Comparative Religion

What you gained from this course?

The main theme I learned from this course is a greater and more profound understanding of belief structures as a whole, both of the Eastern and Western view points.

There is one particular section in chapter 19 where it speaks about “Saints” that has struck a resonating cord within me. If I may quote the particular paragraph from lesson 19 to express my point.

“Individuals who embody to the highest degree a religious tradition's spiritual ideals function in a variety of ways. Some traditions, such as Sunni Islam and various Christian denominations, emphasize the importance of each individual's direct relationship with the supreme being. They teach that no human being has the power or authority to act as a mediator for anyone else. But the need for help in achieving the highest spiritual aspirations seems to run so deep that examples of "saintly" characters appear in the histories of virtually every religious tradition.”

As an individual, I am drawn towards those who are seeking non denominational spiritual guidance and or possible answers as they walk on their own individual path towards what they hold close to them. I am a strong believer in and promoter of an individual following their own path as opposed to following the dogmas and doctrines of any religion that promotes that they know what is best for a particular individual.  Granted each of the worlds religion have answers to many of the questions that people have, but I find the inclusion of the Shall’s and Shall not’s, the Do’s and Do not’s, to be more of a detriment to individual growth and evolution. Lessons two and three spoke in detail regarding Interfaith which is something I also strongly support.

What you liked best in this course?

This is not something I am able to answer; I am unable to make the determination of what is best from this course. The entire course was profoundly enlightening. As a whole this course propelled my conceptual understandings of religions / belief structures to a higher level. 

The chart in lesson 19 showing the lineage of each of the religions stemming from one source showed many revelations as to just how many other religions and beliefs contributed to the formation of Christianity as an example. Now when I am in discussions with others I have collage level information to show that Christianity has its heritage coming from numerous other faiths other then the common claim that it is strictly from Judaism.

What you liked least about this course.

There really is nothing I did not like about the course. I did find the Belief-O-Matic™ to not be of benefit, but for others they may find benefit in it.  Actually there is one thing that was of a bit of an annoyance was all the blue ink that was used up by my printer when printing off each lesson, I actually went though more blue ink than I did black in, so for cost saving measures for students of this course if I could recommend changing the page after page of blue/green ink to simply white it would save people the extra cost in buying blue ink cartridges. 

How you think these discourses could be improved.

My only suggestion for this question would be to consider changing the blue/green background to white to save students the further expense of blue ink cartridges.

Any other comments.

No other comments are springing for to my mind at this time.

Would you be interested in taking other courses from Rev. Kythera Ann?

That is difficult for me to answer without first seeing what courses Rev. Kythera Ann has to offer and how those courses would be applicable to the goals I have set forth to achieve. 

Rev. Travis Richardson

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