Rebekah Cook - Religious Practices

What makes a religious practice unique to its religion?  Is it the roots of the practice or the ritual involved?  Is it the specific clothes believers wear?  I think about this because one religious practice which has become so mainstream that most practice it without any religious intent – meditation.  It has so many different forms now but how did it get incorporated into so many religions?  While it is well-known that the Buddha is a very inspirational figure in the practice, some scholars claim that Jesus meditated as well.  Some question if Jesus event spent time in India.  If meditation is so sacred to one religion, how did it become accepted in another?  How did it become mainstream?

Rebekah Cook - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Learning about ways to analyze films for religious elements can change the perspective of any film.  One that I recently realized has similar elements to that of the Decalogue episodes is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  The Decalogue is a dramatization of the Ten Commandments and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory also dramatizes some life lessons.  The five kids enter Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory and soon the viewer learns that each come from very different backgrounds and all have very different personalities.  Some are bratty and some are disobedient, and in the end Charlie ends up being the only one left because he was the only one who was others-minded.

Rebekah Cook - Different Religions

Whenever I think about different religions and the different beliefs each has, I wonder how so many can exist and all claim they are the right religion and say the others are wrong.  I was raised in a Christian home, grew up in church, and even attended a Christian school until I reached high school.  I was always taught that I believed in the one true religion and all the others were wrong.  It wasn’t until college that I found myself struggling with the idea of judging other religions and others’ beliefs.  If someone else believes that a different religion is the one true religion and the others are wrong, then who is right and who is wrong if both believe they are right and the other is wrong?

Rebekah Cook - The Lion King

The Lion King was always one of my favorite Disney films growing up but I never thought about how it may hold religious symbolism.  It actually has many Biblical parallels which include the father dying for his son, the fight between good and evil, and sacrifice.  Probably the most important symbolism, however, is how Simba represents the prodigal son.  After Simba has run away, a scene shows that he has a vision of father saying “Remember who you are. You are my son and the one true king. Remember who you are.”  He had run away because he thought he could escape his responsibilities, but then returns home after he has a religious experience like the parable of the prodigal son in the Bible.  

Rebekah Cook - Science versus Philosophy

As a science major, I’ve learned to think of things in terms of facts and figure out answers, but as a philosophy minor I’ve learned to break theories apart and create new ideas.  When I decided to become a philosophy minor, it was because I received some great advice from a medical school professor who told me that philosophy majors actually have the highest acceptance rate into medical school.  In an essay titled “Science versus Philosophy” by Joseph Rowlands, he explains how most believe that science and philosophy don’t really have the friendliest relationship because philosophers talk about how the world should be while scientists talk about what the world actually is.  He explains how this thought process is clouded because philosophy actually encourages scientists to concentrate on experiments when it may not make sense.  Without philosophy, science would not be able to interpret fact. 

Rebekah Cook - Mission Trips

During my high school and college years, I’ve had the opportunity to attend abroad mission trips to third world countries, Nicaragua and Mexico specifically.  While on those trips, we lived like they did.  There was no phone service, no hot showers, and sometimes no roof over our head.  While it seems like that’s a horrible way to live, I actually really looked forward to going back every summer because it forced me to get away from the fast paced, materialistic life.  While it made me very thankful for the things we have here in America, it changed the way I looked at life.  They have close to nothing, yet they were the happiest people I had ever met.  Relationships with other people are really all they have most of the time and those relationships were some of the strongest I’ve witnessed.  Technology allows us to keep in touch with friends and family at all times and those who live far away, but does that actually make our relationships stronger?

Rebekah Cook - Baseball as a Religion

In my final paper on The Sandlot, I found a reading by David Chidester which explored the idea that baseball is just like a religion.  Buck O’Neil, former Kansas City Monarchs first baseman, manager, scout, and MLB coach, stated that baseball was like a church.  O’Neil explained that baseball is something which teaches everyone to live by the rules.  It was this that made Chidester analyze whether baseball could represent a religion or not.  He pointed out four characteristics in which baseball can parallel a religion, a church: 1. both remain sacred throughout the change in history 2. both have uniformity 3. both create a perfect, sacred universe in the middle of a real, chaotic world 4. both allow the followers to experience sacred time through ritual and revelation.  Based on these four characteristics, he concluded that baseball can represent a religion.  It made me wonder about every sport and how they could all contain these characteristics as well.