Religion is a way of practicing life according to a set of rules or boundaries set out by that religion. Some religions have more strict rules than others, and some followers choose not to obey all of the rules their religion outlines for them.
With that is the first quote I would like to talk about, "guidance for how believers should behave on earth" (page 275). While a religion may set up this outline or give guidance, whether or not people follow it is up to the people. Now I am not saying you should be a follower of a religion and not practice or obey its guidance, but I also do not think that we necessarily have to follow every single rule to a T. I also do think that it is a good idea to try to have a set of rules to follow since as we have briefly mentioned in class, some people just do not know how to act and maybe do not have the best set of morals.

The next quote I would like to speak about is "suffering, if not intentionally imposed by some god, must be part of the universal order" (page 280). The way I perceive this is that if someone is not intentionally being punished for say an action they may have done, then it is just a part of life that they are dealing with. While I do think that this could be true in some cases, I personally like to live by the saying that everything happens for a reason. So it is hard for me personally to understand how these people could believe that there is no specific reason and rather it is just sort of happening. I also am not saying I always know why the things happening to me are happening to me, but I also don't think I am always supposed to know. Perhaps if I knew more about the Hindu religion this was in relation to I would understand it a bit better but where I stand now, it sort of just leaves me confused.

The last quote I liked was "in everything do to others as you would have them do to you" (page 290). Which is actually Matthew 7:12. I like this quote because no matter what religion you choose to follow, you can hopefully find some truth in this statement. At least that is how I perceive it. To me this essentially means treat others how you want to be treated, or any rendition of that statement. This statement in particular is one of those life rules you could say. Not that we don't all already know that. But it always helps to be reminded, and personally, I think it never hurts to have something to try to live by. Whether that be religion or not, this statement could be one of those that you can take and live by, in the religious sense and in the not sense. I again just think that some people need a set of rules to live by and I know in this context this is a religious statement, but like I just said it also can not be, so this could be a great statement for some of those people to live by.

Janaro, R. P., & Altshuler, T. C. (2017). The Art of Being Human: The humanities as a technique for living (11th ed.). Pearson.
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