Final

A. Ryan Hernandez

B. User name: toolbus17

C. I completed 12 posts. (Post 1: May, 30) (Post 2: Jun, 5) (Post 3: Jun 5) (Post 5: Jun 6) (Post 7: Jun 10) (Post 8: Jun 10) (Post 9: Jun 16) (Post 10: Jun 18) (Post 11: Jun 26) (Post 12: Jun 23) (Post 13: Jun 26) (Post 14: Jun 26)

D. I visited the HSI Lai temple and the Islamic Education Center in Walnut.

E. I got a C on the midterm. There wasn’t any work that I was supposed to make up.

F. I read the Politics of Mysticism, When Scholars Study the Sacred, When Gods Decay, The Enchanted Land, Why I Don’t Eat Faces, Lions in the Punjab, The Gnostic Mystery, False Testament, and the Triumph of Christianity. I also read every assigned chapter in Huston Smith’s book. I also read Crossan’s book (5 chapters) and the Bhagavadgita, Wisdom of the Buddha, The Koran, and the Tao Te Ching.

G. To be honest I enjoyed every bit of this course. All of the articles and books were very interesting and had some great things to say. I really enjoyed Huston’s book. It is extremely easy to read and is very informative.

H. I did not complete any extra credit.



Essay Questions

1. Gnostics believe that the self is the barrier that keeps us from realizing that we are already a part of the Divine. They believe that attraction the material pleasures will only repel us from the Divine. There are strict guidelines by which one must follow in order to cleanse oneself of material desires. Gnostics will live in celibacy, fast for long periods of time, eat only vegetables, and abstain from intoxicants. Gnostics also believe that there is a Creator-god who is evil, which makes the creation evil as well.
In the Gnostic tradition and in Christianity, both have a concept of a savior that comes to cleanse the souls of the world from sin. There is one distinct difference: Gnostics believe that this redeemer comes again and again to help souls realize the Divine while Christians believe that Jesus was the only savior that came and died once for all of humanity’s sins.
The fact that the Gnostic religion was something of a mystical religion made it esoteric and exclusive. There were complex teachings that the Gnostics claimed to be the true teachings of Jesus. They also employed secret techniques that were said to be “passwords” to bring one closer to the Divine. Christianity on the other hand was a bit more liberal. It included more perspectives and than any other religion at the time. Christianity developed in a time of religious equality; therefore it was inevitably influenced by some of neighboring religions. Many aspects of Christianity stemmed from some of the beliefs of existing religions. This made Christianity more appealing than its mysterious rival.

2. Crossan depicted the historical Jesus based on anthropology that compares his cultures attributes with other cultures of the same status, on the history of the Romans and the Jews outside of religious text, and a purely text based study. Crossan states that Jesus rejected the traditions of his time and did things that were in opposition of the norm. For one thing, performing miracles was not accepted and he did just that. He performed his miracles by showing people the power of faith if the obtain it. In this way, he healed the faith of the people and created a strong sense of faith in God. He was something of a rebel except that he taught love for all people and truly cared. This sort of rebellion against traditional belief is exactly what led to his death. The same goes for John the Baptist, whose life parallels that of Jesus. The fact that Jesus, who was part of the lower class, declared his divinity is what angered the ruling class. He was not a radical revolutionist though because he taught on peaceful terms and did not encourage his people to fight against their oppressors. In fact, he taught just the opposite: love your enemies.
Jesus embraced his life of poverty in the same way as the Cynics. In a way, you could say that Jesus was a Cynic himself. He renounced material possessions and wore simple clothing like the Cynics. This simple way of living brought him closer to his people and made him an accessible prophet to all for his people were of the lower class as well.
I like this depiction of the historical Jesus because in a way, it helps me realize just how human he was. As much as we place Jesus on a high pedestal for being the Son of God, we forget that he was also human and very much so. Reading about him historically reminds us that he lived here on this earth and loved and suffered in the same way that we all do.

3. False Testament is an article that gives evidence to show that the accounts in the Old Testament in Christianity are false. Archeologists found evidence to show that the Jews were just a small community of people that developed around 1200 B.C. The most crucial characters in the Old Testament have been found to be nothing more than a collection of characters from Jewish folklore. Even the empires of David and Solomon have been found to be complete fabrications, for there is no evidence of their lavish lifestyles and riches. Judaism seems to be a concoction of Jewish priests who wished to elevate their political status in their time of oppressive and powerful religions. Their God, Yahweh, was the sovereign God over all other gods who sought to bring salvation to his “chosen people.” Exodus has also been found to be a fabrication. The path that was stated in the Old Testament taken by the Jews after liberation did not match up with the routes that archeologists have discovered. Not even in Egyptian records, or in any other records, are there any indications that a mass escape of Jewish slaves took place or that there were even any Jews that lived under Egyptian rule for five centuries. When closely scrutinized in history, we find that even Moses, the liberator, did not exist any more than Hercules did in Greek mythology. Some of the early archeologists were biased in their search for the truth about Jewish history. They were seeing through the eyes of men who already believed the Bible was fact and were only searching for the means to prove themselves right. Also in Genesis, Abraham uses camels very nonchalantly for use of transport. But analysis of that time period showed that camels were not widely used for transport until well after his time.
With all of these discrepancies in the Bible, it is hard to say what is real. For strict believers, nothing (not even science) will stop them from believing what they believe. The Bible to them is as real as any historical textbook. This is the great leap of faith in religion; to go beyond what we think we “know” and believe what we feel is right. Sometimes there is just no concrete evidence to prove that.

4. The church thrived well on its own for some 300 years before it began to face Roman persecution in 313 A.D. In that same year, the Romans legally recognized Christianity as a religion and it was considered equal in comparison to other religions. Rome, in 380 A.D., announced that Christianity was to be their official religion. From that point until 1054, Christianity was a single organization. At that point, the church divided into the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. It remained this way until the sixteenth century when a new division called Protestantism divided from the Catholic Church.
The Church was seen as a “Teaching Authority” that was capable of answering difficult questions that some may have about the religion. This eventually led to “papal infallibility.” The Pope was seen as the highest authority in the Church and was endowed with perfection in his rule because his decisions were seen as directed by none other than God himself.
Eastern Orthodoxy felt that the Catholic Church added in certain aspects of the doctrine that need not be followed. They also don’t have a Pope. They feel that truth comes out of the “conscience of the church” and that there is no need to have just one high authority.
Protestants emerged from Roman Catholicism in the sixteenth century out of a multitude of reasons that are still in debate today. One reason is that the Protestants developed a new perspective on Christianity. One new idea was Justification by Faith. The idea that faith is the tool for changing one’s life for the better is central to Protestants. They feel that if there is no effect in one’s life from the doctrine, then the doctrine is aloof. There is also the Protestant Principle that cautions against idolatry. They feel that no one should give their life to something in the material world. They also don’t agree with “papal infallibility.”
The first difference that I noticed between Christianity and other religions is that it seemed to become a corporation after it was adopted by one of the most prestigious empires of all time. I think the fact that the Romans favored this religion had a lot to do with the way it developed into a business-like organization. For one thing, the Pope is like the CEO of the whole thing. I think the church itself became something of a cloud of hierarchy that overshadowed the religion itself. No other religion seems to have done this as much as Christianity.

5. The Jewish people were a trivial group of people whose achievement can be noted as occurring because of their quest for meaning. There are several themes in their culture where they searched most diligently for meaning. They are God, creation, human existence, history, morality, justice, suffering, and messianism.
The Jews strived to understand God. They felt that we didn’t create ourselves and that our power is limited. So what did have these attributes? The Jewish people thought that only God could be endowed with such abilities. Yahweh would be meaningless to them if he was an evil, immoral, and crazy God. Rather, they depicted him as a monotheistic divinity that did not resemble a human being. The believed that if there is to be meaning in this world, then God must be morally inclined so as to overpower immorality.
When there are problems in the world, it is of Jewish mind to believe that the fault lies within ourselves than in the world surrounding us. This elicits a creative response that allows the Jews to fix whatever problems they are faced with. No matter how bad things got, they still felt that the world is ultimately good. They also held the material world in high regard. Sex was not evil to them and they praised marriage.
The Jews wanted to understand human nature the best way they could. They favored their free will and always spoke positively of human beings. Yahweh was depicted as a caring God who cared deeply about his human creations. One of the most intriguing thoughts about human nature is its dual nature; you can’t have happiness without sadness, pleasure without pain, or love without hate.
The Jews consider history very important in understanding our social society. They understood that the social climate we live in directly affects our daily lives. They also believed that any true change in society occurs with social action. History is also important to Jews because the more they learn about past mistakes and missed opportunities, the more knowledge they will have for the future. They feel that history is a timeline of events where Yahweh directly interfered. History is also a timeline of Yahweh wanting us to do something and humans not doing it.
Jewish people feel that there needs to be rules in society or there will be chaos. The Ten Commandments are the rules by which all people should heed in order to create a just society. Yahweh is also the epitome of justice that all people, even kings, should abide by (i.e. the story of Naboth). The Jews always suffered immensely so they also needed to find meaning in their suffering. In this sense, they could have hope for the future. They created the idea of a Messiah that will come and liberate all good people from evil constraints. This helped to strengthen their hopes for the future.

6. Muhammad was born in a chaotic time. There was much fighting and arguing going on and left the people with a sense of social disorder. At this critical time, a deliverer needed to be born. Muhammad was born in the sixth century A.D. and was raised by his uncle, for his parents had passed away when he was young. During Muhammad’s search for a solution to the problems of society, he began to look within himself rather than objectively for the answer. He married a widow named Khadija when he reached a mature age. He began to seek solitude so that he may find the truth privately. During this time, he was given a message directly from Allah that drove him to the creation of Islam for the rest of his life. His first proclamation, that there is only one God, caused a social uproar because it directly offended their polytheistic beliefs. They also did not agree with him because his new teachings would be a financial detriment to Mecca and because they called for strict morals that were not practiced at the time. Meccan leaders eventually persecuted Muhammad on grounds of blasphemy. The city of Yathrib heard of his teachings and asked Muhammad to exile himself to their city. For the next ten years that he lived in that city, he brought together the people in that city and attracted more people to hear him. During that time there was constant turmoil between Mecca and Yathrib until finally Mecca realized their loss of Arabia. Muhammad forgave his enemies and accepted the conversion of the entire city. He died two years later.

7. Islam and Judaism have monotheism in common. Both religions created the idea of monotheism out of a time of polytheistic beliefs. Monotheism was new and was a strong factor in both of their achievements. Both also hold creation in high regard. To them, God created this world for ultimately benign reasons. In respect with Judaic belief, there would be no meaning to a world where good does not prevail over evil. Both also believe that the material world is worthy of gratitude. For Muslims, God (who is perfect) created this world. Although the world isn’t perfect in itself, it is immeasurably good because God created it. Therefore, the material world should be respected. The Jews feel the same on this point. Also, both religions respect humankind. They both feel that humans are born with certain rights that even the powerful must respect. But these two religions do differ on many points. For one thing, Muslims believe that Muhammad created the Seal of the Prophets, which doesn’t allow for any prophets to come after him. In Judaism, there are many prophets that reveal the word of God throughout history. Also, Muslims believe that the Koran is the true word of God and the Torah (Judaic doctrine) is filled with discrepancies that do not match up with the Koran. The Koran is said to be the true word of God spoken by God to Muhammad. In Judaism, the Torah is more like a record of events and not so much the direct word of Yahweh.
Islam and Christianity seem to differ on more points than they agree with. One thing that they do agree on is the End of Days. They both believe that there will be a time when judgment will be placed on everyone and consequence or reward will be given as needed. They also agree that God loves his human creations. God is depicted as a loving, compassionate God. The one thing that is strikingly different is that Christian’s prophet is divine and Muslim’s prophet is not. Jesus was considered the incarnate of God. This glorified the presence of Jesus in Christianity. In Islam, Muhammad was considered the messenger of God. Even Muhammad admitted in the revealing of the Koran that he could not have come up with something so profound on his own. He gave all the credit to God. Jesus was also considered a healer and an exorcist. He performed miracles throughout his time. Muhammad’s only “miracle” was the revealing of the Koran. Some also say that he miraculously brought peace to his community, but this is nowhere the same as the daily miracles that Jesus was attributed with performing. Jesus was also reborn after his crucifixion. He came back to his disciples after his death in a new way. Muhammad did not come back to his people after his death. Christians also believe in the taking the Body of Christ to continually infuse themselves with the power of their Savior. Muhammad was not considered divine so there is no need to do this in Islam.

8. I absolutely enjoyed learning about the Islamic religion. The one thing that intrigued me the most is how devoted they appear to be in their practice. When I visited the Islamic Education Center, the man that I spoke with seemed very eager to talk about his religion. They take they practice very seriously and without question. They are also aware of people who question the reasons why they do certain things and respond by saying that they do it out of pure faith; faith that has no doubt. To me that is a very admirable thing to say because there are people everywhere who feel like some religious practices are stupid and useless. To have complete faith without question is true devotion and pure love for one’s own religion. It made me realize that no matter how well thought out your argument is you cannot make everyone believe what you believe. The only thing that we can agree on is that there should be a feeling of tolerance for all religions because they all have something good to teach. Stories in religions are hard to prove and can cause people to argue. But the morals that can be filtered out of the story are what really count. Those morals are universal and should be employed by all.