Reflection 4

Throught the readings for this week religions have again been an important  topic.  The birth of Islam seems to be quite interesting for me as it adds to a much bigger picture of religion.  I find it extremely interesting that the beliefs of Islam Christianity and Buddhism have some very common similarities.  As Strayer noted in the text, the three religions all had a profit who a higher God sent messages through.  The ongoing human discussion about whether or not a God actually exists could certainly include this information.   The similarities could be looked at as a coincidence, however, to me this appears to be more than a coincidence .  It is completely amazing and fascinating  how three figures,  Jesus the Buddha and Mohammed  all were said to have  experienced some very similar occurrences.  In addition,  I find it very interesting that these religions,  Buddhism, Christianity and Islamic faith all had similar messages that denounced the injustices of humanity.   Of significant note as well, Strayer highlighted the spread of the Islamic Religion and the changes it made to the Arab world resulting in the growth of a large empire, the Arab empire.   The spread of Islam influenced many to convert to this religion as many people of other religions had similar beliefs and according to the text, there was a tax called the jizya that was imposed on to non Muslims.  The tax certainly could have been a motivator for the conversion many people to Muslim belief.  Also as noted in the text , there were some divisions in islamic world that are still divided to this day .  The divisions referenced by Strayer in the text were that of the Sunni and Shia.After the death of Mohammad, Muslims became in conflict as to who should hold the role of the caliph, the successor to Mohammad.  The Sunni held that the caliphs should be political military leaders selected by the islamic community .  The Shia strongly feel that the caliphs should that of blood relatives of Mohammad.  It is amazing that we could see in today's world this conflict continuing . 
When I think about the strong influences that religions have had on the world , I also wonder about how much consideration the people actually gave to the element of no real proof that there is a God.  Yes, on one hand the message of some of these religions is great and the basis for human treatment seems to be well also  but my question is how can the world be controlled by religion? Throughout history it seems that  religion has been the cause of many wars, it seems ridiculous to waste human lives over belief systems.  Even in our modern world today humans are still fighting wars that a religious based, will this ever change?  Oh, and just to clarify I'm not insinuating that Muslims cause war, its obvious that all religions have contributed to war .
Moving on to the chapter on pastoral people, I found that I have not taken much interest in these people or at least spent too much time thinking about them .  Coming from today's society is very hard to imagine living like they did .  Moving about over vast land following the patterns of their herds and their seasonal changes in vegetation and water supply to sustain life seemed like it was very difficult .  However, I begin to develop respect for these people as they were probably ones that have spread much knowledge to the rest of the world.  These people certainly must have been responsible for what we know about agriculture today .   Also, amazingly enough as I continue to learn about pastoral people I find that their abilities to ride horseback not only was a great contributor to transportation but also to warfare .   Just more potential for human violence.  Again, religions are also at the forefront of the nomadic people according to the chapter .   This chapter in particular is extremely long and mostly highlighted the Mongol conquest of China, Russia, and Persia.   Besides all of the violence, this chapter talks about some of the more positive aspects were that of a cultural exchange in the Mongol realm.  In specific, in particular I appreciate the section where Strayer notes that the Mongals called in Muslim astronomers for second opinions and how they actually honored places of worship for other religions.  Are these conquerers actually good at heart?  I guess something positive can be found in everything.  Speaking of which,  during these times in history there were horrible plagues that spread throughout many lands.   The Mongols found some positive in the plague, it was to catapolt infected corpses at their  enemies to spread disease , this was noted by Strayer as being the first instance of biological warfare.  The plague also seems to have sparked an interest in disease prevention .
As I continue on I feel tired from reading about conquest, control, war disease and religion, however, I guess this how we eventually developed into what we are today .  It's just hard to grasp the huge spread in time that I have in reading this text .   According to the text the 15th century appears to be quite a significant time in history .  In addition to a restructuring of China under the Ming dynasty  and the renaissance era appearing , there were many voyages of exploration that I found interesting .  One of which I found to be quite interesting was the exploration of Zheng He.  This effort of exploration was incredible and had a crew of up to 27,000 people and had around 300 ships .  Unfortunately these expeditions are said to have lead to nowhere .  Incredibly, other efforts of maritime expeditions lead to significant discoveries such as the mistake of  Columbus landing in the Americas .  In and of itself, this early history of maritime exploration is quite interesting to me I enjoy looking at the old world maps and imagining how it would've been to be along with these voyages during that time period.  At this time centers of civalization also were flourishing in Mesoamerica in the Andes .  These empires both we're gaining increasingly larger populations resulting in stimulated developments of markets and the production of craft goods.  There archetectual layout in Mexico was said to be amazing by a young Spanish soldier in 1519 .  In the Andes, the Inca empire continued to develop and became more bureaucratic.  This empire had state who own the land and regions that were governed by an Incan governor.  In these societies there was no gender equality,men always occupied top positions in both political and religious life and male infidelity was treated much more lightly than female infidelity .  Women's duties were more housebound and family centered .    More to come, the modern era !  get ready for global economy, advance political relationships, economic ties, a large jump in human population  and even an idustrial revolution!