I read the first assignment for my Survey of World Religions class, and I have to say that I'm pretty pumped about the class. It might end up being a lot more work than other religion classes have been in the past, but it will also be a lot of new, exciting information.
The first chapter of the book talks about why we should even bother studying other religions. Some might ask, "if we've got the restored gospel, what need have we of looking elsewhere?" It helps us to be better prepared to share the gospel with them--Ammon-to-King-Lamoni-style. It also helps us better understand others so that we can love and respect them more. It gives us an idea about why they might do some of the things they do.
But the biggest thing that I got from it, or the main reason to study other religions, is that we can find truth in the things that others believe, and then apply it to ourselves to help us in our journey towards perfection. I look forward to finding the good in others and discovering how I can make it a part of myself.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Labels
all four time zones all the way
anatomy
ask the audience
awesome
blog adjustments
bob
boo-urns
books
boomshakalaka
brilliant ideas
church
comic
costco
d-d-d-d-dora
darth vader
double rainbow all the way
drinking from the firehose
epic journey
fambly
food
funny
guess what
he's on fire
holy crap it's wednesday already
i found the marble in the oatmeal
i'm looking for this asian guy
it's pat
it's the great pumpkin charlie brown
jess now has blisters
libarry
life aquatic
little critters
med school
metablogging
micro
mind control
movie review
moving
music
nedroid
nerdy
observations
ohio
om nom nom
pulit
pumpkin show
pumpkin that weighs the same as my car
restaurants
sad trombone
science
scuba steve
silly games
soap
song of the moment
squirmy wormy
surprise
terrible ideas
the great outdoors
wait it's not wednesday
what a mess
whatsupdog
Other blogs I frequent
Currently Reading
- Rough Stone Rolling - Richard Bushman
- Book of Mormon - Helaman
My Reading Queue
- See my goodreads profile for more up-to-date info
- The Canterbury Tales - Chaucer, Geoffery
- Christ and the New Covenant - Holland, Jeffrey
- The Hiding Place - Ten Boom, Corrie
- War and Peace - Tolstoy
About Me
My Twitter Feed
5 comments:
Another benefit: you might get to see a Buddist temple. That's unreal!
There's a term for what I mentioned there towards the end--it's "Holy Envy". Good stuff.
Way to be! Love you son!!!
One oft overlooked but important reason to learn about other religions, however controversial, is that we would be terribly hypocritical to insist that others take us seriously and then blow them off as spiritual infants.
So the tough question...is the onus on us (onus on us...love it) to investigate other religions like we sometimes-kindly demand they do of ours? Why or why not?
Eric, great wordplay.
And I would submit that yes, we should investigate other religions. My professor cited the scripture in D&C about "learn about [everything]" (what is on the earth, in the earth, history, etc).
It seems like it might be hypocritical of us to demand that other people look into our religion without being willing to do the same to theirs. While we're at it, why not take some of the good stuff that they're doing and do it ourselves?
I think that if we have a firm testimony, learning about other religions should never shake it. Instead we will grow to appreciate the truths that we know, the truths that those other religions contain, and the fact that we're all children of God trying to make it through life the best that we can.
Post a Comment