"Ethics is the method by which the soul binds itself to the Good"

I've been doing a lot of religious studying this week. Last Friday, I went to a Shabat at the campus Jewish center, on Sunday I attended the morning service at the Unitarian Universalist church, and yesterday I went to a panel discussion with ten representatives from different religions. And now I start research for a paper on a particular religion's concept of the creation of the universe.

I had gone to one Shabat before this Sunday but didn't really take much from it because it was almost entirely in Hebrew. This Friday I followed up the service with a visit to Rabbi Schlomo's house (the Rabbi who hands out pamphlets outside the Dining Center). I've decided the Jewish Identity has a lot in common with the Modernist mentality because it is about alienation. One of the Jews at the lesson explained to me that to be a Jew was to live in exile. Even the Jews who lived in the Holy Land still felt a strong sense of spiritual exile, that is, alienation of the soul from God. Another aspect of Jewish life is the focus on the pain and suffering of religious brothers, which is expressed through an internal focus whether it be individually with an emphasis on private study of the Torah and Talmud or culture-wide with an immutability of tradition and an impenetrability of community. This made sense to me because I associate a strong sense of self (identity) with alienation and with suffering.

I attended the Universalist service with Sean, Daniel and Aimee at the church in Green Hills. It began with the children's choir singing not about some textual Bible story or specific religious concept, but about using their imagination. In fact all the songs in the hymn book were about using the mind through rational or creative thought to find God. It was definitely a service that seemed to bring about the better aspects of mankind. My only problem with it was that since their ideology is so open and accepting there is very little to focus on. Their entire creed fit inside the order of service, which means they have no strong, absolute concept of good that they preach. Instead religious stories are studied from an almost-academic perspective. The sermon was about the Ancient Chinese story of Creation, and the preacher described teaching Sunday school lessons of God as if he were a part of a tale, not too different from a Mother Goose story. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

The religious panel last night was very enlightening. There were representatives Ba'hai, Hindu, Mormon, Protestant, Catholic, Islamic, Atheist, Jewish, Jainist and Buddhist faiths. I thought the Jainist and Ba'hai representatives did an excellent job, and I even learned something about the Protestant faith I didn't know. The atheist representative however did not know how to answer the question and instead started swearing about taxes and Jack Benny(?).

And remember that resolution I made a while back to learn more about Hinduism? Well guess what I'm writing my cosmology project on. Anyhow, I'm now really late for class