World Religions reflective journal #10

Today I have learnt the term "fundamentalism". An abstract concept again, trying link religion and politics together. Very long time ago, I have heard the idea of "Church and State", illustrating the great influence of Christianity on the government ruling. 

Indeed, I really don't know why people love to link everything to "power". This recalls me to Marx and Freud's perspective to religion. To some extent, religion may serve as a social agent to maintain harmonious society, but I don't understand how can the reductionists assert that religion is simply instrumental, or as an escapism (maybe this is the insider-outsider challenge)?

I feel very sorry that religions are always exploited as a tool to achieve something and I am also disgusted of the inhuman deeds of the so-called religious people (the Crusades and the 911 incident). What they have done are totally against the fundamental virtues promoted by the good-natured religions. Like the story I have mentioned in the previous journal about the soap producer.

If the purpose of religions can also be "reduced" as simplest as possible, i.e. to make human live a better life, but not adding extra meaning on it, I am quite sure that the world can be more pacific...

World Religions reflective journal #8

Today Paul taught us the about Religions in Hong Kong. Finally come to topic that is more related to our daily life. I (probably many other classmates) feel quite sad and disappointed for the cancel of our field trip to Happy Valley. This is a memorable place to me, a place where I was born, a place where I lived, a place where I went to kindergarten, a place where I finished my primary education, a place where I got baptised, a place where I spent my whole childhood.

But it's still nice that Paul has given us a "powerpoint tour" to Happy Valley, introduced us the religions existed in the very small Happy Valley community. Indeed I have been to the religious areas introduced by Paul, so that's not really a loss. But I have never noticed the unique feature of the religious pluralism in this place. I am thinking, what make Happy Valley so unique?

Happy Valley is a place clustered with Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, etc. I guess, maybe it's related to the history of the place. Happy Valley, is one of the places with the earliest local development. Wikipedia told me in the 19th century, Happy Valley was once the place of military camp of the British army, serious plague killed many soldiers there, so, cemeteries were built to bury the corpses. While Happy Valley has long been the living place of bigwigs, who had great power and social status. This and these allowed the region to develop with little or no opposing voice. The high degree of freedom might make Happy Valley became the hinterland for religions growth. These are all my guess...

By the way, we have presented our group project today, which is about a case study of the Jiao Festival in Cheung Chau. Me and my partner Tin Yan were quite nervous and afraid of presenting the wrong thing because the idea of religious syncretism in the last part was just proposed by ourselves. We had no clue if our claim is correct... but fortunately, Paul was quite satisfied. Indeed things we've learnt today is quite applicable to our presentation :)

World Religions Reflective Journal #7

It is not easy to keep my journal updated after each lecture.

These weeks I have learnt the introduction to the seemingly "familiar" Christianity and the "unfamiliar" Islam. Frankly, because of the Catholic obligation, I am obligated to memorize the concepts of the Catholic dogmas, which almost covered Paul's lecture last week. Everything sounds familiar to me. But, I feel like I am always behaving like an "outsider" that I have the knowledge, but the religious knowledge is not internalized "in my thoughts, in my words, in what I have done (, and in what I have failed to do)". This is always a big challenge to me, I am wandering between the insider and outsider. I am not saying I am not faithful to my religion, but I am the Little Faith. I wish I won't be externalized... 

Indeed there is not much to talk for the lecture on Christianity, so just move on to the Islam. I always believe Islam and Christianity are from the same origin. Yahweh is the only God for both religions, but due to the cultural difference, the religion was spread in dichotomous directions, and split into the two different religions. 

Paul emphasized the core feature of Islam is its adoration to Arabic. Arabic is very important to the Muslim because it is the first language used prophet Muhammad communicated with Angel Gabriel, so the Arabic-written Qur'an, the Holy Book, is conceived as the most authentic scripture in Islam, which contains the word of God. I also agree that to interpret the religious meaning of the holy scriptures of any religions, the first language-written documentaries provide the highest degree of authenticity since the translators might have mistranslated the scriptures that would cause misinterpretation. However, if one doesn't have the holy sight / wisdom, even though he/she tries to read the most origin, it is still difficult for he/she to get the meaning. Yet, I don't think there is so-called "legitimate" meaning of the holy scriptures, everyone can have his/her own interpretation when reading them, they can find the most suitable and useful meaning.

Paul also attempted to explain the controversial question: is Islam a terrorist religion? This is an outsider's / bias perspective that always stereotype the religion, putting the emphasis on the "people" but not the "religion". Not only for Islam but other religions. I have heard a story, in brief is about a soap producer asks a father why the Church has already existed for two thousand years, people still commit to crimes, the world is still very chaotic and full of hatred. The father replies him with another question that why soap has already been found for so many centuries, people are still dirty and can't keep themselves dirt-free. The answer is, if people don't use the soap to cleanse their body always and prevent themselves to be smeared, the soap can hardly perform its function to keep people clean. Likewise, the religious dogmas are always there, but if people ignore it, or misuse it, the value of religion can hardly be manifested.

Haha, it seems a bit out of focus, but this is what I have reflected.