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Rony Abreu Dominguez

Mr. Keith Schoen
Grammar & Composition
24 March 2014
Should Christians at Doulos Discovery School study different religions?
Religion is a set of beliefs, practices and cultural system that define the relations
between human being and divinity. Christianity is a religion centered in the life and
teachings of Jesus Christ. This religion is the most practiced religious discipline at
Doulos Discovery School, a small community located in the middle of the Caribbean.
This school is mostly conformed by Dominican students and international students from
many other countries around the globe. A genuine investigation of what the worlds
religions inculcate and impart around the world is uncommon among Doulos students.
Implementing religious dimensions of world cultures at Doulos is crucial to an informed
and multicultural educational curriculum. Before there were optional classes on world
religions at Doulos Discovery School, but now they have been eliminated. This change in
the Doulos curriculum has completely erased any religious diversity that once used to be
in the classrooms. Christians at Doulos should study a diverse variety of religious
doctrine while still preserving Christianity as their fundamental belief because it will
enable them to better understand their own religion, to better comprehend the values
and religious beliefs of others and finally to help them have a deeper appreciation for
their own beliefs.
Exposing Christians to different religious perspectives enables them to better
interacting with people of other religious traditions. When people are taken into a
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whole new religious perspective they will eventually be able to understand why people
from different religions do things differently. Furthermore, Doulos students that were
taking world religions in the past years were getting educated to work side-by-side with
people that were practicing different faith traditions in the larger efforts shared by all
faiths. Studying different religions gives students the ability and opportunity to find
patterns that help build different traditions. Having all kind of diversity in school help
better shape students in many ways. Exposing students to another culture will open their
minds as they grow in ways they will never understand if not being taught at this young
age. The more Doulos students are exposed to other religions and different types of
beliefs, the better they are going to understand their present and the people living it with
them. The chances of fear to other people when living in an atmosphere of hate will be
much less ending in seeking out a diverse and multicultural experience at any moment.
Studying world religions empower students to improve their interpretation toward other
religions.
It is important to understand more than one type of religion because it helps
people comprehend the values and religious beliefs of others. These faith traditions
have shaped human history in multiple ways - political, military, social, cultural, and
intellectual and so have shaped the Doulos community. The history of humanity has been
transforming from a long time ago bringing within new revolutionary perspectives into
the present we are living today such as the one being lived at Doulos. These evolutions
have been highly affected in many ways but mostly by religion. As a result, each religion
has a culture that marks and changes the way people interact physically with their
surroundings. Peoples spiritual beliefs change the way people build things and make
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historical movements that reinvent the world. Studying world religion at Doulos will
decline any doubt that some students have been questioning for years. Doulos students
will have new answers and reasons for why certain movements have existed in the history
of the world. Doulos students who once got the chance to study world religion in the past
years were able to look for unique things of their religion that made them unique. These
students also got the chance to find certain aspects that identify their religion such as
unique manners that give importance to their religion. Investigating about different
religious doctrines aid students to better comprehend the attitude of other religious
beliefs.
Studying other religions helps people have a deeper appreciation for their own
beliefs. When people get the opportunity to experience something new in their lives they
are able to find a volume of concepts that are almost completely different from what they
have ever seen before. Additionally, Students at Doulos who before could research about
different topics of a varied quantity of religions were able to debate the differences in
between their main religion and the one been studied. Comparing religions are a very
easy strategy to use in order to find what is exclusive in their religion and uncommon in
the others. These students were now able to appreciate the uniqueness of their religion
leading them to appreciate the religious aspects that compose their religion structure.
Researching and analyzing other beliefs empower you to recognize worthy the values of
your religion.
A few Christians at Doulos Discovery School will not agree in the idea of
studying a diverse variety of religious doctrine because changing from one religion to
another would make them doubt their own religion. Christianity has been shaping the
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overall community at Doulos. These students and staff have grown in a very influential
Christian belief having no clue about other doctrines. Taking these Christians into the
study of a whole new religious perspective would make them doubt about what is right
and what is wrong between their main religion and the others been studied. Furthermore,
Some students will even began disbelieving most of the aspects of their religion by the
reason that they will find a lot of differences among all religions ending not knowing
what attitude to follow and not to follow. This is just as the circle of immigration, people
go and come adapting themselves to the new conditions and forgetting the old roots and
this is obviously something that the Christians leaders at Doulos wont agree with their
students.
Any Teacher at Doulos Discovery School who is afraid of implementing world
religion in their classrooms can be defined and identified as people who have weak faith.
This weak faith is caused by the fact that they do not believe their religion as the
strongest one. Christians who easily doubt their faith have a spiritual drought in their
lives. Faith doubting is like a low stream when faith seems to have withdrawn forever.
Moreover, Christians with real and strong faith will never lose their faith when getting
spiritually challenged, therefore offering the option to take world religions at Doulos will
be a harmless dispute for true Christians. As a result, These Christians as well as many
Doulos students will be getting open-minded to a new religious diversity to better
comprehend their surroundings. On the contrary, there are many people who are against
the implementation of the teaching of world religion at Doulos. This is because they fear
their student will begin doubting their own religion and accepting another one. As a
result, these teachers may not be doing a good job of teaching their unique Christian
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aspects preservation leaving them with anguish faith immunity to their Christians
students. Teachers at Doulos should have fortress in their Christian belief because God
Himself takes people into difficult situation to test their faith. Students learn what their
teachers teach them or what they see in their teachers, if Doulos students are exposed to
doubt they will also grow with doubt.
Finding common and familiar ground while performing together toward the
needs and urgency of a certain community or society is made achievable through a fuller
vision and knowledge of world religions. In a world where technology has built
multicultural global interaction and interreligious contact commonplace, we all need to be
prepared to live as neighbors with those of different faiths and religious doctrines. Doulos
should bring the world religion study back to their students. Bringing world religion back
to Doulos is going to give them a new and different perspective that will enable them to
better comprehend the values and beliefs of other religious movements while also
encouraging them to develop a unique appreciation for their own belief. People who are
completely convinced of what to believe in and in what they must not shouldnt be afraid
of doubting their own faith. If some teachers at Doulos are confident in their belief no
feeling of doubts will be in their minds and in their students. A diverse religious
education brings more interactional responses to diverse world of different religions,
improving relations with the surrounding community such as Doulos. Growing up in this
kind of diversity help students how to learn to look at the world from different
perspectives. What Doulos students learn at school will be the resulting response to the
external world that surrounds them. This small community should have always in mind
that theres a whole new nature outside of Doulos that is contrasting to them in all aspects
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and adaptation will be extremely required if looking for spiritual success.