Throughout history, the vast majority of people around the globe have believed they have, however defined, a “soul.” While the question of whether the soul exists cannot be answered by science, what we can study are the causes and consequences of various beliefs about the soul and its prospects of surviving the death of the body. Why are soul and afterlife beliefs so common in human history? Are there adaptive advantages to assuming souls exist? Are there brain structures that have been shaped by environmental pressures that provide the foundation of body/mind dualism that is such a prominent feature of many religions? How do these beliefs shape the worldviews of different cultures and our collective lives? What is the role of competing afterlife beliefs in religion, science, politics, and war? This course explores several facets of this relatively unexplored but profoundly important aspect of human thought and behavior. The course consists mainly of 70 to 80 minute lectures, typically broken up into 3 segments, recorded from a course offered by Rutgers University School of Arts and Sciences. These videos include slides and some embedded video clips. Most lectures are accompanied by slides used during the lecture, also including recommended reading assignment which may provide additional opportunities to reflect on your studies. Due to the lengthiness of this class and natural progression, the online course has been separated into 3 units, this is Unit 1.
What I was Told to Believe Part III
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From the course by Rutgers the State University of New Jersey
Soul Beliefs: Causes and Consequences - Unit 1: Historical Foundations
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Rutgers the State University of New Jersey
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Meet the Instructors
Prof. Daniel M. OgilvieProfessor of Psychology
Psychology
Prof. Leonard W. HamiltonProfessor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
All right, come on up here, Jews.
[NOISE] I, I knew there would be a few.
All right.
Now, now, remember.
We're not going to get all the way through you today.
So I'll probably have you, some of you, or all of you,
come up again next, Thursday.
We are going to start with you.
>> Me?
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Okay.
>> Because, why am I starting with you?
Because you were sitting there on Tuesday,
and you had such a great smile on your face.
>> I was excited.
>> Oh, well, okay.
Well, [COUGH] by the end of course, you'll really be depressed, so go ahead.
[LAUGH] >> Well, that's, that's good.
Well, I, I was taught, like, a few different things.
Like, I went to a Jewish private school from, like, kindergarten to eighth grade.
And, that was just like, there's no hell, but you go to heaven if you're good.
Like that's the same thing that everyone else said.
But I feel, and there's like a book.
I kind of forget some of it, but there's a book where you, he like knows,
like God knows, like what you've done.
And that's how you get to hea-, heaven.
>> Just.
>> Yeah, like, I, I feel like you go on a, you write something in a book or
something.
>> Okay. >> There's something with a book but
then like from my family like it was more about like being a good person,
because for them like they're really strong with faith.
But it was more about being a good person and
having your own personal relationship with God and like you don't need to be like
kosher and have all those strict things to go to heaven.
You just basically need to be a good person.
Treat others like you want to be treated.
>> So you're reformed?
>> Yeah. >> Yeah.
Okay. All right.
>> I mean I'm like in the middle one.
I forget. >> Don't ask me.
[LAUGH] >> There is like.
>> I'm a Presbyterian.
>> [LAUGH] There are three main branches.
I'm on like, the middle one.
>> [CROSSTALK]. >> Okay.
>> That's what I thought!
>> All right. >> I'm conservative.
>> Okay. >> [CROSSTALK].
>> Not politically.
>> You're, you're a conservative?
>> Yes. Religiously.
>> Reli- >> Well not but yes.
>> [CROSSTALK]. >> I'm like a Jewish atheist.
But that- >> I don't want to hear that.
>> I know! I wasn't going to say it.
>> Okay. All right.
>> [CROSSTALK].
>> I sucked it out of you.
>> [LAUGH].
All right, different version of that or same version you come on up.
And then you are next.
>> Well Judaism largely means to have your life open to interpretation
there are messages that are mentioned.
>> You don't have to hold it.
Here I'll, I'll.
Go ahead.
>> Anyway. >> [LAUGH] The thing about Judaism,
it's very life-oriented, life-affirming religion.
It's more about having a personal relationship with God and living,
living a good life like in the context of Earth and
not really in the material sense.
So that's Judaism.
>> [LAUGH].
>> [LAUGH] That's good.
That's good.
>> Ta da.
>> Yeah.
[LAUGH] [APPLAUSE] All right, all right, ta da, next person.
[LAUGH].
>> Once a rabbi told me that your soul resides in your head and.
>> [LAUGH] >> Okay, what?
>> A rabbi told me that your soul resides in your head, in your head, right here.
And when I was curious one day when I was
young, >> For what?
>> What Jews believe about heaven and hell, I asked my parents and
my mom told me that Jews are all infallible,
there's no such thing as hell for us and we all go straight to heaven.
>> We're the chosen people after all?
>> Yeah, I'm not going with their theory, I'm not taking my chances.
>> All right. All right.
>> [LAUGH].
>> Also, Santa Claus, can't deliver presents to Jewish kids on Christmas
because there's too many people on earth and we go the next day.
[LAUGH] Any Jew
up here that's
not a clown?
[LAUGH] All right, let's hear it.
>> My background as a Jew, as an Orthodox Jew, an Ashkenazi Jew,
which means we're basically Eastern Europe.
We were taught to believe that the soul itself
it doesn't matter whether you're a Jew or a non-Jew, you go to heaven.
There are so many different type.
I mean, I'm, there's so many different ways that someone can go to heaven or
have to retake their lives for example.
We have to come back down.
We don't complete what we were supposed to do while we are on this earth.
I, there, we have two guidelines.
We have the oral Torah, and the written Torah.
The oral Torah was something that was actually compiled later on,
because if someone tells you something over and
over again and they tell it to someone else, it kind of gets distorted.
If you've ever played that game whisper down the lane, we, we've wri,
wrote it down.
As, as, you can see I'm nervous.
>> That's okay. You can be nervous.
[LAUGH] Now why are you wearing this?
>> I'm wearing this because it was a tradition established because there
was someone in the Talmud that describes he actually had this terrible,
terrible, lust to steal.
And one of the ways to stop him from doing that was he put something on his
head to remind him that God is over him and over time,
it became a tradition of Jews to wear it and that's why I wear it.
>> That's, I am so happy I asked that question.
I mean, it's a great answer.
>> That basically in Judaism we don't really discuss heaven and hell.
We don't.
We just talk about this world and the world to come, but what the world to come
is kind of not something we discuss, where you follow the commandments for like,
this world and the soul also is just when like God's breath is put into our body.
It gives us life.
And that is something that will live on through the afterlife.
And there's also the idea of the resurrection
where our souls will be brought back to life in this world.
>> Okay.
Everybody's soul at resurrection?
>> Well, almost everyone's soul other than people who are pure evil and
don't repent for their-.
>> Okay. All right.
All right.
Thank you, thank you.
Next.
>> I was told that the body enters the soul at conception and
your soul is the core essence of who you are.
And when you're in your grave, your soul doesn't leave you but
it remains with your body.
And that heaven and hell isn't so much a concept of the afterlife but
a concept of your life on earth.
So if you do, you know, good to others, you will receive good karma,
and be living in a more heavenly state.
And if you do bad onto others you would be receiving bad karma and
live in a worse type of state.
>> Good, do you have a tattoo?
>> No.
>> All right.
I mean just a random question.
But, you're, you're not allowed to, right?
>> Technically.
>> Technically. Be, because you're,
you're, you're not to mar your body.
>> Yes. >> Are there, are autopsies legitimate?
>> Well, they, would remove the tattoo.
>> No, no, no. We're off tattoos now.
The, the autopsies.
My, my understanding, I mean, may be wrong.
It's, it's you when, if you die of something, autopsies are not allowed.
Because it damages the body.
>> Yes.
>> Okay, all right.
We agree on that?
>> Yes. >> Okay, good, good, good.
I like to have agreement.
You, you, you've been anxious, you go, go, go.
[LAUGH] >> So I've been taught two main ideas.
When I went to Jewish school in elementary school, it's called Yeshiva.
And they focused a little bit more on the afterlife than than I did at home.
But they didn't really mention how hell's not a big idea in Judaism.
There is an idea of heaven, but
I agree with you it's mostly a more recent idea to communicate with other religions.
Heaven or hell is not really mentioned in the Jewish holy books like Torah.
Mostly it's about life or death, not having a hell.
,the main ideas I think somebody else mentioned Vyom kapoor,
the day of atonement.
It's not about God judging you to be put in heaven or
hell, but rather life or death.
So, if you've been good for
the past year, you've done good deeds, you've lived a good life.
And the day of atonement you, you ask for forgiveness for
all your sins, God will write you in the Book of Life and not the Book of Death.
So yeah, that's.
>> Good. >> That's ideas.
>> Good.
Good.
Thank you.
>> All right. >> Oh and one more thing.
As far as the soul itself goes, I think Judaism puts more of a,
of an emphasis on the, your soul being not so much a spiritual being
inside of you but rather your consciousness your your mind.
Who you are, really.
>> Okay.
Good.
Next.
>> Hi.
>> Go to you next.
>> [LAUGH] >> This is embarrassing because.
So I went to a private school for the better part of my life.
So I, kind of understand.
We touched on this a lot.
I was told to believe in something called the stadium analogy.
Now, during conception the soul enters.
Not during, at conception, the soul enters your body.
But none of your sins are actually placed on you until your.
Which is the equivalent of communion, the right of passage.
Now when you reach that stage all of the sins, all of the good deeds, they,
they, count up almost like a point system.
So imagine a giant ticker above your head and for
every good deed you do you get however many points that good deed is worth and
for every bad deed you do you get however many points subtracted.
Now, the Jewish don't put heavy emphasis on heaven, hell, or purgatory.
We just acknowledge the fact that after we die, there is a place that we go.
We don't know where, and we can't, we can't as humans,
conceptualize what it actually is.
But we do know that there is a place where we go after we die.
When we reach there, we have, there's points.
Right?
Now I was told to believe it being something as a stadium and
in the middle of the stadium is God sitting in a lawn chair.
And it said that seeing God is the absolute greatest thing that could ever,
just being in his presence is the greatest thing that could ever happen to us.
So just sitting in that stadium for
eternity is absolutely amazing where revealed the, the great facts of life.
And, and everything that you could ever wanted is given to you in that stadium.
Now, the closer you are to God, the greater the, the joy is.
So with those points, it's as if you're given cash and
you're off to buy, you're off to buy a ticket to the stadium.
The more points you have, the more good deeds you do,
the less bad things you do, the closer your ticket is to feel.
And the closer you are to God and the greater that joy is,
but, they say that, the hell, there is no explicit hell.
But, those who are forced to, to, be outside the stadium, say,
who didn't get any points, or got negative points, or, or got, very bad season,
or section of the heaven stadium.
Then therefore is to be at a, in a very bad seat, or
not even in the presence of God, which is hellacious in itself.
>> That was very good.
Well prepared.
Thank you.
Yeah, that's good.
Next.
>> So I was taught a slight variation on that.
I was taught that like there's not really a concept of heaven and hell.
But when you die if you are a good person your soul lives on and
gets to be resurrected.
And, if you are a bad person then your soul just dies.
>> All right so, so there's lots of variation.
>> Um-huh.
>> Somebody told me once what, what I, it,
it, depends on what Rabbi I most recently spoke with.
>> Basically. >> Right?
Or, something like that.
Yes, all right.
Now, what, what, what's this called again?
>> This is called a Kippah.
>> Now, why do you wear it?
>> It's to remind me that God is above me and judging my actions.
>> Okay, good.
Now, what do you feel, or
what do you experience when you see somebody else wearing a yamaka?
>> I feel sort of a connection to that person.
>> Good.
Can you elaborate on that?
I mean. >> It's just like you feel like
you are seeing a brother of the same, you know faith.
It's like seeing a family member almost.
Even if you don't know them, you know you share something in common.
>> As the course, evolves here,
I'm going to refer to that as, I mean, it doesn't really fit.
I mean, it's kind of a weird concept applying to today but
I'm going to call it tribalism.
Okay. >> You see a member of your tribe.
>> Right.
>> Now, it's my understanding that
Jews are particularly interested in the preservation of the tribe.
Is that, is that, is that true?
>> Yes it's definitely true.
>> I mean, I have a, an older coll, can you imagine somebody older than me?
But at any rate >> [LAUGH].
>> He is older than me.
He was in his mid to late 80s and
we're talking on the phone.
I called him to find out how he was doing, etcetera, so
he'd just had couple bouts with, with serious illness, and, and
I told him about this course is and he, he interrupted me.
And said, listen Dan, it's been many,
many years and I don't want my family to know, but I'm an atheist.
But I will do anything to preserve the tribe.
Right. He said I love my tribe.
So, that was just an opportunity for me to slip that in.
We'll talk about tribalism, in, in, in a few months, thank you.
All right.
Anybody else from a Jewish tradition who
didn't hear something that was important in what they were told to believe?
All right, thank you very much.
Let's give them a hand.
[APPLAUSE].
[APPLAUSE] >> And
now, we haven't talked about Hinduism.
I'd like a couple of people to volunteer and talk about Hinduism.
>> Okay. So for Hindus, the soul is basically
sort of like a spark I guess, that basically there's like a concept
of reincarnation where the soul basically travels from one life to the next.
So, after you die your soul becomes like, the next life.
So the next life could be, it could be human, it could be animal,
it could be plant, anything.
What you are during your next life depends on what your karma during the current
life, meaning, like, what sort of deeds you did.
And the, and the soul's basically, the goal of the soul is to basically get.
Out of the circle of life, which is get out of the circle and,
and go to like, sort of like the next reality or, like, moksha.
So it's gained by like gaining like some sort of knowledge that the knowledge that.
Some sort of, the ultimate knowledge, that's what they call it.
But I just don't know.
>> Well you don't know it yet,
I mean obviously you were [CROSSTALK] You'll get there eventually, hopefully.
>> If you gain the knowledge you basically get to come out of the circle.
>> Do you have any, any control over where your soul goes next?
The, what's sort of like, what's sort of like the living thing
you are next depends on what you did, like during your current life.
So there is always a joke going around that if you eat chicken during current
life you are going to be a chicken in the next life.
>> Oh really.
I always though I would be a sitting in a cesspool.
But I guess not.
I mean I'm hoping not.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Next.
You.
>> Just in the part, is in each life, you're supposed to gain knowledge, and
it's like, you're supposed to reach enlightenment, and
that's what the stage of moksha is.
But once you become a human, from what I know you've already
gained enough knowledge about the way of the world that you can't go backwards.
Like, you can't become anything else from a human.
You can be a, re, reborn as a human in not the best conditions.
You can have physical disabilities, you can be, you can be like,
you know, really poor.
Just different problems like that but you can't go backwards.
Does that make sense?
>> Okay, good, I, I heard the other day that a cartoonist,
an Indian cartoonist was, was talking, was probably on National Public Radio.
That it's inappropriate for a cartoonist to make fun of Hinduism.
Does that make sense to you?
I mean, is it in, is it inappropriate?
>> I, I wasn't taught that way.
I don't think so.
>> Okay, all right.
>> Just for like my family, we followed it more like culturally than like.
>> Okay. >> As a real serious religion.
>> Okay. All right.
Thank you. >> You're welcome.
>> Next.
Be right with you.
>> I was basically told that pretty much the same thing they were saying.
But your goal, main goal is to gain in the divine spirit.
And you got like, you're born, after you die your,
your body stays like you get cremated so your soul goes to the next life
pretty much and yeah, that's pretty much it.
Just like.
>> Is there a God in, in.
>> Yeah, that's what you're trying to,
trying to get to is like you can become one with God through [CROSSTALK].
>> Okay.
All right.
Now isn't there like a ceremony where, where you said cremated.
It's more elaborate than just cremated, right?
>> Yeah, it's a religious.
>> And the, the, there are very precise steps you've gotta follow.
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> You know why?
>> I mean I wasn't really taught that much about the death part, because, I guess,
my parents just wanted to shield me from that part.
[LAUGH]. >> Okay, alright.
Oh!
They wanted to shield you from that.
>> But.
>> What, that's interesting.
How do you think that you think,
you really think they tried to shield you from what?
The idea of death?
>> I guess, I mean it's more of a culture thing over how my parents think
that, you know.
>> Okay.
>> You shouldn't really teach people about death when they're young, you know.
Just, it's going to mess, they're still growing, so.
>> Real interesting.
Hold onto that.
Everybody, hold onto that thought.
Thanks.
>> Basically I was taught the same thing.
And we also believe that every person comes into this world with a certain duty.
We call it Dharma.
And basically it's a certain purpose that you're sent to,
to fulfill within your life.
Like the others said, you're also reborn into several different,
I guess you could call them vessels.
These would be your bodies within each life.
And basically we were taught that the soul is immortal, and
it goes through several rebirths.
And it finally reaches the stage of being a human, yeah.
>> Thank you.
All right. That, that, there,
there seems to be a good deal of consensus on, on, on, on this.
So, thank you for coming up.
[APPLAUSE] Come,
coming up here is, it, it is not easy.
I know that.
Any Buddhists here?
Somebody want to talk about Buddhism.
Are you coming up?
Good for you.
>> Okay, so I'm from the Mahayana lineage Cogney School of Buddhism, and
in the beginning what I was taught that we use the term soul, but as I got more into
the teachings of Buddhism, instead of soul we used chain of being.
So it's more of a collective consciousness that gets passed on to every,
like when you die and you go on to your next life.
What determines what you're born as is like how Hinduism is stated.
It's karma.
It's your karmic deeds decides where you go on your next life.
And there are six different realms where you can get born into.
There is hell, obviously.
There is like hungry ghost, which is sort of like the in between.
There is the human realm.
Animals then there is Demi Gods.
Sort of like Asuras.
And then there is the Gods realm which can be, was explained, equivalent of heaven.
And that's still all in the cycle of like suffering,
which is like no matter what while you're still alive.
In any realm you're suffering.
And the main goal of Buddhism is to become enlightened.
And you leave the cycle of suffering.
And amongst Buddhism, even when you reach enlightenment depending on
what school you're versed in there are different levels of enlightenment.
Like the Mahayana school wants you to become a Bodhisattva which is,
once you reach enlightenment, you don't just duck out.
Like you'll still play a role with other beings and
you want to help all other beings also reach enlightenment.
One of the other schools,
Theravada Buddhism their main goal is to reach enlightenment and become an Arhat.
To basically preserve yourself once you reach enlightenment.
>> Well, you know it well, thank you very much.
>> If you have any other questions.
>> All right now, well, well, in either the next class or the following class,
so I haven't decided yet, I'm going to have a colleague of, of ours.
Dr. Tracey Shure will come up and talk about Buddhism, because I bail out
on Buddhism in the in that partial history of afterlife beliefs.
And I want that to be filled in.
And, and you certainly assisted and, and, and at least prelim,
preliminaryly filling us in.
So thanks for coming up.
[APPLAUSE] Now,
I don't know whether this this'll work or not, but
there might be some people here who, were born and raised in families.
They were not particularly religious.
That, that didn't talk about the soul or
maybe talked about it in this way or that way.
And, and afterlife.
Is anybody in, in the classroom who wants to come up and, and
talk about what they were I guess not told to believe?
>> Growing up, it was kind of like, hard religious-wise.
My grandparents are both Methodist ministers, but
my grandfather used to be a priest.
And then my mother was raised Catholic.
So, she put me in CCD and everything, put me through Catholic school,
my dad's like a die hard Atheist, but my grandparents are still Methodist,
which like, to me, like, Methodism and Catholicism are two totally, well, they're
both like Christian, but they're like two totally different concepts growing up.
So, like I had all these people telling me like what different religions were.
And finally, my parents like sat me down.
And they were like, you know, don't believe into this.
It's like one giant scam.
People are trying to tell you what to do.
They're trying to tell you how to live your life.
And it kind of made me, I guess, resent my family.
Like my grandparents being ministers, you know, they're sitting me, like sitting
down, they did the whole exorcism thing and everything like that my whole life.
And they're telling me, you know, this is how you have to be Ashley and
I sat down after my parents told me not to believe them and
I kind of realized like, hey, these people are giving me this faith.
They're telling me that, if I do good things and I listen to them, if I don't
eat cookies after dinner, before my dinner that I'm going to go to hell.
Like, these are what my grandparents telling me.
They're using the title of ministers, you know?
So like my parents just told me, like don't believe anything.
Just live this life, treat people the way that you want to be treated because this
is the only life that matters.
The people now, not the future.
Kind of like the reading that we had, where like the the tribes,
the, the hunting and gathering tribes.
>> Yeah.
>> It was >> I want to talk about that.
>> Yeah it's kind of like my parents are like that.
Live now and don't think about it.
>> Yes!
Oh wow you're wonderful thank you.
>> [LAUGH] >> Next.
>> Okay well I was raised in kind of a mixed household.
My, I'm Jewish on my mom's side, I'm Muslim on my dad's side but
neither one of them practice anything.
So I kind of grew up in a house where everyone just kind,
you can draw your own conclusions about what you believe.
And, so I believe, I don't necessarily believe in religion.
But I do believe that each person has a soul and that each,
like, individual person has a soul that moves on to somewhere after we die,
and it comes back to this Earth in another way in our next life.
And we have past lives and all of that, but I think it's kind of impossible for
people to know for sure what happens in the next life, or after we die.
So, we kind of, I don't know, it's kind of an air of mystery
when you think about it and that's what I've always grown up believing.
>> Did you, did you go to a, a public school?
>> Mm-hm.
>> Did, did your, your peers ask you who you were?
>> What do you mean who I am?
>> I mean did, did, did I mean, did, did, did they,
did, they try to put you in a box about what you believe?
>> Not, not, particularly I think, I think,
everyone is always surprised when they hear about my background.
>> Okay.
>> That I am not really religious in any particular way but.
>> Do,did that confuse your peers at all?
>> Yeah it was very confusing to everybody.
>> Oh. >> Because everybody grew up in households
where there is like a set list of beliefs that you are suppose to uphold and
I didn't really have that growing up, so.
>> So do you think that was a disadvantage or an advantage?
>> In a way, I mean just for me personally,
I don't mean to offend anybody.
I think that.
>> Yes, you do.
>> [LAUGH]. >> No.
>> [CROSSTALK] No, you don't.
>> I think it's an advantage because I'm able to kind of look at all the different
religions.
>> All right. >> With an open mind and
I have like a different perspective.
Like whereas somebody who grew up in a house where they were given a cert,
a specific set of beliefs, they are kind of biased towards that set of beliefs,
whereas I'm kind of open to everything.
>> So thank you very much.
Thanks for coming up.
>> Your welcome.
>> Next.
>> So when I was younger or when oh, when my parents were younger,
they were both raised Catholic.
And they were like very religious.
They went to church all the time, and but
when I was growing up, they didn't really teach me anything.
They just, they would randomly ask me if I believed in god and I would tell them
whatever I thought and then that would basically be the end of the discussion.
But they did teach me to like have good morals and
be open to everybody and I think that helped because I wasn't, you know, I
wouldn't, like she was saying, I wouldn't be biased to any one set of morals.
And yeah. >> So there's a lot of people who believe
that if you don't believe, then, then, then,
then you can do anything that you want, including harming other people.
You weren't taught that.
>> No, no. They, they told me to, you know,
they basically taught me that if this makes any sense,
the most general idea behind the Bible is,
you know, to treat people the way you would want to be treated.
>> Okay.
>> Just be kind to people in general and all that stuff.
>> Any talk about the soul?
No. >> All right.
>> Not really.
>> All right.
Because there's a lot, many, many people believe that if you,
the soul is, the, the, sort of the moral guide.
And that without a soul, you, you, you would lose your,
your, your, moral, uh,uh, direction.
But you, that didn't come up in your house?
>> Mm-mm.
>> Okay, good. Huh.
>> I was raised by a Methodist parents,
but my mother wasn't really religious so I really have no knowledge
about any religion besides what I've learned in school.
So, being raised by someone who wasn't religious
I didn't really, excuse me, hear anything about the soul.
>> Okay. >> Or what happens after death and
I was told to just live the life that we have now, and be happy with it.
>> Did you ever wish that you had, you know, had a religious affiliation with
your, you know, with your friends and that sort of thing wondering about you?
>> I think at one point I began to try to question about like religion,
like, what is god?
Like, what happens after life?
But I wasn't really told anything and my friends kind of
looked at me differently because I said I didn't really practice a religion.
>> Okay, all right.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Next?
>> Well my both my parents were raised religiously.
My dad always talks about how he was an altar boy, but
I guess when they got older,
they didn't think that they could know anything that they were taught for sure.
And that it's just something people teach you but they didn't know, like they didn't
want to teach me it because they didn't feel it was something that you can put
your faith into, because you can't really be sure about it is what they taught me.
And we had holidays like I celebrated Christmas but
they told me to believe in Santa Clause.
And they never told me to like, not believe in something, like if I wanted to
believe in something, they would be hap, they would, you know, be fine with that.
They taught me to respect other religions, because my dad always says how
religion is so important to society, and that people need it.
So, that's it.
[LAUGH] >> What a household.
Yeah. Thank you.
>> [LAUGH]. >> Last person.
>> Both of my parents were raised Catholic, Christian.
My mother did the whole communion and all the way through up.
And my father went to a religious like a Catholic school.
Until about fourth or fifth grade where, and like,
this is not a lie, he put what he thought was a dead possum in a girls locker.
It was actually alive and ran around the school so he was expelled.
[LAUGH] So, so since then.
>> So then he gave up on religion, huh?
[LAUGH] >> Yeah, so since then, like,
he, he never really practiced anything and
my parents sent me to CCD we called it when I was a little kid.
And in a short period of time both my grandparents died,
my parents got divorced and I found out Santa Claus wasn't real.
So,. >> [LAUGH].
>> I, I had a lot of questions, like, why,
why, why and both my parents not being too religious never really had answers.
So, the general family consensus was,
treat others the way you want to be treated.
You know, you're, use logic and morals to decide what's right and what's wrong.
And they said, you know,
if something doesn't directly affect you, there's no reason.
Like, say for gay marriage, they said if it doesn't affect you,
don't bother to, you know, do something to other people.
So, we kind of just went from that growing up.
We didn't like Jehovah's Witnesses always came to the house and
always tried to convince us.
And my dad said like if, if your like, people mind your own business,
don't try to push your beliefs on others.
>> Okay. >> And if you're a good person and
you do what you believe is right, if there is a God then he will accept you.
You don't need to, like, denounce your faith and follow like, faith or
follow anything, in order to know that you're a good person.
You could do it in your own.
But if it works for other people to say that I should do good deeds in order to
get into heaven, then let 'em do all that good deeds they want.
Why not?
>> Yeah, okay. Thank you very much.
That's a good idea, and you were wonderful folks.
I got everybody, right?
Thanks, give 'em a hand.
[APPLAUSE]
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