Comparative Religion

Questions to be answered during the essay:

1 What did I gain from the course?  Each religious thought started from one concept and was taken to different levels of understanding. To use the tree as a starting point one might note that everyone who comes to the tree takes the Fruit (standing for thought, truth, understanding, and reverence) for a different purpose. One may look at the fruit as part of nature to be revered and honored. One may draw a picture of the fruit or compose a song to the fruit. Another may make a dish from the fruit to add to other things for a meal, while some may eat the fruit as a whole. Some do an extended study of the fruit, exploring all parts from the skin to the seeds and core. Some perform complex ceremony for the fruit. Most started with one bit of understanding or thought and used that to get to a point they were comfortable and had a peaceful understanding of what the fruit was and its use. This became their form of religious practice. To be sure there are those peoples that are always searching but they all come to the central tree and the fruit to find what it is that brings that comfort to the human heart and or soul. Each started from One and move back to One as we progress along the path of understanding ourselves and life.

We as human beings have all started with the desire to understand and give meaning to our purpose and understanding of life. Each has found a way that brings us comfort or learning experience. We tap into the ideas of others and follow a set prescribed form of service to get a feeling of comfort about a subject that is extremely complex and beyond our true understanding. Sometimes there is a break through to a higher understanding but each of us starts out at the same line looking for the same thing; we just move along different and hopefully a correct path. Each religion has taken some truth of What Being Is. A person either moves smoothly along the path of their chosen religion or they find a detour to that Tree of Knowledge and try something new to reach the fruit. It is interesting to see how some feeling about others and gender is integrated into a religious belief to further the ideals of some. The break away of some from their church's teaching or changed traditions is of course part of that comfort zone that humans strive to reach in all endeavors. There are always those who follow the latest idea or a strong figure to find the least energy using means to inner peace and understanding on their quest to reach the Fruit and the course explored this quite well. Comparative Religion has taught me the sameness of thought in the world. It has given me understanding of why people believe what they believe and why they are so sure they are correct in some cases. It has explained more then just religion as it has given me insight to peoples I have only heard of and not felt the compulsion to study further until now.

I feel I have grown in my understanding of thought, religion, and peoples during the lessons. I hope to continue with further classes to add to my knowledge and understanding of the subject.

2, What I liked best about the course. The vast amount of information that was presented and the additional resources suggested to enhance the learning experience. The pictures presented with each lesson helped with my understanding of the presented subject.

3. What I liked least: Some of the lessons did not print properly and this distracted from the lesson; although, it did help with the learning process to have to write in the words that were out of the borders of the pages. Since part of the learning experience was to print out the pages it would have been better if they were formatted for all types of download. I selected the HTML version and use Microsoft products.

4. How I think these discourse could be improved. I see no need for improvement for this Part One except for the item mentioned about the printing of pages.

5. Any other comments. For the vast amount of information given this was a very interesting and attention-retaining course. I looked forward to the next lesson each week to see what was coming next. I was unable to use all the additional resources at this time but will refer to them as I continue my studies of the subject matter. It was a well written and thought out course geared to all learning levels of students.

6. Would I be interested in taking other course from Rev Kythera Ann? I would be most interested in taking another course from Rev. Kythera Ann. Her attention to detail and making the information interesting was greatly appreciated by me as I took the course. I do hope that Part One will be followed, as alluded to in the Title “ Part One, with another more in-depth discourse to further knowledge of other thoughts and practices of religions in the world.

Rev. Sharon J. Mayer

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