fandomhigh | Comparative Religions, Monday, Period 3, Class #1

As the students entered, Vala was perched on top of her desk (yes, she had a desk!), and looking over her notes and class lists. Once they were seated, she began,

"Good morning, everyone. For those of you who don't know me already, my name is Vala Mal Doran. Please feel free to call me Vala, or Professor Mal Doran if that makes you more comfortable."

"This class is about different religions," she explained, "and the first half of the class will focus on strictly the Earthen religions. The second half will be broader in scope and expand our study to inter-planetary religions. The only thing I ask--in light of the fact that more bloody wars have been fought over religion than anything else in human history--is that you have respect for the teachings of the guest speakers, and of the other students in this class. You don't have to agree, and I don't expect you to convert to their religion, but I won't tolerate any insults or baiting on the subject. With any luck, we'll all come out of this with a better understanding of religion."

"Today's class will be relatively simple--introduce yourselves, explain why you're taking this class, and explain your religion in broad language, if you have one. If you don't, explain why you don't. There are no penalties for not having one, by the way."

"As far as food and drink are concerned," she added, "I don't make enough money to feed you all every week, but you should bring whatever you want that you've provided for yourself."

She pointed to a student at random. "Okay, go ahead."

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Sam glanced around the room and gave everyone a friendly smile. "I'm Sam Winchester," he said, "and I'm taking this class because I'm familiar with a lot of Earth-based religions, but I don't know much about religions that exist on the inter-planetary level. Personally, I'd probably classify myself as a Christian, because that's the God I pray to."

Dean looked at his brother. "You pray?"

"Yeah, I do," Sam said with a shrug.

"Since when?"

"Since a couple of years ago." Four years, if he wanted to be precise about it, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to say that out loud.

"I didn't know that," Dean told him, wearing a slight frown.

Sam shrugged again, trying not to get upset by the frown. "There's not much to really know. I don't make a big deal out of it."

"Do you need to classify yourself as anything?" She asked, wondering about this, "Can't you just pray in general?"

"Well, I could just pray in general, I guess," Sam said. "But I think it's more effective if you pray to a specific god, or set of gods, or whatever you believe in. I mean, why throw your prayers out to someone who you don't think is listening?"

"But aren't you limiting yourself? What if a different god is listening, but decides to ignore your prayer because it wasn't general, or to him or her?"

"I think most gods would probably ignore prayers that weren't directed to them," Sam said, thinking of Ares.

"Any ideas on how to make them pay attention?"

"Well, there's ways to make them pay attention because they're looking down and laughing at you, but those are probably the wrong ways," he said with a smirk. "I guess if someone wanted to increase their chances of getting listened to, they could pray to a certain archetype. Lots of religions have gods and goddesses of things like war or the hearth or good health. If the person prayed to a specific archetype for what they need, that might be specific enough to make any god who falls into that category pay attention."

Really, he'd be turning the babble off any moment now.

"Better approach, I think." Possibly way too amused by the babbling, Vala said, "I note a certain enthusiasm for the subject at hand. Any chance you'd be willing to be my teaching assistant?"

"Really?" Sam asked, beaming. "I mean, yeah, sure. I'd be glad to."

"Excellent," she smiled at him. "It's not a difficult job."

Comparative Religions, Monday, Period 3, Class #1

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