Religion as a uniting force
Last Friday, here at the College, we abolished the notion of classes and instead tackled the topic of world religions - ambitious, yes, but very worthwhile. We started in the morning by dividing ourselves along the lines of international religious groupings, and then by religious groupings at the College. Interestingly, a larger percentage of people calling themselves non-religious here at Pearson than internationally. Then we heard a lecture from a professor about religion in general, and what we mean by it - interesting ideas, but poor presentation, I'm afraid. After that, I headed off to a presentation on Jewish identity over time and its relationship to modern-day Israel. My friend from Israel noted that to be Jewish was once primarily a religious identity, then ethnic/nationalistic, then racial and now has another facet, that of the Israeli state. We got into an interesting discussion about the system of proportional representation in Israel, recent political events, the birth of Zionism, the demographics of Israel, etc. Interesting fact of the day: did you know that anti-Semitic actually means to be opposed to both the Jewish and Arab races? It's true - those two cultures are the Semitic races. Interesting note. Then it was a workshop on indigenous spirituality, which was equally fascinating. It was from three student perspectives: Inuit (from Canada's North), American Native and Maori (New Zealand). There are a surprising number of similarities between the different cultures, particularly in terms of their respect for the earth. In the afternoon, we had a discussion as a community about religion, one that focussed particularly on extremism within faith and different interpretations of religious texts.
Religion is the driving force in life for several billion people, and it's a shame that there aren't more efforts made to understand the community between different faiths as well as the differences. Most religions, while perhaps expressing it in different ways, share respect for others and the desire for self-improvement. Many of them, it seems to me, have as their goal a better world. And that's absolutely worthwhile - spreading that kind of inter-faith awareness and understanding can only help contribute to a more peaceful world.
