religion and faith

By Anonymous -
Touch can prove a way to connect people and things to each other as well as evoke many different emotions. Religion can provide the same experiences for many. Constance Classen’s “The Deepest Sense : A Cultural History of Touch” goes into detail of how touch can mean so many different things for people. She writes on how important the sense is for interacting with one’s surroundings, this is because without the sense of touch there is a level of disconnect between one and the physical world.


 
Classen’s ideas made me think about how many people including myself don’t believe in any religion or faith, because they can’t physically touch a god or deity. For myself if I can’t see or touch or have tangible proof of something, especially religion, it is hard to believe that its real. So, I fully acknowledge the irony in the fact that I don’t believe in religion yet I’m a religion major. This may be the case because I want to see how other people can believe despite my not believing. 

Comments

  1. Rosie SteinerMay 1, 2020 at 9:51 AM

    I rely on touch and words to let people I love know that I love them, but apparently it's been proven that since atoms never touch, we really have actually never touched anything in our lives. Which I find ridiculous and strange and tough to comprehend, but sometimes we can't help but be skeptical of things we don't understand.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausMay 10, 2020 at 1:51 PM

    The New Testament runs with this idea that you need to touch something to believe in the story of Doubting Thomas, the disciple of Jesus who didn't believe in Jesus' resurrection from the dead until he touched him, John 20:24-29, and when the resurrected Jesus appeared to the disciples in Luke 24:27-29.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amidst the Pandemic

By -
Image
I think having the opportunity to take Smells and Bells and then experiencing a worldwide pandemic came with good timing. Oftentimes, we’re so rushed to get from one one place to another that we miss out on what happens around us. We’re so accustomed to the lifestyle of being busy that it has become the norm for many of us. However, the pandemic has forced us to slow down. We’re now appreciating everything that we had previously taken for granted and noticing things in our surroundings that we have never noticed before.  Take this quarantining/social distancing as an opportunity to be more aware of what you experience through the senses. I don’t think my senses have necessarily heightened over the past 5 weeks, but I am actively making the choice to pay more attention to what I see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. I like going on nature/mindfulness walks and basking in the sunshine out in my backyard. This morning, I could hear a faint noise from the wind, hear the birds chirpin...
Read more

Healing, purity, and revitalization: A tour of Kashmiri staple spices

By -
Image
“So, Adi, what do you want to know about spices?” These were the words that started my evening at Iqbal’s, an old family friend and professor of management at UMass Amherst alongside my parents. Although his department is that of economics, his expertise, in my opinion, lies in the realm of authentic Kashmiri cooking. He taught me and my parents how food is traditionally eaten by hand in India, how they were often served in large, metal bowls in which the individual components of the meal were free to mix, and now (at the behest of my parents) I’d come to learn about the nuances of spice in Iqbal’s cultural background. Admittedly, I had no idea what questions to ask or where to start, but thankfully Iqbal came prepared for this lesson. He opened a large drawer underneath the counter, revealing countless honey-jars repurposed for spice containment. “In just about all religions, spices have been used as disinfectant,” Iqbal tells me as he passes me a handful of cloves, prom...
Read more

In conclusion

By Anonymous -
I signed up to take this class in order to fulfill a connection (with nutrition), something that the administration of our college is moving to phase out or perhaps alter significantly. And while I found some connections to be a stretch, looking at the catalogue of what was possible, I thought most were solid. However I'm still pissed at the school for not letting me connect a class about the religion of Judaism and a class on the history of Jews in Europe, seemed like a layup, but I digress. I'm still glad I took the class. While I can't promise I'll retain all the content, I do feel like I learned a decent amount about my peers in the class. People sharing anecdotes about memories brought on by smells and sounds, it reminded me about how interesting people can be and what the human mind can do. Also I had fun during the banquet, making a pizza, for a live audience, wearing a shirt saying "Pizza's got your back", but sadly theres nothing on the back o...
Read more