Looking back at my reflection
My CAS reflection on Believe! (Interfaith) Conference, 2018. Please excuse my incapability of writing. I was rushing for the deadline and I did not bother to proofread.
For some reason this conference is very close to me and I want to leave my reflection as original as it is.
What have you discovered about faith from this conference?
I think that faith is a very broad concept and often, it is relative to different people. Some people associate faith with things around them. Some to their conscience. Some people associate it with spiritual beings or the higher power.
For instance, there was a market stall about religion that promotes relationship with the nature or the universe. There were also a lot of market stalls that talk about monotheistic religion--that teach human relationship with God. For me personally, one of the most important belief systems or faith is to believe in one God. I ultimately have trust and faith in God and I believe that every thing that I do and that happened, happened because God play a role into it. Moreover, I also have faith in myself. I can push myself even in the hardest of times. I believe that I can strive and I am in control of my own happiness. Last but not least, I have faith in other people. How it is possible that people around me can be the best version of themselves, which not only result in happiness within themselves but also to other people. Generally, I believe that these three factors are what build my faith stronger. They support me through moments in my life, so far.
In this conference I also discovered that some people do not need the first factor of faith that I have, which is to believe in God. At first, I thought that it was quite bizarre that people do not believe in the higher power. I always question about how they can show appreciation of things that they posses or their privilege to have. I was bewildered about how and who should they run to in times of sadness or even desperation, if they do not believe in God.
I tried to understand their point of view and discovered that they relate these to more tangible factors; where scientific research is far more important, how human support or interrelationship as well as faith in themselves are keys to sustain themselves. I have learnt that some people do not consider faith as their way of knowing, contrary to my belief.
I know that God exists and hears my prayers because I have faith and I believe so. I do not necessarily need a logical reason to it (although my reasoning would be: every matter or thing created must have a creator). Just like the wind, I know I cannot see it, but I know the wind is there.
What’s surprised you the most about someone’s faith or your own?
I was surprised by the Baha’I faith. It is a new religion that promotes unity and it believes that every religion in the world send similar messages, which are to be kind, to give to charity, to be respectful, etc. I always see religion as a very belief systems that were born in the ancient times. I was not used to the idea that that there would be new religion created, especially in contemporary world.
Did you think this conference was necessary?
I think this conference was very necessary. It opens up a lot of discussion about religion. I also think that religion education and awareness are important because millions, perhaps billions of people have associated their lives with religion at some point.
People who consider themselves non-religious need to realise that they live amongst people who believe differently than them (and vice versa). There were many provocative statements generated amongst the students. It hurts me the most when somebody said “Why are you religious? You are smart!” or “I do not like people who are controlled by a book, is controlling my government.” I think these are very ignorant statements that were made by some students and it shows that there are people who discriminate people who are religious.
I think people should view the religion the same way as racism. Both are equally important in human society and people should learn about them because what in reality, many people are not educated enough about a religion yet they rely so much from rumours that they heard from third parties. This create conflict even war in our society. The conference, although open up meaty discussions, it also gave the opportunity for people to attack each other’s beliefs (evidence that free speech do not always lead to great things). I believe that people should treat racism and religious discrimination as the same way. It is as serious and as important. If people stop listening to each other’s point of view and keep on rejecting or neglecting what the other person is trying to say, there will never be a middle ground where everyone feels that they are respected.
What will you take from this conference and how will you continue this further than this weekend?
I think having a peaceful and constructive conversation is what I will continue to improve. Now that I have more knowledge about some religion, I can be more more sensitive of people who have different beliefs than me, as well as respecting their way of viewing life.
How do you think your conversations about faith/religion before this conference and how do you think they will change after this conference?
I think we always avoid conversations about religion before this conference because we know that it is very sensitive to some people. However this is a part of an act of neglecting, which prevent our knowledge about different religious beliefs becoming richer. This can also be the cause of conflict because people always have different conception or have misunderstandings about different religion or any other belief systems.
During the conference, we opened up many discussions from the workshop, discussions about the topic that was discussed by the guest speakers and discussions about the religion that I believe in, which is Islam. This could give a domino effect where in the future, I can be more comfortable talking about my belief and be openly and respectfully curious about other religion. For the college community itself, we can open new discussion topics during lunch or dinner time, which hopefully will promote mutual cultural understanding amongst one another.
