This week’s input opened my eyes to the many differing opinions and definitions of ‘Religion’. I have always been fascinated by religion and enjoy learning about different religions and cultures worldwide. RME was not a subject I was offered and school and therefore I feel that this module will give me a deeper insight and understanding into religion and its impact on society.

Through this week’s lecture, Religious diversity was defined and well as the positive and negative effects that they have within society. I was unaware beforehand the extent of religious diversity within Scotland (I was especially surprised to find that close to 12,000 people in Scotland stated they were dedicated to the religion of the Jedi Knights!) After seeing these statistics, it is clear that within a classroom there will be children from numerous different religious background and it important that we, as student teachers and future educators, acknowledge this.

We were also introduced to the different Functionalists and their theories. I also found it interesting researching and learning about functionalists of religion and their differing opinions. It was interesting to see the common functions within religion identified by these four scholars: M.F.C. Bourdillon; Emile Durkheim; A.R. Radcliffe-Brown; Bronislaw Malinowski. I found the tutorial task very beneficial. In smaller groups, we discussed how we might answer a specific question within the exam. This allowed us to expand and share one another’s ideas as well as clarify how we would set out the question.

I found it difficult to research and find valid information on the Functionalists we had discussed within class. I am aware that there are resources on Moodle but I will begin to explore other resources for information such as online journals and books. Hopefully this will aid me in future inputs and in the final exam! Overall I enjoyed this class and I am thoroughly looking forward to next week’s input.