{"id":9193,"date":"2025-11-04T10:01:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T10:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeclasses.fountainheadschools.org\/?p=9193"},"modified":"2025-11-04T10:01:46","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T10:01:46","slug":"god-genders-and-the-great-what-if-thinking-critically-about-belief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeclasses.fountainheadschools.org\/?p=9193","title":{"rendered":"God, Genders, and the Great \u2018What If?\u2019 &#8211; Thinking Critically About Belief"},"content":{"rendered":"Day 5 and 6 of our Critical Thinking class took us into a territory where logic meets faith &#8211; religion. A topic that\u2019s as ancient as it is personal, and yet, often left unexamined.<br \/><br \/>One of the sessions was led by Vardan Kabra, who openly identifies as an atheist. He didn\u2019t try to convert or convince &#8211; rather, he invited us to question: Why do we believe what we believe? Are we following faith out of genuine conviction or inherited habit? While I found the session interesting, it skimmed only the surface of what I was hoping for. I wanted a deeper exploration &#8211; not just of religious practice, but of God\u2019s very existence. Still, the discussion nudged me to reflect on the rituals I perform almost mechanically, maybe as a subconscious transaction &#8211; \u201cI\u2019ll do this, God, if you do that.\u201d<br \/><br \/>The next day, we read Vardan sir\u2019s blog about his journey from a confused theist to an atheist. It was less about disbelief and more about discovery &#8211; peeling away layers of assumption. Then came The Man from Earth &#8211; a movie that turned the idea of religion into a thought experiment. When the protagonist, John, claims he was Jesus trying to teach Buddha\u2019s principles, it wasn\u2019t offensive; it was fascinating. Like the college girl in the movie, I listened with curiosity, open to the possibility that belief could be both beautiful and constructed at the same time. I didn\u2019t feel triggered like Edith; maybe that\u2019s because I\u2019ve learned to sit comfortably in uncertainty.<br \/><br \/>Our final discussion turned toward religion and gender. Within Hinduism, I realized there\u2019s comparatively less structural inequality. Yet in Christianity, verses like \u201cwives, submit to your husbands\u201d have been misinterpreted to justify submission &#8211; a reminder that sacred texts are powerful, but people\u2019s interpretations often decide how that power is used.<br \/><br \/>These two days weren\u2019t about proving or disproving religion. They were about sharpening the tool of questioning &#8211; to separate faith from fear, tradition from truth.<br \/><br \/>Maybe the real critical thinking test isn\u2019t about whether we believe in God.<br \/>Maybe it\u2019s about whether we believe thoughtfully.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Day 5 and 6 of our Critical Thinking class took us into a territory where logic meets faith &#8211; religion. A topic that\u2019s as ancient as it is personal, and yet, often left unexamined. One of the sessions was led by Vardan Kabra, who openly identifies as an atheist. He didn\u2019t try to convert or convince &#8211; rather, he invited<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":787,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[51,104],"class_list":["post-9193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-critical-thinking","tag-criticalthinking","tag-eta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeclasses.fountainheadschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeclasses.fountainheadschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeclasses.fountainheadschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeclasses.fountainheadschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/787"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeclasses.fountainheadschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9193"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifeclasses.fountainheadschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9293,"href":"https:\/\/lifeclasses.fountainheadschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9193\/revisions\/9293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeclasses.fountainheadschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeclasses.fountainheadschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeclasses.fountainheadschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}