QUESTION: I am interesting in learning more about world religions and I am
debating between taking RS100 (Religions of the East) and RS 110
(Religions of the West).
I grew up in a Christian community, so I
feel like the RS 110 may be a bit boring as I already know a lot about
it, but I know little about Islam. But I fear the cultural differences
may make RS100 difficult (based on online course reviews) and this will
be an elective - so I don't want it to affect my other studies.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Which was more interesting, why? Which was more difficult? Did you take it online or in class?
**Note:
I know there have been some religion flame wars lately on here, I am
not taking this to promote god or anything, I simply want to understand
others beliefs since they can play such a central role in a person's
outlook. So let's not debate religion mmkay?**
rs100 is pretty easy, and not too culturally challenging. whatever that means
ReplyDeleteDid you take it online or in class?
DeleteAnd by culturally challenging I was referring to reviews I have read where language differences or cultural points were not fully explained, making the concept harder to grasp.
^ took it online in 2011 with a nice lady professor who gave me a scarf that dalai lama touched or something, for answering a question. not relevant but eh
Delete^ wait shit sorry IN CLASS.
DeleteIf you want to actually learn things, skip intro courses and take a 200 level one. I took a 200-level SI course first year and loved it, then went back to take the 100-level RS courses and found them very boring and not taught well. In general, though, I dislike most intro-level courses.
ReplyDeleteI took RS 110 and loved it, from a christian family but essentially non-religious upbringing. I found it extremely interesting, ESPECIALLY Islam! Such a misunderstood religion, it was actually the religion I identified with the most.
ReplyDeleteI took it online, the course modules were straightforward and not too much work. Exam was very fair. I would love to take RS 100 now to compare :)
RS 100 is probably the easiest course I've taken at UW. I grew up in a Catholic based school system and household and found the course to be very interesting. I have a tendency to find subjects that I know a lot about to be more difficult as it tends to be original ideas and concepts that i consider rather than the new material
ReplyDeleteIf you're looking for actual WORLD religions, neither of those are a good bet. RS110 is Islam, Judaism and Christianity, and you've probably got a solid idea of their components already. RS100 is the one I actually took in class just this past term, and it was just India/Asia (hence "the East").
ReplyDeleteRS100 was really easy, only 4 tests consisting of 50 MC, 2 Short, and 1 movie/essay question. We did Hinduism, Jainism+Sikhism, Buddhism, and Daoism+Confucianism+Shinto. The prof was alright, actually learned a lot despite not studying, but I took it solely for Daoism so that was a huge mistake. Don't worry about cultural differences, each unit is basically half the religion itself and half the culture surrounding it.
Both a waste of time
ReplyDelete