Week Three- Post One

I believe that athletes have a culture of their own, even though as individuals we have many aspects contributing to our culture. Characteristics contributing to the athletic culture are such things as competitiveness, disciplined, good time management, and motivated to meet a goal or target which was set and hopefully many more. Thus, together athletes share these common attributes which to some extent separate them from the 'normal' college student or individual. Factors making the culture of one athlete different to another are the individuals backgrounds; for example, religion, nationalities, and gender. These three factors change the individual’s culture; these three attributes have trends and norms of their own leading to different rules and behaviors. An example for nationality in England, during a game of football it is correct to play the ball out of play when there is a player down injured. This is a matter of manners and respect, although this is correct to do in England, it may not be the correct thing to do in other countries. Gender, I think males are far more aggressive than females and therefore a lot more competitive than women. Religion, this impacts the following of rules, again going back to football, are you respecting the rules of the game? Or are you going against to the umpires decisions. Do you chat back and argue? Or do you accept the actions of the referee. A non-Christian may be disrespectful to the referee, using inappropriate language. This is very un-Christian like. In my soccer team we have common cultures such as gender and being athletes, but as it stands we have 5 different nationalities. A combination of Christians and Catholics, some players are stronger in their beliefs than others which I feel is obvious when it comes to decision making. Here at Lee our team prays before every game, in a group we stand together holding hands and a prayer is led by the captain of the team. Back home in England this would have been laughed at, the culture of religion I feel is not taken seriously enough in England. Some areas have more beliefs and respect but I feel it is minimal in England in comparison to America. I say America, but I have only visited what is known at the bible belt of America. I am sure there are areas in America where religion isn’t as strong as it is here in Cleveland, Tennessee. Culture of an Athlete is interesting and can be very wide spread; I think it is interesting to see how athletes from different nations, with different religions and different genders influence how individuals play. Even though as a culture athletes share common goals.

Week Two- Blog Three

• • We discussed the relevance of culture to the point where we see more and more people from different religious backgrounds change their religion and therefore culture due to being more educated about other cultures in society today. Each society has several religious backgrounds, this impacts culture hugely; for example, in England today more and more Muslim temples are being built. This is leading to people researching about the Muslim culture, they become more educated about it. Therefore, It is not UN common to see a white British Muslim as you walk down the street. England has a huge variety of cultures especially in big city's such as Manchester, London, Birmingham, and Liverpool. This does cause conflict, political and demographic. People have to learn to respect beliefs but the argument is, if people enter our culture, our nation,should they respect our religion and beliefs? Should they demonstrate the English culture or is it right for them to live and act as they did when they were in their own country? The rules and norms are very different, they have their pros and cons. For example, a pro would be that they we become more educated about their particular culture but a con could be that women are disrespected by men, they have to cover up their body. This is to the extent that they do not have to show their full face in their English photo identity, only a small margin of their face is showing, in many cases the eyes only. If I, a white British citizen, wants to get a photo identity I have to have a picture of my full face, I am not even aloud to smile and my hair must be pulled back out of my face. Personally, I don't see the sense in this. They should respect our rules and display a full face picture on their photo identity, after all it is an English identity.
    
    

Week Two- Blog Two

I believe that the statements in the reading "abandoning theology" have huge importance with religion and culture. The statements included such points as the battle of evolution, church history and the debate about the key ideas within Christian faith are actually true or false, human genome and fossils. This stuff is very much unavoidable; culture can be influences by all these ideas and beliefs. It commonly depends on the way in which an individual is bought up, what is introduced and influenced on them at a young age. When an individual matures they can make their own decisions about beliefs, but culture will very much impact their decisions. For example, I come from a great family whom I think the absolute world of but we as a family don't have strong religious beliefs. This is my culture; but moving to America, into a new culture, an environment my cultural perspectives are being educated and broadened. This will impact my beliefs but my culture will always stand, it may change slightly but it will always be my culture. Already coming to a different culture I have recognized that cultures do play a massive role on the individual’s action and reactions to many attributes. I am accepting that the culture here is different, but I am able to respect the values and beliefs of the culture I have entered; for example, I choose to attend chapel, to be educated and hopefully understand more about the culture I intent to be part of for several years to come.

Week Two- Blog One

The Culture of Religion

Religion plays a huge impact on one’s culture. Religion is a set of beliefs and understandings, and in some cases even rules which the individual should abide by. Religion is passed on through generations; therefore, as is culture. But just because past relatives were; for example, catholic means you have to the culture of a catholic only, the society you live in also have an effect on religion of culture. But religion does have a huge impact on culture; for example, the clothes in which one religion wears will most certainly differ to a contrasting religion. Religious cultures within a country are more and more common today, especially in England where we have more and more people entering the country. These people have their own beliefs and therefore practice them; Thus, causing huge conflicts within the nation.  But conflict between the two religions does show that we have different culture and that each individual cares about their own culture. Cultural differences between different religions much be respected. It is easy for us to say they do this, they do that, but then we talk about yourself it is totally different. We need to see things from different perspectives and different cultures. People are grown up within a culture which has religion; to them this is the norm. We must not judge them but respect their values, their religion and their culture.

Week One-Post Two

Today, we spoke about different genders having different cultures. I believe that different genders do have different cultures, these are set on different trends and norms; for example, the manner on which males approach a situation is normally different to the way in which a female would approach a situation. Differences could be as simple as the tone of one’s voice or the body language of the individual. The manner in which a child plays will differ between each gender, boys will be aggressive in their play, whereas girls will accept diversity and be light hearted about play. It is important that we don’t mix culture with stereotypes but in my opinion this does happen a lot, I think there is a thin margin of difference between culture and stereotypes. Each culture tends to have its own stereotype, but this is different to the individuals culture itself. We discussed way in which culture is measured; such as language, worldview, for example decision making and authority. But also by behaviors and rules such as respect and rolls the individual plays in society. It can also be materialistic; the clothes a woman wears should defiantly be different to those a male would wear. Although these topics highlight culture they could also suggest a stereotype. 

Week One- Post One

Today, we talked about our reading assignments about culture, and how it differs from generation to generation. I think it is important that people understand but also accept that there are many different cultures. Each culture has its own norms and trends; therefore, people should not judge on what they think is right just because whatever it may be is done differently in their own culture. Society plays a huge role in culture, what is happily available to us today may not have been available ten years ago; for example, IPods are the new way to listen to music, whereas when I was growing up it was CD’s and even before that when my sisters were growing up it was tape players or even vinyl’s.  Step by step this makes a cultural difference between generations. I particularly think the point about younger generations accepting a wider aspect on things such as religion and sexuality. I agree that people in my generation are more tolerant on perspectives. I think again society has helped with this; we see it more and more on television and even from role models whom people aspire to be like. We are taught together as a generation to broaden our perspective on things, to look at situations from different angles, to analyze the reasons and follow through with a summary of the situation.