Topics/themes from Weeks 1 to 11.

Reflect on any one of the above topics/themes based on

your thoughts and insights about what you have learned from the module in relation to your
religious background and experiences, if any, and/or understandings of religion. How has
your engagement with the topic(s)/theme(s) changed or shaped your understanding of your
religion, or religion more broadly?

I started off entering this module only to follow a friend, intending to do something else at
first. Being a Catholic Christian, I was open to learning more about other religions, but not to
be swayed by any of them in terms of the truths that they would offer in contradiction to my
own religion. However, I believe now that this was a very simplistic view, as the root of these
religions come from the lived experiences of so many people apart from my own one life.
One of the readings I found that really struck me was the one about the monks in Bhutan and
how they attained their happiness through a state of mind, even in the midst of suffering.
Through this, I could see how there was a common link to my own religion that hope, peace
and joy could come out of it, not just limited to specific theology of any one religion.
The immense impact of world religions in the world on so many peoples, places and events is
so complex that there is no way to sum up a religion in one way; it branches out to so many
different sects and denominations that hold innumerable doctrines even under the same
religion, and this has strongly affected how people all over the world have viewed their own
religions, the right and wrong of other religions that are present in their environment, and the
stances and historical occurrences that occur in relation to these said beliefs that can be
interpreted in many ways. Even in studying a religion different from mine on the other side of
the globe, it is always helpful to understand their perspective besides my own and how they
would view these political, social and economic events playing out in their own lives.
Underlying all these is, at its core, the human relationship that we all share, and I believe this
module has allowed me to develop a broader perspective of the different religions and their
meanings in this world, in relation to the people that live out these religions in their myriad of
ways.