post 1-4 wk 5

Post 4 WK 5
In the “Beyond Belief Session 9” Sam Harrison made a statement that really stood to me. He stated that “people rise to the defense of God without really defending the Bible”. I really agree with this stamen or at least what it means to me. I think that people believe in God and in doing so they do not necessarily have to believe in the Bible to do so. The Bible is more of an aid, that gives information and demonstration. God on the other hand is the belief. God is the greater being, the creator.
God is more than just a name for the greater being. God encompasses all that is good, both physically and mentally. God also stands for hope. It is for many a belief that has become a way of life. Believing in God has help to make people more understanding and their moral judgments better. Maybe not all people are so lucky but there are many who benefit from this belief. What is going to happen if something takes away a world of hope?
Post 3 WK5
In the beginning of the “Beyond Belief Session 9” there was a short documentary film showed. In this film a man went to a church called the New Life Church to ask the Pastor some questions and try to understand why people followed what the Pastor said so willingly. First he attended the Churches mass and witnessed the praise these people demonstrated first hand. Afterward he met with the Pastor and had a heated debate on whether the people are following the Pastor because they are told to through the Bible or because they truly believe. It got really heated when the Pastor touched on evolution which he honestly fumbled with, and then he was quickly put in his place. It was a film that made me uncomfortable to watch yet I couldn’t look away. It was once again the argue of which is right, more true the science vs. religion debate.
As I have made my way through the readings and films I found that a lot of the research and intrigue is about religion and weather science should be applied. Or could science and religion coincide? It is a difficult question, and I am sure that the answer is even harder to give. I am not sure if there will ever be any definite or correct answer. I could only assume that the question or the answer will depend on the person. It is like something I had read earlier which stated something in the lines of the answer depends on the person and what they already believe or what they are looking for. Science and religion are two things that I am not sure I want to see come together. I am almost afraid of the results that may present it self if the two were to happen together.
Post 2 WK 5
Scott (I don’t know his last name) on “Beyond Belief Session 8” was the one who was debating Sam on the religion and suicide bombings. Scott began with discussing scape- goating and made it clear that Palestine Muslims were among the ones with the lowest “exclusivity for scape- goating”. The religion that was among the higher one was Catholics. He continued in by discussing how the suicide bombers are usually among the best, brightest, and had no mental illness. They used there best to gain trust from the less fortunate villages. He basically said that it is not the religion that is to be blamed for what is happening.
I’m sure that it is not a hundred percent that religion fault for what is going on in that country. I believe that it has to do with the combination of everything that is going on in that country and elsewhere. Some of these people live under the worst conditions. These people have also been separated from each other. That have been taken advantage of and so many other things. It is sad that these people have lived decades like this, they grew up living and learning in a violent and disadvantage environment. Though these people are intelligent it is not to say they did not learn a bad way of life. They could have learned and wanted to continue the only life they may have known and that is violence.
POST 1 WK 5
In watching “Beyond Belief Session 8” I found that it started off really interesting. It began with Sam Harris who talked about how religion enables people who do not live under deplorable conditions or are mentally challenged to do the extreme. He used Palestine who does suicide bombings as an example. He also stated that there is “a proximal cause of a person’s certain behavior is what a person believes”. Basically he was saying is religion has more to do with persons reactions then people realize.
To some extent I felt as though he was blaming the Palestine religion for the suicide bombings. He talked about how people of other religions don’t go this far, but he was soon corrected. I do believe that religion does play a large role in a person’s behavior. But it is the dedication which a person is willing to put in a religion that will determine his will to do the extreme. A person may be willing to die for his belief yes, but will that same person be willing to kill for his belief? Who really knows? Its fascinating because no matter how right Sam sounds there will always be some else that will sound or make a better point.