Understanding Religious Intolerance
Fall Semester 2013
The overall purpose of this course was to learn about world religions from the perspective of academia, engage in class discussions, learn how to engage in polite discourse when discussing religion, identifying bias and stereotyping, and becoming more knowledgeable about religion as a whole.
I decided to take this course because I was sincerely interested in the subject matter. I was always immensely interested in faith systems and the existence of intolerance in every part of the world. So many of the major issues, wars, violence, and political struggles throughout history have been due to religious conflict. I entered this course with the expectation that we would read many viewpoints from scholarly writing and further our own research skills in the subject.
I gained exactly what I expected from the course, and my thorough enjoyment of the class each week has made this honors seminar my favorite, out of the three that I have taken so far. In the beginning of the semester, we focused on the three Abrahamic religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Our grad student TA, who was one of the first students to have graduated with the Judaic Studies minor at UC, had immense insights to give on the subject. What struck me as most shocking was how similar the three religions are at their core, yet how much conflict has existed in the last two millenia between these religions.
We then moved on to reading about the three other major religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism. Buddhism was actually an offshoot of Hinduism, and as a Hindu myself, I was very fascinated by the similarities between many of the Buddhist and Hindu deities, and also by the differences in prayer practices and views of the afterlife. My professor was a practicing Tibetan Buddhist and I enjoyed having very engaging conversations with him after class about the relationship between humans and the supernatural, on which Hinduism and Buddhism differ slightly.
Finally, in the latter part of the course, we discussed New Religious Movements (NRMs). NRMs are religions born largely in the last two centuries and include, but are not limited to, Scientology, Wicca, Satanism, and Zoroastrianism. This part of the course was extremely interesting to me as it was the subject I had the least pre-existing knowledge about. Many NRMs are judged negatively by many people, and when studying stereotypes about NRMs, many of those judgments are often proven to be laid on false ground.
During the course, we had three research papers we had to write, as part of the personal development component. The prompts for these papers were purposely vague to give us room to explore our own interests. The process of writing these papers was the most enjoyable part of this class as I was able to research challenging subject matter that were immensely diverse in content and so fascinating. I will include links to all three of the papers below with a description of the prompt and a little explanation of my process researching and writing them. If you have the time, please read the papers in their entirety. In my opinion, they are the three best papers I have ever written for any class in my whole life, and I like to call them my "Masterpieces on Religion".
Prompt #1
Identify an assumption or assumptions you have about a religion and conduct research to determine whether those assumptions are true.
Process:
I knew I wanted to write about an NRM because those were the religions I had the least knowledge about. While reading about NRMs online, I recalled a conversation I had with a friend a few years back about Scientology. I realized that I was extremely ignorant about the religion yet was making judgments based on what others told me about it. I wanted to rectify my lack of knowledge by studying Scientology from an academic standpoint without bias, carefully analyzing every viewpoint. My research process began with first identifying my own assumptions and then looking for information about Scientology online. I found articles about its beliefs and practices as well as its perception in the media. I also read about many scandals involving members of the Church. After getting some information through individual research, I contacted the Church of Scientology in Florence, KY and set up an interview. I spoke to two members of the Church for almost two hours, making sure to ask them about all of my doubts. Fortunately, they were extremely open to answer my questions and I learned a lot from them. Using all of this information, I was able to assess my assumptions about Scientology, the results of which are detailed in my "assumptions paper" below, the first of my "Masterpieces on Religion".
Identify an assumption or assumptions you have about a religion and conduct research to determine whether those assumptions are true.
Process:
I knew I wanted to write about an NRM because those were the religions I had the least knowledge about. While reading about NRMs online, I recalled a conversation I had with a friend a few years back about Scientology. I realized that I was extremely ignorant about the religion yet was making judgments based on what others told me about it. I wanted to rectify my lack of knowledge by studying Scientology from an academic standpoint without bias, carefully analyzing every viewpoint. My research process began with first identifying my own assumptions and then looking for information about Scientology online. I found articles about its beliefs and practices as well as its perception in the media. I also read about many scandals involving members of the Church. After getting some information through individual research, I contacted the Church of Scientology in Florence, KY and set up an interview. I spoke to two members of the Church for almost two hours, making sure to ask them about all of my doubts. Fortunately, they were extremely open to answer my questions and I learned a lot from them. Using all of this information, I was able to assess my assumptions about Scientology, the results of which are detailed in my "assumptions paper" below, the first of my "Masterpieces on Religion".
assumptions_paper.docx | |
File Size: | 20 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Prompt #2:
Identify an instance of intolerance toward any religion in history and explain the manner in which the intolerance was shown and its consequences.
Process:
The first question one would ask is, why Ancient Egypt? When considering this prompt, most people would immediately think of Antisemitism in World War II, or laws against Muslim women wearing a burqa in France. However, I did not want to write the obvious paper. I thought of the Amarna Period of Ancient Egypt and reflected back on a class I took my very first semester at UC about Egyptian and Mesopotamian Mythology. There was a time of great conflict in the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt due to a religious turnover, and I felt as though that incident would perfectly answer this prompt. I was so excited to begin my research for this paper because I knew exactly where I had to look, a place I had never been to before. So it was, one day after all my classes were over, I headed over to the Classics Library and into the Stacks everyone said was haunted. It was one of the coolest experiences I have had on campus. Each row has its own light switch and there were floors and floors navigated by the narrow winding staircase and rows of straight bookshelves extending beyond where the eye can see. When I found the stack I was looking for, I was able to find numerous books on the Amarna Period of Ancient Egypt. My bag full of books, I left the library, went home, and wrote the following paper, the second of my "Masterpieces on Religion"
Identify an instance of intolerance toward any religion in history and explain the manner in which the intolerance was shown and its consequences.
Process:
The first question one would ask is, why Ancient Egypt? When considering this prompt, most people would immediately think of Antisemitism in World War II, or laws against Muslim women wearing a burqa in France. However, I did not want to write the obvious paper. I thought of the Amarna Period of Ancient Egypt and reflected back on a class I took my very first semester at UC about Egyptian and Mesopotamian Mythology. There was a time of great conflict in the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt due to a religious turnover, and I felt as though that incident would perfectly answer this prompt. I was so excited to begin my research for this paper because I knew exactly where I had to look, a place I had never been to before. So it was, one day after all my classes were over, I headed over to the Classics Library and into the Stacks everyone said was haunted. It was one of the coolest experiences I have had on campus. Each row has its own light switch and there were floors and floors navigated by the narrow winding staircase and rows of straight bookshelves extending beyond where the eye can see. When I found the stack I was looking for, I was able to find numerous books on the Amarna Period of Ancient Egypt. My bag full of books, I left the library, went home, and wrote the following paper, the second of my "Masterpieces on Religion"
religious_intolerance_paper.docx | |
File Size: | 20 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Prompt #3:
Identify an instance of religious intolerance in the tri-state area around Cincinnati, no further than a 100 mile radius and within the last two decades. Describe how the intolerance manifested itself in the situation and its consequences.
Purpose:
The true purpose of this paper, though not explicitly stated in the prompt, was to have us recognize that religious intolerance still exists in places one might not believe it does. I have to admit, in the beginning, I thought I was going to have immense difficulty finding an example that fit the criteria of the prompt. I couldn't have been more wrong. As soon as I put in a simple Google search, tons of stories showed up, so much so that the selection from which to pick was almost too large. However, I found two related stories of discrimination against Somali Muslim workers at two mailing companies. These stories were so shocking when I heard about them. They are detailed in the last of my "Masterpieces on Religion".
Identify an instance of religious intolerance in the tri-state area around Cincinnati, no further than a 100 mile radius and within the last two decades. Describe how the intolerance manifested itself in the situation and its consequences.
Purpose:
The true purpose of this paper, though not explicitly stated in the prompt, was to have us recognize that religious intolerance still exists in places one might not believe it does. I have to admit, in the beginning, I thought I was going to have immense difficulty finding an example that fit the criteria of the prompt. I couldn't have been more wrong. As soon as I put in a simple Google search, tons of stories showed up, so much so that the selection from which to pick was almost too large. However, I found two related stories of discrimination against Somali Muslim workers at two mailing companies. These stories were so shocking when I heard about them. They are detailed in the last of my "Masterpieces on Religion".
intolerance_in_our_midst_paper.docx | |
File Size: | 25 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Our WEBSITE
As a class, we made a website showcasing all of our work. I actually played a part in organizing everyone's work, setting up the site, and putting the work in their appropriate sections. Check this out if you'd like to see some of what my classmates wrote for the class.