"Differences" Christine Porcaro (11/14 reflective)

In reading Elizabeth's post of the blogging group http://luir105.blogspot.com/, I feel that she does show how much gray area there is when we talk about religion. But a point that I want to comment on is when Elizabeth mentions that she feels that "it sometimes seems like religion inhibits free thinking, tolerance, and acceptance." While I do agree that sometimes people interpret their religion in such a way that is does cause these side effects I believe, however, that when boiled down ALL differences between people can "inhibit free thinking, tolerance and acceptance." When referencing the creation of the new Center for Global Islamic Studies I feel that the negative reactions by the Lehigh and the surrounding community are not just based on peoples religious beliefs. I feel that people have a bias against culture, appearance and what they believe to be an enemy. I am not saying that it is then justified, iI just don't feel that the root cause of this bias is solely religious. I feel that conflict is more likely to arise when there are many differences and a lot of the time religion is picked out as the sole reason when there are many differences that are logrolling to create such a conflict(where religion can still be part of the reason but not the only reason). Living in a world today where there are so many differences abound, conflict, disagreements and misunderstandings are hard to avoid. I do feel that religion does play a role in why conflicts may arise...but in the bigger picture it is not only religion but the many differences among cultures that create conflict and disagreement.