This week was mixed with talking about the book and the film we watched as well as listening to, and in my case presenting, book presentations. Within the first class we discussed the different roles religion can have within a society. Two of these roles were contradicting. One was role that it plays in bringing communities together, while the other consisted of the ways in which religion causes destruction and separation. This related to the book I presented on. In God Needs No Passport, Levitt tried to show the positives about religion’s influence to America in the form of immigrants. She argued immigrants who come to America help to diversify the population and help us to build bridges with the world around us. I agree with Levitt on some issues, but not all. I agree that immigrants can help the dynamic of America and I believe they have a place and home within our borders. However, as we discussed in class and what Jim brought up, is that Levitt cannot see that there are people who agree with their religion and believe it to be true, but can also be in conversation with others who don’t agree.
Religions are different and acting as though they are all the same is not honest. While I might be the outlier of the class and believe myself to be tolerant rather than pluralist, I know that there are somethings in other religions that I do not agree with. However, I still believe in conversation for knowledges sake. It is not realistsic to believe that you will have a conversation with someone of different thought and change their mind completely. I think going into conversations with this objective can only lead to more problems. However, I do believe that one can be a human about issues such as different opinions and immigration and look to treat others with love, despite their beliefs.