The study of religion is important to me because I wish to gain a deeper understanding of my own faith and the faith of others in history. This will enabled me to come to a better understanding and gain deeper insights into how different cultures or eras believe, and what those beliefs mean to contemporary faith and religion. By studying religion I also hope to forge some transcendent connection among all religions, be it animism or Catholicism. At their core, I believe all religions promote peace and harmony in connection with a higher power through right living. Whether that power is nature or God, a deeper understanding of diverse religions will benefit my own faith and development.
There are a number of lessons learned from the first five chapters that were new to me. One is that I learned some religions are not truly categorizes as religion, like animism or totemism. I used to think that the totemism of the Native Americans was, indeed, a religion. I also did not realize that basically all cultures in existence have exhibited the traits of a belief system, even it is not considered a religion in contemporary times. I used to think the most ancient cultures or the most primitive ones lack such formal bonding structures as a mutual belief system, but this is clearly not the case when studying the past. Another lesson of which I remained unaware before this study was the different myths provided about the origin of the universe were generated primarily to reinforce the beliefs or ideologies of the most powerful members or groups in society, meaning that some of these evolved with less than religious motives as the primary driver.
I think totemism is a valid belief system. Totemism for the Native Americans was closely associated with the things they valued in their culture, such as the fierceness, stealth, or prowess of animals or a symbol of their close association with an
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