Ways of the World: Chapter 24

A section that I found to be very interesting was the section on religious alternatives to fundamentalism. I found it interesting because the way that the countries and the different religions that inhabited these countries were willing to come together and meet to discuss their different ideas to gain understanding and hopefully come to establish peace. I feel that this is exactly what needs to happen in order to be able to establish a global peace. There have already been too many wars in the past between nations because there was a difference in religion or ideology, by coming to accept other ideas and religion there will be a greater peace established. In the past religions have tried to convert others with different ideas to share the same ideas so that they could be "saved", this caused conflict as well as distrust amongst nations, which led to wars. The acceptance of one global religion and the destruction of all others would be impossible to achieve therefore making the only possible solution to be agreeing to disagree on the matter, through acceptance and understanding of others and their cultures. Unfortunately this solution is easier to be said than done and in order to accomplish this there would be a lot of hard work and cooperation, which is hard to achieve due to the already present resentment between nations. I hope that some day this will be accomplished and a global piece could be established.

Discovering the Global Past: Chapter 15

A piece of the reading that I found interesting was the churches response to September 11, when the United States was bombed by terrorists. Reverend Falwell and Pat Robinson believed that an angry God had allowed the terrorists to succeed in their deadly mission because the United States had become a nation of abortion, homosexuality, secular schools and courts, and the American Civil Liberties Union. This is the first time that I have encountered this idea, and when I read this section I was truly shocked to see that people really believed that this was the reason for the bombing. I am slightly biased to be against some of the views and ideas of the church as it is, so this just made me angry. Religion needs to evolve and reconsider and be refreshed to the very ideas that people believe qualify a person as a good christian individual. Christianity stresses being a good individual that is accepting and understanding to all other people, no judgment or condemning of others, that is the responsibility of God. The church in this case was just using September 11, as another reason to hate people are different from what they want and teach and I find this truly disgusting.

Ways of the World Chapter 23: South Africa

I found the apartheid to be very interesting and how ending the apartheid and gaining freedom was a challenge for the South African natives, because South Africa had in fact been independent of Great Britain since 1910, however the Independence was granted to a small group of white settlers that made up less than twenty percent of the entire population. Therefore the struggle for freedom was against an internal opponent rather than a distant colonial authority. The dependence of the black population on the white controlled economy made individuals seem highly vulnerable to repressive action, however the threat to withdraw the work of the black community gave the people a powerful weapon. Actions that were taken to end the apartheid were nonviolent civil disobediences such as boycotts, strikes, and the burning of the hated passes. In retaliation the white leaders had the black leaders put in jail and participated in violent shootings thought to be necessary in sending a message to the revolutionaries. However the people remained persistent in the fights for their natural born rights, and with the help of international countries, the apartheid was officially ended in the 1990’s, and the African National Congress came into power and Nelson Mandela was elected as the first black South African president.