Pre Conceived thoughts on Final

For this unit's final we were put into small groups to first research a question based on significance in history, and then soon to be put into a larger group to discuss and decided and number the most important views.  My topic is "Religion is a vehicle for cultural diffusion."  My pre conceived thoughts on this topic is that it is one of the most important factors in history not only religion, but advancement and society in general.  The fusion and interference of different people from different beliefs led to evolution.  Also, because of the fusion of different people, beliefs and religions were created being based off of the other opinions and beliefs.  Religions, like Buddhism, took morals and ideal thoughts from other religions, like hinduism, to create a foundation for theirs.
For two different cultures in different places, having the same beliefs brought them together to form their own diffusion.  If different religions between people draw people apart, that means people with the same become closer together.  This topic is the most important in my opinion because it states the path the humans and society developed from.

Agents of the Powerless

In history, there have been many powerful leaders that can be catrgorized into two main groups, Agents of the powerful and Agents of the powerless.   Agents of the powerless have a bigger impact then ones of power because they are remembered as moral people, connected to a greater good, and have peaceful intentions. 

Morals are usually thought as one of the most important things to have inside and outside a society.  Without morals, people would have no intention to do good or withhold themselves from doing wrong.   It is inhumane of a leader to preach their followers to do something that breaks human ideals.  In my opinion, being moral is big part of being a good leader, and it usually not seen in leaders of the powerful because of their want for power. 

Most Agents of the powerless has a deeper connection to a religion, society, or group of people.  Background and views is very important thing to have while being a leader of peaceful intentions.  Having more exposure to the world opens your eyes to different feelings of people.   Leaders that came from being poor, or from being rich, or from being harassed, or from harassing think in someone else’s shoes.  That is why they become popular to the people like them.  They are usually like the underdogs.

Through both these points comes the point of having peaceful intentions.  Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and the Dalai Lama have all preached for a peaceful society, no matter where in the world they are.  I think the Agents of the Powerless are more impacting and stronger because they are remembered for longer times.  Even though the Powerful obtain more power, the other half of people that they didn’t satisfy will seek a new leader to go against them.  There then becomes a constant theme of taking each other over and moving in circles.  That is why the Agents of the Powerless leave a better impact in the long run.

Christian to Buddhist Missionaries

Missionaries are followers of a belief that are sent to inform others who do not share those beliefs ways of life, education, social justice, etc.  The ideal missionary is Christian, but it is used to example the ideology.  Christian missionaries believed that if they couldn’t convert those who weren’t Christian, it would be a life penalty.  Because of this lust and commitment to convert, missionaries then became a tool for political and religious powers.  In these cases, religion was used as a tool to spread and gain power.  Christian missionaries were said to be spreaders of religion, but how could they maintain that title if they were completely backed up and supported by their governments?  

Not too far away from the growing violent missionaries, Buddhist missionaries had a very different approach.  Buddhist missionaries believed in more peaceful and easier journeys to inform the different believers.  Buddhists believed that their mission was to enlighten the people, and not to “save” them from themselves for believing in something that was said to be wrong.  Buddhist missionaries noted the Christian missionaries bad reputation in Africa and the “convert or die” method.  As they learned from their opponents, they became agents for peace.  In the end, it is a thick line drawn between the peaceful methods and the violent.  As history moved on, the violent methods took religions farther then peaceful methods did on cultures.  This could be because of fear of violence, having a more powerful side, or maybe a human lust for being assertive.  

Reflection on Timeline-Map project

The Timeline-Map project we did last week in class at first seemed to make no sense.  When the idea of this project was presented, my first initial reaction was to figure out a way where all of these religions actually had a way in intertwining.  When we got in our groups, we split up the four topics in our group of three.  I had buddhism, which was always an interest for me because of my past camp consular who was buddhist.  The hardest part about this project wasn't finding a way they all intertwined, I soon discovered.  The hardest part of this project was finding and picking the best important event to be labeled on the timeline-map.  I finally picked the events that corresponded the most with the rising and decreasing events of buddhism.  When we combined our tags to set up our timeline, we discovered a smooth path of events that trailed after each other, braiding the different religions together.  The process of this project was stressful at times, but once you got hold of a idea of a tag you were set.  Putting time and effort into finding the best tags pays off in the end when you present with the other religions no doubt.  I don't think this project should change if done again because it really made us think in a different mind frame.  I would possibly change the amount of class time dedicated to explaining the project, so kids wouldn't be as confused at the start of it.

Issues that would come from modern day taoism and confucianism in america

In class today we made a diagram showing that different ways in which taoism benefits and how confucianism benefits and aspects in common.  A question that was brought up and stuck out to me was how would these beliefs effect modern day America, if they were believed in.  This is what I came up with:

Confucianism in America:
What I assume would happen would be a society where people were pushed very hard to maintain proper quota.  It would be a lot more stricter for various reasons and I do not think it would be a free country like it is today.  The whole idea becoming a good person with helping others would fall apart in some areas at the end.  If the people were restricted too much, there is bound to be a riot or demonstrations against the belief. In which, the leader of the society would inflict violence to contain the excitement, which would ruin the reputation of being generous and helping the community.  How can inflicting pain and asking so much from people help the general community?

Taoism in America:
Taoism is a much easier way to live by and overall wouldn't effect the community negatively as large as confucianism would.  Because of it's ideas not being at strong as powerful and life devoting like a religion would,  I think America would actually gain more freedom rather then loose it.  This could become a issue because of the order that would be lost.  A large part of a strong powerful nation and creating a working system is to have order within the community.  If everyone keeps to themselves what can you do?  So if Taoism could be a factor of one part of your life and the other held order, like confucianism, and believed in working as a society.

Taoism and Confucianism

I have read about these two different viewpoints for a while now but their differences still didn't seem clear to me.  Recently I referred back to previous readings and poked my nose into some new ones to figure out what are the differences between Taoism and Confucianism.  I found out that they disagree on several points on worldly functions and idealistic people within those functions.  

Confucianism                                                                                                                            Taoism

Tends to dislike nature                                      (nature)                                    Taoism finds beauty in nature

actions towards other people                  (Measurement in goodness)             The world should be left alone

providing food, arms, and trust               (Important to rule)                            Enjoy time, basic needs, untouched

No time away from society                   (Gaining Knowledge)                             Understanding oneself

_____

To me Taoism sounds more like Buddhism .  The whole idea of seeing things how they really are and understanding oneself is a larger factor for Buddhism and Taoism.  Confucianism is very strict about their lifestyles within a community.  I think that taoism would be much more beneficial to a society because the idea of being alway in with society for everything is going to drive people to riot.  That has already happened.  I'm glad i finally figured out how to distinguish the two.

Why did Christianity grow and become so popular?

In class today we had a heated (i'd like to think so) argument about two different readings that had different ideas of why christianity grew and became popular.  My reading reasoned that it became popular because of the social ease and acceptance provided to all social classes.  The reading mostly touched on ideas about how the pagans were outcasting and accusing the christians of being atheist, but there were some points you could pull out from the text.  One of the major points being presented in the text was the idea of how christianity was such a open armed religion.  People who were young, not as wealthy, and questioning their beliefs favored it because it provided so many benefits and was a quite simple understanding.  It also was branched off of Judaism so people interested in the were assuming that christianity was the modernized version.  The idea of this religion grew so fast because of the ways in which the disciples enforced the idea of how you could tell your friends, family, neighbors, whoever about this religion and they could participate. The idea of passing through people was the number one way of getting something spread around, just like the black plague idea (except no constant deaths) In the other group it talked more about the idea of the beliefs being strong, like the actual idea of the religion was appealing to people. I think that that was a factor in the spreading of it, but it was not the full deal. Overall I think that people give into beliefs when it offers them so many appealing advantages. Why wouldn't you want to be in something simple and giving feelings of being within something greater.