During the reading in chapters 1 and 2 of American Religion, Chaves discussed a lot of statistics. One that I found very interesting was people’s belief in God. He states that over nearly six decades there has been a very small decline in the amount of people that believe in a higher power. Although people going to church every week or practicing their religion may have declined, their belief system has never wavered.  It was an interesting concept to think of because, rarely have I heard of a person switching from a religion to an atheist. More than not people will change religions in their lifetime or look into others that were different from how they were raised. He also talks about the tendency for people to trust those that believe in this higher power more than those that do not. In my lifetime I have come across people that do not believe in God and at first it does take me a back, only because it is something that you don’t hear often. However, I have never thought not to trust an atheist or not associate with them. It seems like a very odd concept to me that this would stop people from trusting one another. This goes to show, that even if many people don’t agree on a particular religion or see eye to eye with them, having the sole similarity of believing in God is extremely important for some people to continue social interaction. It goes to show again how much a persons religious beliefs affects their everyday interactions.

Currently in class we are sharing our different backgrounds and experiences with religion. One thing I found in common was many students experience with the Catholic Church and my Dad’s experience at the church were both a like. Similar to many kids that grew up in the Catholic church, he also left when he was a teenager and never went back. Growing up, I can recall going to church during the holidays, but then slowly going less and less until we never went at all. My family was never extremely religious and was always open to believing whatever you wanted to about religion. While growing up in San Jose, I never felt that religion was a huge deal or topic in our everyday society. I had friends that would go to church on the holidays or every Sunday, but when greeting someone nobody ever asked, “What church do you go to” like in San Antonio, Texas. We are currently reading McGuire’s text: “Religion: The Social Context” where she brings up certain cities such as San Antonio that has a plethora of religions that are very important to each person. I found it interesting that San Antonio had so many religions present and that so many people were so heavily involved with their churches. When comparing San Antonio to my hometown I wonder why so much religious activity is at the forefront of their culture, and not in San Jose. After being in Redlands for two years now, I can see how religion plays a large role in society here as well. There are a lot of churches just around the campus and when talking to fellow classmates I have found that a lot of them grew up going to church every week and still continue to go while in college. It is interesting to me that different cities and states can have such different perceptions on religion, but yet people in our class can have such similar relationships with religion such as in the Catholic Church.