Blog 3 (2-1-12)

The story of Abraham is similar to diffusion because ideas and theories quickly spread around. Abraham adamantly believed the world was created by one individual, and he did not believe in idols. Abraham created a covenant with G-d reagarding obligations. A few things that come up in religion today that were expressed in this text were Abraham's personal theories and beliefs about how the world was created, about G-d’s and one’s connection with G-d, sacrifices, the desire to want children, and so on and so forth. Abarahm actively began to teach his beliefs and ideas to others. Abaraham did not belive in numerous idols, rather he believed in one figure. Abraham's motivations and incentives with G-d were similar to monotheism, which is part of diffusion and of history. Throughout Abrahams life, he had reoccurring interactions with G-d, which is a bit part of religion today. Abrahams story is significant in this sense because in religion, specifically Judaism, people often believe in a pure connection with G-d, and Abarham demonstrated that. Lots of Abrahamas actions and the story of his life, was the spark of how religion and how society is today, (with many alterations and adjustments of course.) Abraham assimilated and adopted different lifestyles, while also contributing his own core values and theories, which was important. Throughout Abarahams life many sacrifices took place, several callings from G-d occurred, and Abraham and his wife lived unusually long. Stories like this that are convincing and intruiging, are the ones that stick with people for a long time, and which spread which is why we have both diffusion and religion.  Abraham's deliberation, and courage was enviable throughout his whole life. He always had a feeling and he tried to convince his father that there truly was one G-d, and sure enough he built/received this connection with the G-d that he had always seen. 

The readings we had for homework were very enjoyable for me to read because I come from a background of eleven years at an all Jewish day school. I am quite familiar with the story of Abraham, with G-d, the creation of the world, beliefs and rituals, and especially the hebrew language. In the reading there were a few translations, but I understood the meanings within names and with places and such. It is interesting to think about how when a classroom full of diverse (or non-diverse) students reads the same exact piece, everyone interprets it completely different. I bet that I comprehended it and got certain things out of it that others did not because I am Jewish and I understood a lot because I have knowledge and experiences about this. If this was something about Christians or Jesus I would be less familiar and less able to find a connection between myself and the reading. This concept applies to life in general because your religion makes it so you understand the world and see things differently than everybody else, even if you come from the same religion.