Om!

Yes, om. Not um. So, Friday I took a trip with the religions class to the Islamic Center here in town. Interesting to watch. I'm not coverting any time soon, but some interesting things to think about. Honestly, I'd probably be more likely to go the route of Eastern religions than Islam, but I'm not going anywhere.

The people we talked with dispelled a LOT of the misconceptions about Muslims. What I found the most interesting was that the Qu'ran espoused peace. When I, of course being the trouble maker, asked why then do most mid-eastern countries have monarchies or dictatorships, the people we were talking with answered, probably rightly, that there's political manuvering behind the scenes. The more interesting response related to that was that they believed that Saddam was recieving what he had deserved.

We also talked about the peace that the book teaches for all religions. I know its not obvious with as crazy as some places around the world are, but it was an interesting discussion. (Basically, Islam teaches that they should be respectful to Jews and Christians). Of course, I suppose for that to work, everyone would have to be respectful, and we know that doesn't happen.

I did have an interesting thought on the way to work (from the Islamic Center). What if Jesus didn't want to be venerated. I mean, accepting that he is the Son of God, didn't he still teach that we should worship God, not him. I could be wrong, I'm really fuzzier on the new testament than I should be. I'm just saying maybe Christians are just a little off, in that they seem to focus on Jesus when maybe they should be focusing on the message from Jesus.

That's it. Religion class over. If you made it this far, you got an A.