A Peer Response must be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Word count is greater than 75 words or at least 5 sentences in length. Please respond to each discussion separately.
Discussion question/Participation #1
I was raised Catholic/Evangelist, I have met different people from different walks of life and one particular person that stands out in my mind is a girl that I had in one of my classes a couple of years ago. She was a Buddhist and she explained to me that she doesn’t believe in a God. They have the Buddha which they are aware that it’s not a God but they respect and look up to the Buddha. I felt really uncomfortable getting into the subject or asking a lot of questions because I didn’t want to say anything to offend her. I honestly, did not understand how a religion did not believe in God because since I was young I was taught about God and the Holy Spirit. I believe that if I would have had deeper education in different religions at the time and understood that there are different worldviews in religions I would have felt more comfortable asking questions without having the feeling that I might offend her. I now understand that it is ok if people have different believes than mine and that it’s a matter of being educated and respecting others believes just like I would like others to respect me.
Discussion question/Participation #2
I have taken a world religions class in college and the class would be about getting comfortable and asking questions with other religions. Every other week we would have a visit from a person who is from a different religion. I have met Buddhists, Satanists, a clairvoyant and many others in this class. I truthfully had more challenges with the Islam religion. The reason why I had challenges was because he had brought the Quran and read different pages from it to show us some of the things that it said. I personally just had a difficult time trying to understand the Quran probably because I have never truly been around the Islam religion or really know much about it. I did not get offended or feel bad or negative towards any religion and really dont interfere or try to persuade others when it comes to their beliefs. They have their own beliefs for a reason. A way that would have helped me understand would probably be by maybe speaking to a muslim about the Quran in a more deeper level since it was only an hour of class I only got the inroduction of this persons worldview.
Discussion question/Participation #3
As a person who grew up in a Southern Baptist church, I was always taught about the bible and what it stood for. I also attended a Christian college when I graduated high school which I learned about the old and new testament of the bible. But as I got older and start experiencing the world more I have met more people who have different views about Christianity. Many have made many valid points and some not so valid. But, I’ve learned to accept everyone’s views and feelings about religion. Because I know I have my own views and I would like for them to be respected. When it comes to religious views you have to be opened minded and study different views from people’s standpoints. When you do your research because many religions all believe in God in some way. So, I do not let people’s views affect the way that I interact with them because at the end of the day they are going to believe what they want and I’m still going to have my faith in what I believe.
Discussion question/Participation #4
Star Wars movies have been one of my all-time favorite movie series. The two Central worldviews that the films revolve around are a form of theism. The Jedi and the Sith are two religions that are a constant focal point throughout the movies. The creator, George Lucas, wanted them to exhibit beliefs and traditions from various religions in our world, like Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Taoism, and Islam. Both the Jedi and Sith believe in the Force. Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi, describes the Force in the first movie of the original trilogy as a mysterious energy field created by all living things that bind the galaxy together (Lucasfilm Ltd., 2021). The Force allows a Force-user to have numerous abilities like moving objects, mind persuasion, and even conjure lightning. Jedi are referred to as the servants of the light side of the Force. The Sith are known as the servants of the dark side. The two theisms are in constant conflict with one another.
I could go on about these two theistic religions for a while. But, in the interest of summarizing my points quickly, I will close with this. The Star Wars genre displays a feeling of conflict between light and dark or good and evil. This is much like Christianity for me in that I am in a constant battle against Satan. Just as the Jedi rely on the Force to defeat their enemy, the Sith, I rely on God to lead and guide me so that I can bring others to him and reach Heaven someday.
Discussion question/Participation #5
One worldview in the movie “Dr. Strange” is that of the typical world we all know. Having zero concept, let along knowledge, surrounding the idea there is a multi-dimensional universe all around us is incredible. Dr. Strange himself held this worldview. The world seemingly was only what he could see; not necessarily what he could not. During the initial communications between Dr. Strange and the Anciet One, the Ancient One makes the comment “forget everything you think you know”. Meaning, forget what you see and focus on what you wish to see. See beyond the physical and tangible items. Being that Dr. Strange was a medical surgeon, he did not believe so much in religion, but rather in science, making his view on faith atheism. His thoughts were more self-geared clever versus open-minded to his surroundings or moral integrity. His worldview was skewed; however, following his initiation with the Ancient One, he began to change his thoughts completely. So much in fact, at the end of the movie, Dr. Strange comes up against Dormammu (evil entity of another dimension attempting to take over Earth and kill all the human race). Not only does Dr. Strange defeat the entity, but he actually dies, several times, coming back each time following the use of the Time Stone (a stone in which allows time to be sped up or reversed completely). It did not take until the end of the story to change Dr. Strange and his worldview. However, his personality was a little different beast to tackle!
Discussion question/Participation #6
The movie I decided to watch and observe world views on was Dr. Strange since I am a huge comic books fan and had already seen it. In the beginning of the movie leading up to when Dr. Strange meets the ancient one, the world view of Dr. Strange is shown to be secularism and atheism. Dr. Strange is a naturalistic and physicalist. This means that he believes that only the physical world exists, and that everything has a natural explanation. This is in line with secularism that believes in things that are tangible and things that have matter. Dr. Strange depicts such beliefs when he got his spirit pushed out of his body and asks the ancient one, “what’s in that tea” he is being a naturalist and looking for something to explain the experience. The clear evidence of Dr. Strange being a secularist and atheist is when Dr. Strange gets upset at the ancient one for saying that he can heal through belief and he states, “I reject it because I do not believe in fairy tales about chakras or energy, or the power of belief, there is no such thing as a spirit, we are made of matter and nothing more!” That quote shows how he does not believe is anything other things made up of matter.
