Class notes 9/14

1. Opening Prayer-Prayer for all 9/11 victims
2. PowerPoint- approaching the worlds religions obstacles and challenge
These are the obstacles and challenges with examples from the PowerPoint

• Out of hand dismissal (mocking foreigness or complexity, refusal to learn, and Clinging to stereotypes)
• Museum shelf (Perspective: distant, ideal, no relevance to contemporary, daily life, and impersonal)
• Premature Assimilation(Too much of a good thing, immediate connection, appropriation and Glossing over complexities and distinctions)
• Idealization(Medical School analogy)

What we need to overcome these:

• Respect for differences and complexities
• Maturity not to make inappropriate comments
• Awareness that there's lots of different people in the world
• Intelligence to learn

3. PowerPoint work, we continued to do research on the Middle east geography, and modern and ancient religions. We are coming along with our research at a good rate and we almost have enough to start putting together our presentation.
4. Closing prayer- Silent group meditation for 2-3 minutes to reflect upon ourselves