Religion is a very important part of most people's lives. Many of us think of ourselves as being religious, but how many of us actually study the basis of our beliefs? Before I took this course I never really thought about the importance of knowing more than was taught to us in church. As a younger child I attended a catholic private school but since then I haven't dedicated much of my time to reading the Bible. Not only did this course help address some of the questions about my beliefs, but also it brought up many more that I would have never thought of other words.
             Confusion easily happens when reading the gospels because it is some times hard to differentiate how to read the different passages. Literalism and metaphorical interpretation can often be interchangeable, and other times it is just difficult to know what a passages even means. This is why it is important to read the gospels more than just once to begin to understand them. Pre-critical naiveté, critical, and post-critical naiveté are excellent ways in which to view the gospels each time they are read.
             I like to think that I am open-minded to many people's different opinions. However I've come to realize that I am more stuck on my views that I previously thought. For example, my catholic belief that Jesus was born through the virgin conception can't be shaken by what we've done in during this course. On the other hand the possibility that Mary could ever have any other children never occurred to me. This is just one example of how my curiosity was aroused by the Gospel of Mark.
             Mark's Gospel is thought to be the earliest of the gospels. It is the shortest and more to the point than the others. It lacks many of the details that contradict with the other gospels and cloud their credibility. For this reason I viewed Mark as a reference. However, still, there are troublesome aspects of this book, which I wanted to a...