Before attending college here at Seattle University, I never necessarily thought that I would be interested in learning about religions other than my own. Throughout my life I was raised to follow the Christian faith. Everything that pertained to my life revolved around my faith. Although I do not regret being born and raised in a Christian home, some occasions have risen where I felt a sense of being “forced” into the religion. This caused myself to ultimately grow a disconnection from my faith. Coming to Seattle University with a sense of disconnection from my religion in actuality provided me the motivation and inspiration to possibly learn about different religions in order to compare and contrast their views from my personal ones, which …show more content…
Living in an island where Christianity and Catholicism were prevalent made me believe that following these religious practices was of the norm. Additionally, Filipinos were known to be very religious, so religious practice was a substantial component in my lifestyle, being born and raised into a particularly conservative, Filipino, Christian home. Starting from infancy, I was baptized as a Catholic and followed numerous Catholic traditions thereafter. I attended weekly mass every Sunday and celebrated Christian and Catholic holidays such as the birth of Christ as well as Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection. Additionally my family also practiced a substantial amount of other traditions for our faith, such as praying rosaries during times of death, following days of fasting, performing daily prayers and even singing religious christmas carols around our neighborhood during the holiday season. Once I was of the age to be able to attend public school in kindergarten, I was also put into a school in which I would be taught the Catholic faith, where every Saturday I would get dropped off at the local Catholic private school and would be taught prayers and traditions that I had to know about my faith. This continued throughout both my elementary and middle school educations, and upon entering high school, my parents then put me into an all-boys, Jesuit, …show more content…
This has then brought me to reflect on my own beliefs and to educate myself towards learning about new religions. I did not want to take a theology class simply because “it was mandatory for my UCOR.” It would be interesting to compare and contrast between what the different religions teach and also how each religion faces current modern issues. For this reason, I was given the opportunity to take an Introduction to the Qur’an class. Throughout the class, we have discussed the major thematic elements of the Qur’an and its importance in Muslim culture. This course was quite interesting, for it provided clarity with certain topics in regards to Islamic faith and also what the Qur’an says about modern issues. The Qur’an can be seen as the central source for Muslim theology, law, and ethics. Muslims believe that the Qur’an is a revelation and the final word of God, using God’s teaching as guidelines in order to determine what is right and wrong and to maintain a just society. Throughout the course it can be seen that the Qur’an is quite similar to that of the Bible. For Christianity, the Bible is their sacred text that provides guidance towards its followers. Both the Qur’an and the Bible believe in one