Weekly Journal

First, I would like to say that although I am not a very religious person, I was thrilled to start this course. I am Jewish; however, I do not practice and never have. I am Jewish by my mother, but my father (Lutheran) is the one who raised me, so I never had the chance growing up to experience the religion. I really do believe that the next five weeks will open my eyes to the religion and others as well. Therefore, I say again, that I am very excited to find out what I will learn over the next five weeks.

One of the issues I am very interested in is the three stages of pre-historic mankind (Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic). I was not aware of all the different stages and periods, and how much information there is to each stage as well as the ages that are divided up into each period. It is amazing to me that Homo sapiens appeared as far back as the Paleolithic period. It is very refreshing to learn what and where we came from and I hope to learn more about it in this course.

Another one of the areas I am most interested in is the greatest human products and creations (Mythology, religion, arts, literature, philosophy, history, politics and science/technology).. I never really thought of it has human creation before. I always just assumed these things were always there. Hearing about these creations really helped me put them into more perspective, rather than just knowing they are there. I also enjoyed hearing about the three sources of truth (Science, philosophy and mythology/religion) and how they are proven to be sources of truth.

Although there is not much on the slides you provided about the Judaism and its culture, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to you speak about it and hearing what your views are. I believe listening to other peoples views is one of the best ways to learn about any given subject. At least I know that it has helped me.

From what I have read in the textbook and the electronic reserve readings so far, I believe they have been extremely informative and have assisted me a great deal in learning about each religion. I especially enjoyed the article in the electronic reserve readings from the World Almanac & Book of Facts called "Major Non-Christian World Religions". The article was very detailed on all the specific areas of each religion (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism). However, I would like to see a similar article in regards to Christianity, but have been unable to find

...