Relgious "glasses"

I was recently reading through the blog entries of fellow students, and I am intrigued by the many different and strong opinions of my classmates. As I was reading, I came across the point of the relationship between scientific research, discussion and the existence of faith in a person. As a spiritual person myself, I find discussions of the origins of religion and it's continued existence fascinating. It does not mean that I am disowning my faith and my own personal beliefs. I am simply ready to question the function of different religions in cultures around the world. I am also interested to see how religion has changed over time. I try my hardest to not let my own personal bias affect my objective opinions in class, particularly in discussion. It is definitley a challenge to take everything you have been told since you were a small child and put it on the shelf. Yet I believe that we as human beings are instinctively inquisitive and often search for answers in things we don't completley understand. We have that higher level of intellectual function (as we saw discussed in the articles about Neanderthals). Therefore, I feel like this class is an invitation to explore the realm of the unknown that comes with discussions of religion and it's origins. As I was reading Noelle's blog, she brought up a very interesting point that I totally agreed with. She mentioned looking at the class material through many different "glasses", or points of view. I think that that is the most effective way of learning in this class. We have to be open-minded and ready to take on points of view that we never have before. We have to be malleable in that sense. I think there is so much we can learn from each other, and there are many different ways to look at religious ideals. We may be suprised at the commonalities we find in the basic functions and desires in different relgions that have existed through time and that still prevail today.