Amanda Balomaga

11/20/2011
Final Paper: Modification and Identification

I cannot say that my secular world views have made tremendous bounds and leaps during
the course of this class; Ive experienced no drastic changes or total deviations. I can, however,
say that the knowledge I have gained in the past few months has affected my views on other
religions as well as my own religion. The most notable change is not much of a change rather it
is a modification. What I have learned has further reinforced my respect for the worlds religions.
I have found that it is nearly impossible to spend time in ones shoes without feeling a sense of
respect for that ones views and values.
I believe in tolerance and respect for all religions (when I buy a car, Ill definitely buy a
coexistence sticker to go with it). Yet I confess, while I try my best to be neutral, I pass judgment
and prejudice certain groups and certain people more frequently than I like. Looking back on my
beginning essay although I did recognize that there are positives to organized religions, I still
discussed the subject with a bias. I focused on the negative - the higher ups who abused their
power, the wars and violence in the name of religion, and the enslavement of others in the name
of religion. I was definitely aware of the positive, but this awareness certainly increased with the
experiences I had in class and at fieldtrip activities. I had prior sense of the positive from my
own experiences going to Catholic mass as a child and being student at a Catholic high school.
However, I never cared much in church as a child, and in high school, I didnt agree with a lot
my high schools teachings. I was given a sneak peak of the strong communities organized
religion can create when I visited the Philippines last summer and my mother who is hardly
religious stood transfixed at the steps of a church in the middle of mass, drawn and nostalgic
towards what used to be such a huge part of her life and culture.

When I went to the Hindu Navratri Festival, I was able to get a first-hand experience with
a different type of organized religion. Going into this fresh gave me allowed me to come into the
experience without bias. From this different stand point, I was able to see analyze the event
clearly, without the cynical voice in the back of my head asking me to second guess everything.
Although I was not very excited for the dancing, I began to enjoy it after a while and the friendly
and fun aura in it created. I also enjoyed the meaning the dances held as well they represented
the cyclical movement of time: birth, life, death, and rebirth. Furthermore, running into the same
people over and over again made the participating members no longer strangers with each other,
but interacting more-than-acquaintances. Even during the short sermon-type part of the night, I
felt like their intention was not to force their own views down your throat, but to share what they
have with you. The visitors were treated as family, and were embraced whether they were Hindu
or not most evident when we were all fed by the community (and the food was excellent as
well). And I just felt so much respect for these people for their hospitality and their ability to
weave a take home message into a dance.
I also attended a Jewish High Holy day event that I enjoyed as well. This one was more
familiar to me because I was acquainted with the scripture. I really enjoyed the discussion at the
end concerning the interpretation of certain scriptures. It reminded me of an English class with
people of all ages, just discussing their own interpretations and understandings of the stories and
their messages. It was one aspect I wasnt able to experience at a Sunday mass, or even in
Catholic school. After those experiences, other self-experiences, class discussions, and readings I
reassessed my feelings concerning Catholicism, an organized religion that I had denounced in the
past.
Furthermore, our in class discussion on myth and metaphor helped me gain more respect
for Christianity as a whole. As a child; I really enjoyed reading bible stories, Greek myths, and
Aesop Fables. In high school, I really enjoyed picking apart poems and literature. Yet after all
that, I had somehow come to think that all Christian religions took the bible literally, when in
reality, only fundamental, evangelicals, and other very conservative strains of Christianity do so.
I was shocked and a bit disappointed to find that over the years I had let myself place all
Christians under the extremist stereotype. This realization helped me reassess my views and
perception of Christians as a whole.
Throughout my life I have had difficulty determining my own religious identity. As I said
in the first paper, I was baptized Catholic and but was raised in a non-practicing, open to choice,
Catholic home. I considered myself Catholic up until middle school, when I discovered that my
own ideals didnt really match up with those taught by the Catholic Church. I was also turned off
by the Catholic extremists who I deemed insane and fanatical - with views I didnt want to be
associated with. In addition as clich as it seems I just couldnt imagine what kind of god
would allow so much suffering in the world. And lastly, after studying up (using Wikipedia) on
the history of the Philippines, I was a bit irked and disgusted by the fact that the Philippines
people took up the religion that was used to enslave them. I just couldn't accept the Catholic faith
anymore. Although I did attend a Catholic high school, throughout my four years, I considered
myself atheist. I didnt really enjoy the religious aspects of my school. Before classes we would
ask our founding saints to pray for us and it never held much meaning to me. I enjoyed the
semi-secular activities we did in our religion classes however like meditation and self-
reflection. There was mass every two months, and all the students were forced to attend. I was
always very bored during mass, and the sermons rarely intrigued me. It just didnt stimulate the
mind or the engage the community enough for me to be interested. Most of the time, I would
sleep, and wake up periodically for the songs, the only part of mass I really enjoyed.
It wasnt until senior year - after my prayer and spirituality class and some intense self-
reflection for my college personal statement that I decided that atheist was too strong an
identification for my worldview. I didnt want to close myself off from the possibility of the
existence of a higher being or presence. I still feel the same way, and my belief of a possible
higher entity has been enhanced by our studies of other religions. Just the fact that religion has
been around since the existence of humans, and that anthropologists tell us that they have never
discovered a people without a religion( ) is enough to leave some hope out there.
I wanted to define my own secular world view in the format of William A. Youngs
definition of religion: Religion is human transformation in response to perceived ultimacy
(Young 3). The problem existing with human kind is the abundance of greed, violence, hate,
domination, and jealousy. The cause is a lack of altruism, service on to others, and compassion.
Currently, my perceived ultimacy is the pursuit of life contentedness. The transformation process
involves the use of compassion and love, altruism, and service as a vehicle to my perceived
ultimacy of satisfaction. I am currently fulfilling this by pursuing an education in nursing, which
would involve serving others and being compassionate and altruistic. There are many religions
that contain the similar means of reaching their perceived ultimacy.
The early religions, or primal indigenous, believe that everything in the human realm is
spiritual it is alive and therefore has a soul. Not only are humans spiritual beings, but also
birds, deer, lakes and streams, the sky, and the earth as a whole are spiritual beings as well.
They treat everything with love and compassion, and make sure to respect all of nature.(Young,
30) The selfishness of humans concerning the world is evident in most primal religions. There is
one myth of a tribe in East Africa that tells how the gods left the earth because the humans kept
killing and eating the beast inhabitants the gods had created (344, Novak). This is one of
problems human kind faces today. Humans have been greedy and selfish towards the earth that is
our home through overindulgence and pollution. And as a result, we have caused damage to the
earth, to the animals and plants, and even to ourselves. Who knows what our future generations
will have left to salvage from, and how can one feel content with their life knowing they did
nothing to help stop the destruction of the earth as we know it?
In addition, many primal religions speak about compassion towards all living beings.
They condemn poor treatment of all the nonhuman beings. This attitude is not only found in
primal religions, but also in many modern religions. For instance, in Confucianism, scholar and
artist Cheng Panchiao wrote in a letter, What I hate most is to have caged birds; we enjoy them
while they are shut up in prison. What justification is there that we are entitled to thwart the
instincts of animals to please our own nature? and What wrong has the spider committed by
spinning its web?(Novak, 141). Jews and Muslims also have rules to slaughtering animals for
food, to keep it humane. In Jewish Kosher, they have a ritualistic slaughter of the animal that is
fast and painless for the animal (Young 192). In Muslim Halal, the slaughter is the same with a
prayer to Allah before the slaughter (Kosher&Halal).
Compassion and love towards other humans is also a reoccurring theme found in all
religions. The message, love your fellow as yourself (Novak 190) is found again and again in
the concepts of other existing religions. Within the Buddhists Eight Fold Path, the second step is
to have correct intention, saying that one should free themselves from greed and malice and to
taking on thoughts of nonviolence, renunciation, and compassion. (Young 94) Confucianisms
means to perceived ultimacy is to be a humane and virtuous person; one who is not concerned
about self-gain or recognition but desires to seek the good of others as an end in itself.(Young
134) In Taoism, the Tao Te Ching discusses the topic of compassion by saying to be
compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world.(Novak 164) I especially
like this aspect. It serves as a reminder to not only be compassionate to others, but also be
compassionate to yourself, and that can make all the difference.
The Hinduism claims that desire is the cause of suffering. Although I do not believe in
the wheel of samsara and the law of karma, I do agree that desire does cause suffering. It is that
desire that makes one jealous of another, that causes greed and corruption in the world as
evident by the greedy major corporations and the current economic state we are facing. It's the
attachment of wanting something that can prevent one from being happy. One quote related to
this is "Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have."(Rabbi H.
Schachtel). We are living in a society that is centered on materialism and always wanting things
that are not needed. I often find myself wanting things I dont really need a new make-up
palette for example. And once I do have that make-up palette, I use it until I become bored of it
and then I find myself wanting something else. It can be quite cyclical.
At the same time, I absolutely agree with the Hindu aims of life of pleasure and
wealth/success. This concept is rare in other religions; most religions condemn the pursuit of
pleasure and wealth. For example, in Christianity, Jesus tells his disciples, Truly I tell you, it
will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you it is easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of God.
(Novak 250) However, I believe that wealth, success, and pleasure can be beneficial. If one is to
live life, they should be able to indulge once in a while. As long as there is no attachment or
addiction to the source of pleasure and as long as it doesnt hurt others, there is nothing wrong
with pleasure. Wealth is normally associated with being selfish; however, this stereotype doesnt
prove to be true in all cases. If one can use their wealth to benefit others and if the wealth is the
result of the sweat and blood of ones work then it is representative of their capabilities and gives
that person feel a sense of worth as well as a means for charity.
Many religions encourage the giving of charity to help those who are less fortunate,
especially if one can afford to. For instance, Islams third pillar is almsgiving, in which people
pay a tax on certain kinds of property that is paid at the end of each year. This money goes to the
poor and the needy of the community. Judaism encourages the giving to the poor, saying You
shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them
for the poor and the stranger (Novak, 188). Christianity promotes the same. For example, when
a young man asks Jesus how to have eternal life, Jesus responds, If you wish to be perfect, go,
sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then
come, follow me. (Novak, 250)
It is one thing to give charity, and another to give service to others. Service is about
directly helping others without expecting anything in return. It is a founding concept of
Christianity, with the savior Jesus who came to his people specifically to serve them. However,
serving others is found in many other religions as well. In the Analects of Confucius, there is a
passage that states The man of perfect virtue, wishing to be established himself, seeks also to
establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others.(Wilson) In
Islam, the Prophet Mohammad tells his followers to "Feed the hungry and visit the sick, free the
captive if he be unjustly confined. Assist any person oppressed, whether Muslim or non-Muslim
(Novak, 315). Service is not only found in Abrahamic religions. Its also found in eastern
religions like Buddhism. In the Guide to the Bodhisattvas Way of life, it says If I employ
others for my own purposes, I myself shall experience servitude, but if I use myself for the sake
of others, I shall experience only lordliness (Wilson).
There is nothing more rewarding than the gratefulness one feels for another who has
helped them. I had doubts when choosing my occupation pathway because I was never sure that
nursing fit my personality and work ethic. My first reason for choosing nursing was truly to have
a stable job with good pay and it was what my parents strongly recommended for me. I
complained once to my parents about my unsure feelings and became angry and I asked my mom,
What if I hate it and then blame you guys for pushing me into this field? And my mom who
is a nurse answered me saying, You can never hate nursing. It may be tiring but you will
never be able to hate it when you patient looks up at you and thanks you for saving their life.
There was so much truth in her words that I didnt have a response. It made me rethink my
doubts and I decided to stay in nursing. I know that the job will be emotionally and physically
straining, but the reward is much greater, one that will put a smile on my face, knowing that I am
doing good for others.
Through my learning experience in this class, Ive been able to reinforce my respect for
other religions. Because of this, Ive been able to get a clearer preview of how my friends and
acquaintances of different religions see the world. My religious/secular worldview hasnt
changed much; I am still agnostic. However, Ive been able to define my own views more clearly
and Ive been able to identify what ideals from other religions I agree with. And although I have
formally defined my worldview, it doesnt mean that any other means and perceived ultimacies
are incorrect. I believe my means to reaching my perceived ultimacy are right for me in this
moment; my worldview may change with the experiences that are to come during the course of
my life.
Works Cited

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