Choosing to go to a college that practices religion and requires you to take three classes on religion wasn’t in my plan when looking at colleges. My whole life I went to public school but was raised Catholic. It wasn’t that serious in my house but we still went to church on Sunday and CCD every week. My parents never pushed Catholicism on me and over the years, I lost my faith and tend to lean more towards agnostic/atheism.
Coming to this school last August I was expecting most people to be Catholic. I was surprised to learn that a lot of people aren’t just catholic, they’re Jewish, Muslim, atheist, etc. I came from a town that was predominantly Catholic with a small Jewish population. I thought that coming to a Catholic college would be overwhelming and that they are pushing religion on me.
Manhattan College is a pretty liberal Catholic College. They don’t force you to go to church every Sunday, take a specific religion class or have a dress code. You are free to be whatever religion you chose without being discriminated against by the school.
After taking the required ‘the nature and experience of religion’, my opinions on religion changed. I think it’s important that we learn about other cultures and become aware of how other people live. In this day and age, we are so quick to judge people for their religion because of what we see on the news or in the media. Learning about different religions is important and I strongly encourage everyone to take a religion class on a religion that you are curious about. It can change the way you think and treat others.