Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #9: The Incarnation of God

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #9: The Incarnation of God: "After viewing 'The Nativity Story', analyzing your chosen Christmas carol, and reading Philippians 2:1-7, reflect on the meaning of Christma..."

I think the real meaning of christmas is Jesus, obviously but it's also more than that. we should value that our savior was born on that day and that somebody so powerful and so great has come into this world. Jesus only got 3 gifts when he was born, so why do we get all of these gifts? in my christmas carol: The Little Drummer Boy, it is talking about how jesus was born and how the drummer was told to come play his drum for jesus. " come they told me pa rum pum pum, a new born king to see pa rum pum pum our finest gifts we bring to lay before the king" it is explaining how the three wisemen brought all of their gifts to jesus christ. It was necessary for mary and joseph to travel to bethlehem to have the baby because joseph needed to be back in his home land. jesus is described as somebody so powerful and mighty and just being a baby he will one day be the savior. Mary is astounded that she has the gift inside of her and she can't believe it. It is shown in the movie because there is a light coming from the barn where jesus was born and it was heard all over bethlehem that the savior was being born. i think god wanted him to be created this way because of the way he wanted jesus to grow.

Current Event Comparison

Woman Stoned to death

This article from BBC talks about a woman who had committed adultery and was stoned to death for it. It explains how this is all under the shariah law for women in somalia and stoning is a common punishment given to women who commit adultery. The president of somalia talks about how he wants to implement sharia but his version of islamic law would be too lenient. The country's government has not been very functional for 18 years now.

Somalia point of view article

The article from this point of view isn't too different from the western view. It does carry on and go more in depth to explain how islamic law can only be conducted where there is proper jurisdiction in place and there isn't one in somalia today so this probably created a bit of controversy with the practice of the law. It goes on to say how it shouldn't be practiced and it is very un-islamic like and capital punishment can't be brought to the situation because somalia doesn't have a very functional government.

Modern Religious Experience: Personal Commemoration- Reflection #7

Modern Religious Experience: Personal Commemoration- Reflection #7: "Think of an event in your life- past, present or future. You are going to create a commemorative ritual for this event. First, describe the ..."

An event in my life was when i moved to south korea. this is very important to me because it is something that was very new to me considering i had only lived in texas all of my life. I moved to korea and met some great friends, an amazing boyfriend, and have an opportunity to go to a great school and get a good education. I could commemorate this event within a 3-4 day span and have it be the beginning of august since that was the first week i moved here. specifically August 9th-12th. I remember i stayed at the coex and went shopping and sight seeing those days with my family and i could reinact that.

A physical action that i could do is maybe wear some of the same clothes i wore those days or eat some type of food that i first ate when i came to korea.

Skit Reflection

In our skit, the prince of corinth was exiled from his country so he went to the land of argos. Bellerephone tried to ride pegassus up to mount olympus but he wasn't allowed there, so it angered zeus and pegassus fell to the earth as well as bellerephone and pegassus made it to the home of gods. I think a valuable lesson in this story is don't be too cocky or don't think you can have everything because when you do, you most likely don't get what you want and something bad will happen to you. i think a myth is why zeus didn't want bellerophone up there, maybe he thought he was better than him and he didn't want that.

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #5: Bongwonsa Temple and Nature Walk

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #5: Bongwonsa Temple and Nature Walk: "After visiting the Zen Buddhist Temple, Bongwonsa and attempting to see nature as a Taoist, answer this question: What is it about creation,..."

I think that on the field trip it really made me realize that nature is a big part of religion and how people see their own ways. I think the nature in general is peaceful and helps people concentrate better- like with the fig tree and how the man sat under it for so long it makes you kind of think about how nature can work in you and work inside of your mind to help you rid of sins or rid of things you don't want to think about. So overall, i think nature makes people want to use it in their rituals or their every day routines because of the influence from maybe other religions.

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection Question #1 RUBRIC

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection Question #1 RUBRIC: "Modern Religious Experience: Reflection Question #1: 'According to Mircea Eliade religion has 'not vanished without a trace; [it] has contri..."

Coming from a methodist family, I think religion has definitely had a positive affect on me. My parents are both christian and i used to go to church every sunday. When i moved to Korea i didn't so much "lose touch" with god, but I haven't been to church in awhile and i definitely think it has made an impact on me. If you have something that you're used to doing all the time and you stop, your attitude might change or the people who are around you might influence you more. I used to never let people influence me because i would make decisions for myself like giving into peer pressure but now i admit i do let everyone around me influence me. Religion influenced me in a positive way, in a good way because if I hadn't of gone to church all the time or been involved in the church i went to- i wouldn't have the faith i have or i wouldnt say my prayers every night and what i am thankful for. When my dear friend James Sprake passed away this summer, I almost drew away from God because i kept asking him why this type of thing would happen. I know there is a reason for everything but we don't always find out what those reasons are. I would like to get involved in something at school to be closer to god because I have lost touch.

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #3- Gandhi: Hindu and Activist

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #3- Gandhi: Hindu and Activist: "In class, your small groups went over movie questions about the content in Gandhi. You should know who each of the main characters are and t..."

Gandhi did many things in life, a lot of it inspired people and a lot of maybe made people see religion and things in a different way. he believed in equality for all people no matter what religion they were or race, this also led to him being non violent. in the movie we watched, we can see different scenes where his different personalities show through his actions. when gandhi was beaten up, he still wanted to show peace everywhere.

the quote i chose is "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"

this quote is pretty much another saying for what goes around comes around, because when something bad happens to you all you want to do is get back at the person who caused it. in real life when you deal with these things like arguing, or physically fighting the best thing to do is just be the bigger person in the situation- at least that is what i have learned.

For gandhi, all of this pretty much applied to him because he never tried to fight back he just wanted to be the bigger person.