June 16, 2015




Strayer says, " Submission to Allah("Muslim" means "one who submits") was the primary obligation of believers and the means of achieving a God-conscious life in this world and a place in paradise after death.  According to the Quran, however, submission was not merely an individual or a spiritual act, for it involved the creation of a whole new society.  Over again, the Quran denounced the prevailing social practices of an increasingly prosperous Mecca: the hoarding of wealth, the exploitation of the poor, the changing of high rates of interest on loans, corrupt business deals, the abuse of women, and the neglect of widows and orphans.  Like the Jewish prophets of the Old Testament, the Quran demanded social justice and laid out a prescription for its implementation.  It sought a return to the older values of Arab tribal life--solidarity, equality, concern for the poor--which had been underminded, particularly in Mecca, by growing wealth and commercialism,"(415/416). Reminds me of the story in Christianity there was similar things happening and the tax collector was collecting taxes and their were people in the temple stealing and gambling and God destroyed the Temple. There seems to be some symmetry here with the stories even though the religious figures differ. Both Messengers attempt to send messages in similar styles. And when I think about Jesus Christ and my submission to HIM im supposed to do the same thing.  Put my trust in God and rely on his blessings. We use words like Jesus is my rock, my salvation, my strongtower, my keeper my Deliverer etc. Religion seems to be what people need and look to for motivation to enter into a better or different life. I can relate because it was the catalyst for me.

Strayer shows on page 527 how this line, "One possibility, apparently considered by the Great Khan Ogodei (ERG-uh-day) in the 1230s, was to exterminate everyone in northern China and turn the country into pastureland for Mongol herds,"  this guy sounds like the Dictator Adolf Hitler of Germany seeking to destroy all Jewish people.  I guess Genocide was not unfamiliar to most dictator' and men of conquest and acquisition.  

ch. 3,4 and 5

When reading ch. 3 I was reminded how for centuries it seems countries or cultures who do things with a certain flair or style and have success with the invention or tool have "biters" meaning followers. Like when the book talked about how the Classical Greeks took what ancient Greeks and Persia did but because the classical Greeks had more class or status to them it was deemed better.  Kinda like how the book talks about modern day philosiphers believe that Western civilization closely replicates Classical Greece Era with the way politics are ran and how social class is structured. Especially with how there are similar inequalities within the people with status.


When looking back at chapter 4 about the different religions I was given a more wholistic approach/view of how Confucinism came into play. I took World religions two sememsters ago and we studied a lot of religions from Zoraster religion, confucianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Muslim and Daoism. And from what I gather Confucianism was supposed to restore the inequalities of china since it focused on respecting and valuing the the old people. I learned so much about them all, but still found it hard to believe some of their creation stories because they all seemed to tie back into Christianity.   Their was the story of how a man and a woman never entered each other to create all of man kind, but the man had a large Penis and it drug the grown and the female had a large clitoris and it drug the grown and these long  grooves or ditches in the grown exist and the people of that religion/culture truly believe that is how life was created.


Sometimes I think religion is just supposed to supply a level of hope or relief from all of life's stressors and inequalities. Like Daoism which according to the book, "invited people to withdraw from the world of political and social activism, to disengage from the public life so important to confucius, and to align themselves with the way of nature.  It meant simplicity in living small self-sufficient communities, limited government, and the abandonement of education and active efforts at self- improvement. Give up learning." This differs from the Hinduism model of education and learning is what makes you closer to God.  Knowledge is everything.