fandomhigh | Comparative Religions--Monday, Period 3, Final Examination

"Hello," Vala greeted them. On each desk were a blue book, a number two pencil, and a pen. "First, I'd like to thank you all very much for being such an attentive and open-minded class. The class discussions have been very enlightening for me, and hopefully for you as well. Unfortunately, that doesn't get you out of having to take a measurable final examination of some kind."

She wrote three questions on the board:

1. Compare and contrast two religions that we've studied. How are they alike, how do they differ, which one appeals to you more on a personal level, and why?

2. What do you look for in a religion? What do you think others hope to gain from their belief?

3. If you could lead a religion, what kind of objects would you make sacred? Why?

"Credit will be given to the best two answers out of three questions answered. I'm looking for coherency and logic in support of your arguments as well--I want you to think, not just parrot back to me. Also, if I catch you cheating, you'll be staked outside naked and decorated like a Christmas tree. Good luck!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Obviously this can be handwaved, but you can answer if you'd like.

Lana answered all three with great detail, coherency and logic. ~~All of which the mun is *completely* lacking at the moment.~~

Adam ~~handwavily~~ took the final, making sure his answers were clear and concise. He wanted them to make sense. Thankfully, they did.

Blackheart's ~~handwavey also~~ answers to the final exam seemed to include a good deal of gratuitous soul-eating, burning, and torture, and more than a couple subtle hints that he was fully expecting to actually end up leading a religion including all of the above, someday.

1) Karal chose his own and Ancient Egyptian for the first question, and he may have gone on a bit (with no page limit set, there was nothing to stop him), but it was in-depth and well written, and not at all biased.

2) Vkandis Sunlord was his tongue in cheek answer, but he went on to say, I would look for one which does not treat its followers as idiots to be driven, but rather as intelligent, rational individuals that must be led. As to the other, there are as many answers as there are people, but at the heart of all is the hope for something in which we can believe and trust in absolutely.

3) Free Will above all. Things should not be sacred, but rather what they represent of the god. Anything which is to be held up as sacred must only be a symbol for the truth behind it. Else you lose your faith in your god, and instead place your faith in things and in man. He then went on to detail certain events in Karsite history which supported this, contrasting it with Valdemar's there is no one true way, by way of illustration.

Edited 2007-12-17 08:50 (UTC)

Gwynn continued answering the questions until the class was over as she had a great deal that she had learned and wanted to say...

Eve ~~handwavily~~ took the final, writing probably entirely too much. Oops?

She had been a few weeks out, so Adah was feeling a little anxious about the exam. She, despite her best efforts to convince herself otherwise, wanted to do somewhat well to make up for the weeks when she was either braindead or halfway so. She buckled down to right, and paid very close attention to make sure she didn't accidentally slip into writing backwards or in a different language.

For the first question, she made a straight forward comparison between Judaism and Islam. She considered comparing Christianity to one of the Polytheistic religions, but she wanted to keep her cynicism to a minimum.

The second garnered a more interesting response, which stemmed from the fact that Adah quite frankly didn't look for anything in a religion, because she didn't believe in having one.

That bled a little into the third question. If she was the leader of a religion, she would be doing it purely for exploitation of the people who would be foolish enough to follow it. So, to add to the whole thing, she'd find the most ridiculous object she could find and use that, just to see how many people would fall for it.

Either that, or a shirt.

She wasn't going to explain that one.

And, as she wrote, she decided that she wasn't really as concerned with doing well as she thought she was. Oh, well. She ended the paper in a different language after all. C'est la vie. Carpe diem. Je ne sais quois. That was what she looked for in her religion.

Z ~~handwavily~~ took the final, giving concise and complete answers, if without a lot of detail.

Luke's answer to the first question went on for pages as he compared the polytheism of the Egyptians to the monotheism of Judaism, then threw in a comparison to how the Jedi worked for free.

Luke's second answer went on just as long as he explained what he looked for in a religion, compared it with the sketchy descriptions his father had given him on how the Jedi used to work and made extrapolations on what could make it more fulfilling.

Luke had given the third question a lot of thought (almost like he was planning on restarting a religion after graduating...) and the answer he gave was almost painful in its level of detail.

Sam ~~handwavily~~ took the final ~~which I started and then Firefox ate it, woe!~~

Johnny ~~handwavily~~ wrote the test. His answers were more serious and thoughtful, and somewhat more bitter, than anything he'd previously done in class.

Comparative Religions--Monday, Period 3, Final Examination

Take the final

Re: Take the final

Re: Take the final

Re: Take the final

Re: Take the final

Re: Take the final

Re: Take the final

Re: Take the final

Re: Take the final

Re: Take the final

Re: Take the final

Re: Take the final