en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2402458 Comments by NittanyLions http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/12/02/voices-from-the-classroom-89/#IDComment231945374 I thought Sam Richards idea for State Pattys day was very interesting but I do not think I totally agree with it. I think State Pattys day is one of the more fun weekends of the entire year and I look at it as a celebration for not only Saint Patricks day but hard work for the first half of the second semester. The weekend before State Pattys day is Thon and Thon could be one of the most powerful and moving weekends of the year. So many students at Penn State do such great things and work so hard and work tirelessly before Thon to ensure Thon raises more and more money each year and is as successful as it can be. So many different organizations Thon and can and send out Thonvelopes. Fraternities, sororities, and all different types of clubs and all of the Thon groups can and care about this cause and care about the kids and care about raising money. And Thon represents Penn State in the best possible light imaginable and it is just not fair that the entire world knows about the terrible Jerry Sandusky scandal and the entire world does not know about the unbelievable acts by Penn State students in the fight against Pediatric cancer. I understand where Sam is coming from and how the media focuses on the negative side whenever something is going terribly wrong. They blow everything out of proportion just like when they went crazy when the first news broke of the scandal. There was constant Penn State scandal news and it was mayhem in State College for the next two weeks. So if the press gets a hold of the news in State College about State Pattys day and how there are more arrests and crimes on the weekend of State Pattys day than any other Penn State weekend, the media will get a hold of it and run with it. But after all this is a college town and all of the students here had absolutely nothing to do with the sexual molestation of children and college students should be able to live there life and have a fun time and this is one of the weekends they do it. And students here at The Pennsylvania State University should definitely be able to celebrate after raising over nine million dollars for kids with cancer. I know partying and Thon have nothing to do with each other and should not have anything to do with each other but after all we are still college students and after all college students like to have a good time. And after a unreal weekend like Thon and after so much hard work, they should have a weekend to have fun and dance and hang out with their friends and drink alcohol if they chose to do so. Sat, 3 Dec 2011 02:47:03 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/12/02/voices-from-the-classroom-89/#IDComment231945374 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/12/soc-119-lecture-on-the-penn-state-crisis/#IDComment227463915 I thought the hectic week of November 7th leading up to the Nebraska football game on November 12th could have been one of the craziest weeks in Penn State history. And this article did a fantastic job of telling the story from the students perspective and telling the world what the students were feeling. The students were feeling confused, the students were in disbelief about the entire thing, the students were angry and sad and mad. What I was feeling that entire week, was disbelief. There was a sense all around campus that the whole thing was just unreal, like you did not want to believe that it happened on your campus and your administrators did not do enough to stop it. And then Tuesday night rolls around and Wednesday night rools around and you think to yourself, how stupid could the administrators be. Why would you make such a big announcement that affects your entire student body at that time of day when you know your school has rioted in the past. Penn State is a rally happy school, they want to find reasons to rally and the administrators just handed them one on a silver plate. I truly believed that they should of given the announcement early Thursday morning while all of the student body is still asleep or they should given the announcement during the day when the entire student body is either doing work or in class. The board of trustees really squared up there and let everything hit the fan. And that is when the media blew everything out of proportion and made Penn State out to be a bunch of crazy people. I think one of the best moves by any faculty member during this hectic week during the Sandusky scandal was by Stacy Silver, my sociology of gender, sociology 110 professor. We were supposed to have an exam on Thursday from 4:15 to 5:30 and she postponed it to the next Tuesday cause she believed which I totally agree with was that this was too important of a time in Penn State history not to talk about it from a sociological perspective. And we talked about it and it was such and interesting class. Her husband who is a sociology professor at Penn State as well, he teaches a 400 level sociology of deviance class, talked about the entire scandal. And I also loved what Sam Richards did, he cancelled his normal class and talked about the entire scandal as well and brought his wife in to talk about the crazy series of events in State College that week and that is why I loved this article because it does a great job of giving credit to Sam for really listening of the students and hearing it from our point of view. Sat, 26 Nov 2011 04:02:55 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/12/soc-119-lecture-on-the-penn-state-crisis/#IDComment227463915 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/10/voices-from-the-classroom-73/#IDComment220601818 I would first like to start off by saying that the sociology department has done an unbelievable job in the past couple of days responding to these events in class. I am a sociology minor and I am taking two sociology classes right now, sociology 110, sociology of gender and sociology 119. Both of my professors took the time on Thursday during class mind you to discuss the ongoing scandal and to answer student’s questions which I respect so much and I am very grateful to them. Because I know a lot of students were still in disbelief that this happened and were very confused. I personally think the board of trustees handles this very wrongly and did an awful job. I can understand both points of view and obviously I am biased because I go to The Pennsylvania State University and I love college football and I love Penn State football and I love Joe Paterno. But I still feel like Joe Paterno should be able to finish out the season because it is not fair to the players and the entire team. He did what was in his job description and he reported to a higher up and it was the higher ups that really really squared up the entire situation. I do understand that he probably should have done more and followed up on the situation. But Joe Paterno has gave his life to this university. His entire life has been about The Pennsylvania State University and he has done so much for this university and really put this university on the map. This university would not be the university it is today if it was not for Joe Paterno. He built this university from a tiny agriculture school into an amazing university with an unbelievable business school, engineering school, and a great research institution. I strongly believe he should have been able to finish out the season with his team and with his seniors. It is just for another month!!! And he was fired over the phone. Are you kidding me board of trustees? Are you absolutely kidding me? That is out of control and so disrespectful. You do not have the balls and the decency to at least walk over to his house and explain the entire situation to his face. I also think that the world does not think highly of Penn State at all right now. And that is not fair!! It was one person that did these acts and a couple of people that tried to hide them up and the world is looking sown upon all of Penn Staters. It is just a very sad situation for everyone involved and I would like to end my blog with a message to all the victims. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and the families of the victims. Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:27:21 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/10/voices-from-the-classroom-73/#IDComment220601818 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-20/#IDComment217008179 They will go to any costs when they have a family back at home and when they are sending their paychecks back to those families at home. The one example Sam Richards brought up in class was the Alabama farmer who literally had fields of crops that were just not being picked because the Alabama immigration laws are just so strict. Alabama and Colorado have very strict immigration laws and illegals cannot be hired. So farmers in Alabama cannot hire these illegal immigrants and then there fields just do not get picked. Farmers are losing money because the lack of illegal immigrants being hired and the fact they cannot be hired cause of these strict laws. I do not have an answer for immigration in this country and I think no one really has an answer. Fri, 4 Nov 2011 22:24:15 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-20/#IDComment217008179 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-20/#IDComment217007734 You are not going to force people to talk a language and how would you enforce it when they are just going to talk their native language in their homes? I just do not see it being worth the time and resources for the US government to try enforce this. I think immigration in this country is so confusing and backwards and no one has a true solution for it. It is tough to regulate immigration and this economy needs immigrant workers too. The tough labor jobs in this country are usually being done by immigrants. Immigrants are sometimes the hungriest workers because they will do anything to get money in their pocket and support their family. You are willing to work when you have nothing and that is what immigrants usually have when they enter this country. Fri, 4 Nov 2011 22:23:11 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-20/#IDComment217007734 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-20/#IDComment217007541 They already are dropping everything to get here and start a new life. They are just trying to provide a better life for themselves and their family which everyone in this world is trying to do. And I think their kids are going to learn English anyway because they are going to be immersed in to our culture and go to our schools where English is being taught. So trying to force something to happen when it already is going to happen is pointless and how would we enforce this anyway. Make immigrants go to class right when they get here? Make them pass tests or such? Fri, 4 Nov 2011 22:22:46 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-20/#IDComment217007541 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-20/#IDComment217007079 I think immigrants should not have to learn English. I do not think it should be a law or in the constitution or anything crazy like that. They are coming from their country of origin where they spoke the language of their home country and it would not be fair if they came to this country and right when they got here they had to drop everything, including their language would not be fair at all. Fri, 4 Nov 2011 22:21:48 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-20/#IDComment217007079 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/27/voices-from-the-classroom-58/#IDComment213654611 I think it would be a really weird feeling for me if the whites, Caucasians all over the world became a minority. My buddy in the sociology 119 class was discussing this with me and he said by 2025, which is in my life time that white people will be the minority. That still boggles my mind. It is so crazy. My buddy took a demographics class and he said they studied movement of people around the world and the growth of certain ethnic groups and cultures. I feel like it is something that I just cannot wrap my head around, it is so mind boggling. I am from New Jersey. My hometown is in North Jersey in Essex County in a small town about twenty minutes away from New York City. It is a very small town and it is surrounded by a lot of big towns with a lot of different ethnicities and diversity. My hometown is predominantly white and maybe that is the reason why I find it so mind boggling that white people are not going to be the dominant race very soon within the next fifteen years. Essex county could be one of the most diverse places in America east of the Mississippi other than New York City. There are a lot of Asian people, a lot of Hispanic people, a lot of white people and a lot of black people. There are a couple of places in Essex County that you do not want to be when it gets dark. There are very urban places in Essex County and when I start thinking about it the demographic patterns and the demographic growth in this Country and all around the world, I start realizing that less and less people live in rural areas. A lot of people live in urban and suburban areas and a lot of people are moving towards the cities and it starts making more sense. A lot of people in this country who live in urban areas are non-white Americans and urban areas are the dominant living areas in America right now and they will just continue to dominate cause people continue to flock to the cities. The world is constantly changing whether you like it or not and your ability to adapt to these changes and keep living your life to the fullest is going to be key especially in the coming years when white people will not be in the dominant race. What is Penn State going to look like when white people are not the dominant race? Penn State will probably stay predominantly white because of its location but there will definitely be more and more ethnic and black students in Happy Valley. Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:10:13 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/27/voices-from-the-classroom-58/#IDComment213654611 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/20/voices-from-the-classroom-50/#IDComment210786859 I am in a very different stage then my parents I truly believe. I feel like race does not bother me. In my fraternity, there are black kids and there are non-white kids. In my fraternity I am very good friends with a black kid and with a Hispanic kid. My mom grew up in Virginia and graduated from high school in 1975 and graduated from the University of Virginia in 1979. She is a very old fashioned lady and is from the south. She grew up in a very prominent time of the civil rights movement and grew up in a time when blacks and whites got integrated. An unbelievable thing happened, her cleaning lady was an African American lady and her cleaning lady’s daughter went to the same school as my mom. My mom was going to the bathroom one morning before school started and the daughter of the cleaning lady came in to the bathroom with her two friends and intimidated my mom and started talking to trash to my mom and they also almost got in to a fight. My mom grew up in a neighborhood that was half black and half white. She was a very smart woman and was third in her graduating high school class of over five hundred students. But she grew up in a very strict and conservative household. Her father, my grandfather is very old school in his ways and grew up in Europe and never encountered people of other races so when he moved to America right before the break out of World War II, he had a gigantic culture shock. He thought he already knew what was right and what was wrong and did not want to change so he liked only people that were similar to him and did not change that and did not want to change that. He was set in his ways and people do not like change, especially people who are older. My mom grew up in a very conservative home and she was taught what to like and what not to like and who to hang with and who not to hang with. She is definitely judgmental and sees race. This has grown with me, however. I see both sides of the pendulum, and my mother’s raising has helped me grown and learn as an individual that color is not an important characteristic in life. Besides my mother’s background, I’ve grown to learn that integration is an important part of American life, and is a necessity when it comes to being a fully cultured American at heart. Although I respect the “heck” out of my mother and love her, I will learn from her past and experiences and realize that this America is a ever changing. Sat, 22 Oct 2011 03:51:37 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/20/voices-from-the-classroom-50/#IDComment210786859 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-44/#IDComment207592507 I have felt white guilt plenty of times and in many different situations. I am from a small town in New Jersey that many people call a bubble. It is a small town surrounded by five very large towns that are very ethnically diverse. My hometown is predominantly white and when I say it is predominantly, I mean probably over ninety percent white. I attended the public school in my hometown that everyone in town goes to if they chose to go to a public school. It is a small group one high school and in New Jersey group one is the smallest high school. Group four is the biggest and there graduating classes are like four hundred to five hundred kids and my high school was around one hundred and twenty five. We did not have a lot of non-white people in my school. And the towns surrounding my town were very ethnically diverse. New Jersey is a very ethnically diverse place because North Jersey is made up of a lot of suburbs of the largest city in the world. And that is also why New Jersey has the best food but that is on a side note. My dad and I were once driving home from my lacrosse game when I was in seventh or eighth grade and we were blasting one of our favorite country songs. We were stuck at a red light and the car that pulled up next to us had two black men in it and they were blasting rap and hip-hop music. My dad and I both looked at each other and smiled because it was funny to see the difference in ethnicity and the difference in love for music. My hometown is a big lacrosse town and we always go to the lacrosse championships on Memorial Day Weekend. One weekend it was being played at The University of Maryland at Byrd Stadium at College Park, Maryland and we stayed in Washington D.C. at a nice hotel. And we went running through D.C. on a tour and we were running through a park and a couple of my friends almost ran in to a homeless man who was one the sidewalk sleeping there. The homeless man was a black man and I remember feeling very sad and thinking to myself why he has to be homeless. Every Halloween, residents of the surrounding neighborhoods come and trick or treat down my block. And they are black people and you can tell they are not from the neighborhood because you have never seen them before and do not recognize them. I think they come because my neighborhood gives out a lot of candy and a lot of big candies. And you think to yourself, why does that happen? Fri, 14 Oct 2011 22:15:00 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-44/#IDComment207592507 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/02/voices-from-the-classroom-29/#IDComment204535226 If my kid was born an am Aphrodite I would chose his gender for him. To come in to the world genderless is one of the most difficult things a child could do. It is not only difficult for that child but it is difficult for his family. How is the family supposed to react? How is that family supposed to treat him? Boys and girls when they are growing up are one hundred percent treated differently and they should be. You are not going to raise your son the same way you are going to raise your daughter. It would be so hard to raise your child if he was genderless and did not know what he really was. People are human beings first but you are a male or a female next. The single most important trait in a person’s life is their gender. You cannot change that. I mean you can but no you cannot because if you change your gender, you are looked down upon in society and considered an outcast. And I truly believe that it is not fair to the child. You are going to have a genderless child for a long time because he or she needs to grow up before he or she makes the decision to continue his or her life. One of my best friends from my hometown has a twin. No an identical twin but a twin. And he is a homosexual. I went to Pre-K with both of them and I could tell that he was different even at that age. When all of the kids were playing with blocks, he was playing dress up in the corner and he was acting as a mother and a cook. When all the kids at recess were playing football and soccer, he was playing with the girls. And he came out of the closet in high school. It is totally fine with me that he is gay. I do not have anything against gays and I think they should be able to do everything straight couples can. They should have the same rights. But my point is that you do not think that my friend wishes he had a straight brother. You do not think that the family wishes they had a straight son. You do not think that they think that even a little bit. My friend also could be one of the most manly people I have ever met. He played football with me in high school and he also wrestled. He now wrestles in college and he was a great athlete. He was a linemen in high school and wrestled heavyweight. He is a big, strong man and I just think that he took a lot in high school about high schools. He got made fun of and was the center of a lot of criticism. He loves his brother, I know that and he always will but I think there is definitely some thoughts swirling in the back of his mind. Fri, 7 Oct 2011 22:16:51 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/02/voices-from-the-classroom-29/#IDComment204535226 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/27/voices-from-the-classroom-18/#IDComment201110378 I thought the biker thieves video was a very interesting video but I could see what was going to happen from a mile away. I knew the public was going to act quicker and harsher when the black kid was trying to steal the bike than when the white kid was trying to steal it. It is a stereotype ingrained in our society and it is a stereotype we see all around us since the time we are born. Every day on the news, we see people committing crimes and doing bad things. But unfortunately the color of the person’s skin is always taken in to account when we are watching the news. And I think a majority of the time it is black people committing the crimes we see on the news and we see on television. So if we see a black kid trying to steal a bike at a local park, we are more inclined to do something than if we see a white kid or a girl trying to steal a bicycle. I thought some of their responses to people asking them questions was just hysterical. A couple people asked them if it was there bike and they responded, with “is it yours” and “so what”. I also thought when the man helped the pretty girl steal the bicycle was just hilarious. He rode right past his wife who had asked her if that was her bike and started helping her get the bike off the sign. The video was a very interesting way to look at ingrained stereotypes in our country. I live in a very small town in Northeast New Jersey. It is about twenty minutes away from New York City and it is only three miles wide and half a mile long. A lot of people say kids from my town live in a bubble and never really know what is outside of it before they attend college. My hometown is stuck between two really big towns. My high school is a Group 1 high school which are the smallest high schools in New Jersey and the two towns surrounding my hometown both have Group 4 high schools which are the biggest in New Jersey. Both of the towns surrounding my hometown have very nice sections to them but they also have very poor sections. There high schools are much more multi-racial than my high school was and will ever be. So I have seen the stereotypes surrounding not only the two neighboring towns but also in my town as well. People make remarks and comments when seeing poorer kids on new bicycles. People make remarks and comments when kids from a lesser socioeconomic background come trick or treating in my hometown. It is just the way life is but I feel like it is our generations job to change those stereotypes and this class is definitely in the right direction. Fri, 30 Sep 2011 01:13:29 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/27/voices-from-the-classroom-18/#IDComment201110378 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/20/everyone-respond-to-this/#IDComment197698460 I love apparel a lot. I love shirts of all different kinds, I love button down shirts, dress shirts, collared shirts. If you look in my room, you will find a lot of clothes. I am thr youngest of three boys in my family so I have a lot of hand me downs of all sorts of sizes and colors. The clothes I have at The Pennsylvania State University in room at my house is not even half of the clothes that I currently own. Whenever one of my brothers gets to big for a shirt, he puts it in my room. I love apparel and I love well-made apparel. Clorene Blaise is making what looks to be a very good product. If I had to help one entrepreneur, I think I would invest my time and money with Clorene Blaise. She seems like a very hard worker and a smart lady. If you look at the videos, you can see in the background what looks to be like Clorene’s employees. She has a well planned and well articulated business with a business plan. I also like her bags. I think they would sell around the world but the problem is, is that she does not have the financial stability and the money to advertise her product. So I think, my group should help Clorene and help her with the advertisement of her product. We can create websites and create a buzz for her products here in the United States so people can buy her products and maybe even invest in her company so she can expand and pay off some of her debts. One of my friends from high school who is two years older than me and just graduated from Skidmore University used to do things of this kind. She studied abroad in the Caribbean and did a lot of community service and in high school, she designed shirts. So she knows how to advertise a small company’s product. I think she can really help our group out help Clorene. Getting a product out in to the open is a very tough thing to do but if we start small and then expand, we will be fine. So, just start with Sam’s sociology 119 class and then expand in to the rest of the University Park Campus. Then we can expand in to the rest of Penn State’s branch campuses. I think this will be a very challenging project but in the end, we will be helping out someone in need and someone who needs help. We will also need to help her out with her micro loans. We need to find a bank who is willing to invest money in her product and then they will eventually see a return. But the real question is, when will they see this return. Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:18:31 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/20/everyone-respond-to-this/#IDComment197698460 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/15/voices-from-the-classroom-12/#IDComment194326916 I literally hate conspiracy theories. I cannot stand when people make stupid youtube videos and stupid documentaries about conspiracy theories. And to think that people in this country, educated people in this country will listen to some nerd who makes youtube conspiracy theory videos in his parents basement baffles my mind. I do not believe the United States government had any involvement in the terrorist attacks on September 11th. Zero involvement, no involvement whatsoever. To think that a nations government would attack their own people is way to farfetched. That is from way out in left field. That makes zero sense. I am from Glen Ridge, New Jersey, a small town in northwest New Jersey about twenty minutes west of the great city of New York City. I was in fifth grade on that Tuesday morning of September 11th, 2001. I remember it like it was yesterday. My dad has worked in New York City for the past thirty years and about two hours after it happened, he called me to say that he was alright. He did not work near the twin towers, he worked about thirty blocks away. But on that morning, all of our parents had to come and pick us up. We were allowed to leave school and be with our family. I was walking by the main office with my classmates on that morning at around ten o clock and I saw my fifth grade teacher balling her eyes. I was only a little kid then but to see my teacher crying was such a new site to me and I knew something had to be wrong. At first when I heard the news I thought a plane crashed in Washington State and a plane crashed in New York City but I did not know wear and I knew another plane crashed but I also did not know where that one crashed. I got home and turned on the news and there I saw all of the action on fold. Live footage from Manhattan. It was such a sad day in the United States of America and to think that our own Government led by George W. Bush did this is out of control. My hometown is a hometown that was directly affected by the attacks on September 11th. There are so many dads and moms that work in New York City and a lot of moms and dads that worked in the World Trade Center. One of our great family friends worked in New York City and lost his life that morning. So I literally hate when people think the US Government did this. I disagree with that statement and till the day I die I will disagree with that statement. Our national security has increased so much and the airport security is unbelievable now. We have done a great job improving our security. Sat, 17 Sep 2011 02:39:29 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/15/voices-from-the-classroom-12/#IDComment194326916 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/07/questions-from-the-classroom/#IDComment191760573 In the perfect world everyone would see each other as human beings and not as enemies or people of different races or people of different cultures but as one human race. I have several favorite examples of the world coming together for one cause and not fighting amongst each other. The movie “Independence Day” is such a great movie and I know its fiction but it gives me goose bumps every time the President of the United States of America makes the speech at the end. Independence Day is a movie where the entire world is under attack from aliens and all the armies of the world come together for the largest aerial attack in the history of mankind. The President of the United States in his speech says that we have to put aside all of our “petty differences” and fight together not against tyranny or not for freedom but our right to exist. I also love the World Cup and both the winter and summer Olympics. During the winter and summer Olympics the world drops everything and watches as unbelievable athletes compete for a dream they have been trying to achieve since they could understand what the Olympics really were. A gold medal is the most amazing achievement in sports one could ever attain. The entire world is watching as one person stands on top of a podium and receives a gold medal. There are no racial or cultural or ethnic differences in the Olympics. Everyone is respectful of each other and no one cares what race everyone else is. It is about different opponents and different competitors, it is not about different races. You are representing an entire nation and an entire nation is cheering for you. They do not care if your black or white or brown, they just want you to act respectful and have fun and win one for the gipper. But I do understand why we as a human race cannot see each other as one race. It is because when people stereotype they can tell the difference between one another. It is a way for one person to tell the difference between their friend and their neighbor and unfortunately you can tell the difference between your enemy. I hope in the future we will find world peace and we need to find it now more than ever. The amount of wars and genocides and crime and bad things that are happening in the world right now is out of control. And almost all of these things is the lack of respect between ethnicities and the lack of understanding that we are all the same. There are not a lot of differences between all the human beings in the world. WE ARE ALL JUST MONKEYS! Sat, 10 Sep 2011 03:01:25 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/07/questions-from-the-classroom/#IDComment191760573 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/01/why-do-you-follow-any-religion-at-all/#IDComment190911349 This is a really interesting question. But to first look at this question, one must ask, what is a religion? Even what is religion? I believe a religion is a group of people who believe in similar things and believe that there is a higher being. They believe that there is some sort of god up above, they can believe in one singular god or can believe in multiple gods. I believe those two qualities make up a religion. So, with those two things said, can I just start a religion up tomorrow? And what is the difference between a cult and a religion? All religions started out as cults. When the protestant church separated from the Catholic Church, the Protestants were looked down upon and they were a “cult”. Now Protestantism is one of the biggest religions in the entire world and is right there with Catholicism for the biggest religion under the Christianity umbrella. I believe that a cult is different from a religion in the fact that it has not caught mainstream and will never go mainstream. I believe that some cults are way to serious and way to far out there either really liberal or really conservative that it will never gain popularity. And a religion has been established and is recognized around the world. Religion throughout the world is a very big thing. It might not be as important in the United States of America but throughout much of the world people believe in a higher being. They are united and believe in something bigger than themselves and that is what religion truly gives you. Sam Richards always talks about how your going to die one day so nothing really matters. Which is true in a way but tell that to the other 6 billion people on this planet or should I just say “monkeys.” Religion gives the ordinary man something to ponder, something to believe in, a sense of being, a sense of worth and a sense of community that not many other things in the world can give the common man. I believe in a religion. I am an Episcopalian. I do not go to church very much anymore but I used to. I go every Christmas and every Easter now but I truly wish I went more and I truly wish I could have gone more as a younger kid. When you leave church, you get a feeling that is truly remarkable. You feel like you have done something, like you have a sense of worth and that is a great feeling to have. Why do you think so many people go to church on Sundays? Yes, to repent their sins from the previous week but I strongly believe it is to get that great feeling in your stomach when you exit the church doors. Thu, 8 Sep 2011 02:59:01 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/01/why-do-you-follow-any-religion-at-all/#IDComment190911349 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/01/why-do-you-follow-any-religion-at-all/#IDComment189193536 This is a really interesting question. But to first look at this question, one must ask, what is a religion? Even what is religion? I believe a religion is a group of people who believe in similar things and believe that there is a higher being. They believe that there is some sort of god up above, they can believe in one singular god or can believe in multiple gods. I believe those two qualities make up a religion. So, with those two things said, can I just start a religion up tomorrow? And what is the difference between a cult and a religion? All religions started out as cults. When the protestant church separated from the Catholic Church, the Protestants were looked down upon and they were a “cult”. Now Protestantism is one of the biggest religions in the entire world and is right there with Catholicism for the biggest religion under the Christianity umbrella. I believe that a cult is different from a religion in the fact that it has not caught mainstream and will never go mainstream. I believe that some cults are way to serious and way to far out there either really liberal or really conservative that it will never gain popularity. And a religion has been established and is recognized around the world. Religion throughout the world is a very big thing. It might not be as important in the United States of America but throughout much of the world people believe in a higher being. They are united and believe in something bigger than themselves and that is what religion truly gives you. Sam Richards always talks about how your going to die one day so nothing really matters. Which is true in a way but tell that to the other 6 billion people on this planet or should I just say “monkeys.” Religion gives the ordinary man something to ponder, something to believe in, a sense of being, a sense of worth and a sense of community that not many other things in the world can give the common man. I believe in a religion. I am an Episcopalian. I do not go to church very much anymore but I used to. I go every Christmas and every Easter now but I truly wish I went more and I truly wish I could have gone more as a younger kid. When you leave church, you get a feeling that is truly remarkable. You feel like you have done something, like you have a sense of worth and that is a great feeling to have. Why do you think so many people go to church on Sundays? Yes, to repent their sins from the previous week but I strongly believe it is to get that great feeling in your stomach when you exit the church doors. Sat, 3 Sep 2011 01:09:27 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/01/why-do-you-follow-any-religion-at-all/#IDComment189193536