the sign of eruption continued, but one of the older villager believe in it so deeply that he refused to leave because he was convinced that after the sacrifice the volcano god was no longer angry and the volcano will not erupt, in that story, ironically he was right and the volcano stopped.
3. The reason that certain religions become so popular it’s because they memetic their beliefs. Religions like Jehovah’s witness and Christian religions try to spread their beliefs by going door to door or passing out flyers or offering Bible study sessions. The groups of people in such religions are usually very friendly and very determined to get you to do something that is religion related with them. I had a friend in elementary school that said that I couldn’t go play at her house unless it was for Bible studying, she was a Jehovah’s witness, and because I wanted to hang out with her so bad, I took the offer. I would go to their group meetings and I even went to church with them once. I actually had a really good time, they are very nice people. Other religions (Jewish, and Buddhists) are less popular because they don’t go door to door to spread their beliefs, but instead they just pass on their beliefs to their children.
4. As population in a community increase, the resources of that area becomes more and more limited, in order to survive comfortably (with enough food and shelter), people migrated to unoccupied areas. The different climates of the different areas required different physical traits to make it favorable to live with, an example of this would be people from places near the equator have evolved with dark skin because the radiation from the sun there is much stronger than places away from the equator and in order to protect their skin from being damaged their skin pigment had to be a lot darker, therefore eventually the people with lighter skin in those areas were not as capable to pass on their genes as those with darker skin. Due to natural selection, people at different areas eventually evolved with traits that are favorable in those environments. People living in the same area (or climate) all encountered similar problem when it came to survival, an example of this would be the one given in answer 5, when the volcanoes erupted people would die from the lava and dust, so this group of people got together to formulate what they think is a solution to the problem, this solution is then turned into a belief and then past onto their children and their children’s children. Throughout this process, people living in an area all become believer of certain ideas.
5. Biologically speaking all human being are the same. Everyone’s DNA is made out of the same four nucleotides, A, D, C, and G. Race became a factor because the human race eventually spread throughout the entire world, and then people evolved to look different from each other. Due to our differences in physical appearances, and the past experiences we had when we encountered other races we are programmed to act and treat people that look different than ourselves differently. These traits are then past from one generation to the next by our parents.
6. Kama Sutra was first originated in India from the Hindu religion. Ever since it became popular in the United States, it’s resemblance to religion is fading. People use Kama sutra just for it sexual content completely disassociates the religious aspect of it. Overall Kama Sutra has become more of a “how to have sex”, usually in books, other than a part of a religion.
7. Heretical imperative describes the three ways a person can go about when they choose their religion. Deductive is when you believe in your own religion so strongly that you completely reject all other religions and views them as wrong. Reductive is when the explanations of all other religions are explained away or reject. Inductive is when you have an open mind and you base your religion on personal experiences and learnings. Religious plurialism includes all three (deductive, reductive, and inductive) approaches to choosing a religion. Religious plurialism is how a religion is chosen.
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11. As people became smarter and technology became more advance, the idea of god’s existence became more and more unrealistic, this is where Nietzsche’s idea that “God is dead” is stemmed from. Since humans are predisposed to having a religion, even if the previous religion is proven wrong (even if “God is dead”), new religions will always form to fit the current ideas.
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13. Religious diversity always starts with its founder, this is where new religions and ideas evolve from. Before death the founder has a way to practice his/her beliefs and after death, his/her followers may interpret the founder’s beliefs differently from each other. Due to these differences in interpretation in the followers, new ideas and religions may be created due to the conflicting ideas. As this process continues and the former followers become finders of new ideas, religious ideas become more and more diverse.
14. The tipping point that made Brian want to commit suicide is when he realized that no matter how big he made it in television he was still being called a “nigger”. He was already depressed at the time, he felt like no matter how successful he is, his skin color will still a limiting factor because people will always judge him on his skin color and not what he has accomplished in life.
15. In my opinion subtle racism is even more offensive than obvious racism. In his book, Brian mentioned several situations where he encountered subtle racism. When Brian went to the barber shop in San Leandro, his business was not welcomed, the barber claimed that he did not know how to cut that kind of hair. Who would have ever thought that cutting “white people hair” and cutting “that kind of hair (black people)” would be any different, I could see how the texture would be different but to cut it, it would be to same. Another time Brian had to dealing with subtle racism is when he was at the mall, and he would be followed by the security guards, the guards were racial profiling him and thinking that Brian was going to steal. When Brian and his family went out to eat at IHOP, once again racial profiling took place, the waitress did not provide good service to Brian and his family, stereotypically assuming that they will leave a bad tip because of their race.
16. Brian and Malcolm X’s feelings were similar because they both felt oppressed by the way they were treated because of their skin color. Malcolm X was more aggressive when he expressed his feelings, and even though he was never violent, he defended himself with violence. Brian on the other hand was never violent but expressed his emotions in a calmer way.
17. Native Americans accepted Christianity when the missionaries arrived. This happened partly because the Native Americans were forced to accept Christianity, if they didn’t the missionaries threatened to kill them. Besides that reason, the missionaries made to “compromise” a bit in presenting Christianity to the Native Americans. The missionaries explained to the Native Americans that Jesus is the guardian of nature and spirits.
18. Laverne Jacobs attempted to reconcile his Christian and Native American beliefs. As a strong believer of the Christian faith, he felt like he was compromising his Christian faith whenever he encountered any Native American rituals. One time when he was away in Korea the church practice there seemed so European, he felt overwhelmed and alone, he was approached by Native Americans and they performed prayers together. Afterwards, Jacobs felt peace and knew that he had not compromised his Christian faith. Throughout his experiences he realized that his beliefs are both Native and Christian and that he should not feel guilty for believing in both, because he feels peace when he practices both.
19. The church is in South Dakota and it started out as a traditional church. As time progressed the people of the church began to accept Christianity. In my opinion the reason that the church converted to due to the fact that there were so many different Indian tribes and there were so many conflicting ideas that people accepted Christianity so have a common answer and belief. Since Christianity was a new idea to them, none of the tribes really completely disagree with it so for the purpose of having a common ground between all the tribes, they agreed with Christianity. An example of this is in the olden days when one tribe believed that souls departed to the east and another tribe believed that souls departed to the south, but “Christ gave His life and made a road for us to go on. That’s one way: towards heaven”. In this example, Christ gave all people one answer and this answer applied to all people.
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21. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. both wanted to free blacks from being oppressed. Compared to Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X was much more aggressive when expressing his mission. Many whites were afraid of Malcolm X because of the way he talked, his speeches were more threatening than Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. was peaceful and calm during his speeches, he emphasize a lot on equality of both whites and blacks. These two men grew up is very different environments which explains their actions. Malcolm X did not grow up with a privileged family and was not as educated as Martin Luther King Jr. because of that they communicated with the public differently.
22. Genealogical disassociation is a key factor in understanding why new religions are created. Genealogical disassociation is when one reinvents themselves by mythologizing their past. You have to disassociate yourself from something in order to seem different. An example of this is when Jesus was not accepted because he was considered illegitimate due to the fact that he didn’t come from married parents. In order to stray away from that, he had to mythologize the way he was created so he would be viewed differently. He disassociated himself completely to what he was viewed as.