Jaylen McDuffie

Faith Religion Society

Professor Pearl

March 25, 2019

Journal #2:

Having moved through the first half of the class, what have you learned during this

class that you did not expect? What is something that surprised you? Are there any ways in

which your opinion about religious faith has been changed or nuanced because of this class? If

so, in what ways?

Having moved through the first half of the Faith Religion & Society course I feel as if I have

learned a lot. The main and one of the first things I learned in the class is what a liberal arts

education is and what it does for me in the future, as well as the difference between a liberal arts

education and a regular education. I think that liberal arts universities want you to become a

more well-rounded individual when you finish school meaning you don’t take as many career-

oriented classes. This makes the student have knowledge in their field of study but also have a

little bit of knowledge in other fields or other ethnic and religious backgrounds. Learning this

surprises me a lot because I never could see myself thinking like that or see myself getting a

liberal arts education and benefiting from it. Another thing I learned about that really surprised

me was about GOD and YHWH. While learning this I was given a video to look at of a metaphor

and it explained how religions viewed GOD. The metaphor I saw was of these blind men who
were feeling different parts of an elephant and were explaining what they thought they were

feeling on. They all described different animals and objects they thought they were feeling on not

knowing they were all touching the same thing which was the elephant. The elephant represents

GOD or YHWH and the men represent all the different religious beliefs and religious practices.

They all encounter the same elephant but perceive it different just like religions can all have a

GOD but view him differently. The metaphor is saying all religions have an interaction with an

GOD, but they can all view him differently than the next religion. This changed my view on

religions a lot because I agree with this metaphor because every religion is different and unique

in its own way and can interpret their views differently and not always be able to explain why

and I have never thought this deeply about a topic other than sports so it really changed my

outlook.