<p>I just came across Bob Jones University and did a little reading about it. Now I'm scared about Notre Dame, are they like that too? I really don't want to go to some ultra Christian / Conservative school where I would totally stand out as an Asian, non Christian, Liberal lol. So is Notre Dame cool or not? =P</p>
<p>Yes, Notre Dame is cool.</p>
<p>so there aren't strict about religion and stuff?</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>Other than minor aspects like parietals, I don't think Notre Dame has any restricting characteristic in terms of religion.</p>
<p>whats a parietal?</p>
<p>No one of your opposite gender can stay in your dorm room after midnight.</p>
<p>And, by the way, I don't think Notre Dame is the only school to have parietals. I think I read another post somewhere about other schools with restrictions on opposite gender in dorms after a certain hour. It may not be called parietals--anyone know of those schools?</p>
<p>Cool? It was -8 this morning. It just doesn't get much cooler than that.</p>
<p>Downright frigid! We went to visit our son, and our daughter went on her admitted student campus visit, over the weekend. I was waiting to see a dog sled with huskies gliding across the quad--but it was probably too cold for the dogs! </p>
<p>Despite this, she is still excited to be going there, as my son is to be there now.</p>
<p>If you can walk through sub-zero temps with even more ridiculous wind chills, as the snow blinds your face in arctic conditions, and still be excited to attend there, it must be pretty cool, I'd say.</p>
<p>Liberals fit in just fine at ND. Perhaps even cooler, in my estimation, is that conservatives do, too. </p>
<p>Besides, there's a place for people who aren't big into parietals...it's called off-campus housing. It's the decision I made my senior year there, and didn't regret for a moment. Loved my time on campus, too. Bottom line, if you think the rules are goofy or oppressive, once you pass your freshman year, you can escape them off campus.</p>
<p>please dont try to compare BJU to ND</p>
<p>Don't you realize, Chillin, that open expression of Christian faiths of any kind these days is considered backwater right wing wacko?</p>
<p>I agree with chillin, my german teacher is a BJU grad, he is .....umm a nutcase. But aren't all foreign language teachers:)</p>
<p>"Don't you realize, Chillin, that open expression of Christian faiths of any kind these days is considered backwater right wing wacko?"</p>
<p>Come on now. Are you telling me you don't think that Jews, Muslims, etc., aren't disparaged just as much as Christians? Honestly, all the major religious groups--Christians, Jews, Muslims, Atheists (because outright denial is as much a belief as affirmation) have always mocked (or done worse things to) each other for as long as they've been around. Pyar, the kind of attitude displayed in the above comment really isn't present at Notre Dame, so I hope that you don't get the impression that the Catholic community at the school possesses a paranoia that leads them to think that their religion is being unfairly marginalized. It's not, and they rightly don't buy into that conclusion.</p>
<p>There are lots and lots of people at ND who feel as I do, which is why I love ND. It is unabashed in its Catholicism and in its Christianity.</p>
<p>The notion that "cool" is somehow related to the lack of strong religious undertones is quite disturbing to me.</p>
<p>By the way, nameless, I didn't mention Jews, Muslims, etc. Is it politically incorrect not to do so? Perish the thought...</p>
<p>If you don't think Christianity isn't being maligned in this country by secularists who drive popular culture, you must be living in a different country than I am...</p>
<p>I've got to get the PC lingo down now... "Cool" equals lack of religious under (or over) tones. </p>
<p>Spare me...</p>
<p>"By the way, nameless, I didn't mention Jews, Muslims, etc. Is it politically incorrect not to do so? Perish the thought..."</p>
<p>It just seemed that you were assuming that other religions don't have this problem. I know some people (including one priest, actually) who seem to think that Christianity in particular is being slighted, while other religions are deserving of such treatment. I apologize if this is not your viewpoint. I suppose you would agree that it is not just Christianity, but rather religion in general, that is "under attack".</p>
<p>As far as "cool" goes, I don't think religion will ever be cool again. I think more and more people, especially the younger generation, are tiring of the rigidity of religion. Perhaps because of secularist influence, as you mentioned, people brought up in a particular faith are increasingly questioning it and coming to the conclusion that the supernatural beliefs--e.g. that Jesus is the "son" of God (what does son mean in this context?), that people go to "heaven" or "hell" after they die based purely on their belief in something (not applicable to Catholicism any more, I don't think; which is another point, how can the requirements for going to heaven suddenly change?), etc.--either don't make sense, are too particular to be probable, or whatever. Likewise, people are disregarding any rigid moral claims that are based upon those beliefs (e.g. that embryonic stem cell research and abortion are wrong in every case--a stance that is often founded on the idea that a person exists in some sense before they are born, or that God desires that we never destroy human embryos for reasons unknown to us).</p>
<p>As a disclaimer to those statements, I base this conclusion mostly on my own personal experience. I've gone to Catholic schools my whole life and most (i.e. >50%) of the people I've met in them share the above attitudes. Of course, going to a Catholic school has its way of doing that to people (since by constant exposure they are forced to examine every aspect of their faith and determine whether it all adds up); thus, the percentage of Catholic public school students unsure of their faith might actually be higher than their Catholic Catholic school counterparts (what a mouthful :) ). Still, my experience tells me that back in my parents' day, people didn't really question their faith to this extent, and certainly didn't go from belief to rejection so readily. So I still hold that religion is losing its influence on the youth, which would obviously make it "uncool" by the most common definition.</p>
<p>Personally, I think that it is good that religion is having less of an influence on culture and politics. I think that a person should come to his or her own spiritual beliefs, independent of an outside religious institution. And I think that we should strive to develop a consistent moral code that is not based on the desires of an invisible, unknowable entity or entities, but rather careful study of which actions are helpful and which are hurtful to society and the individuals within it.</p>
<p>Sorry for the rant, I just wanted to get my views out there, to hopefully preclude future unnecessary arguments stemming from a misunderstanding of my opinions.</p>
<p>Sorry i didn't mean to equate cool with lack of religion. What I rather meant was if they were cool with other religions/ethnicities/etc since they are a Catholic school. By cool I mean tolerant/accepting :). Anyway, I have grown up as a Hindu, one of the most free and unrigid religions. There is no strict methodolgy or neccesity to visit a church, temple, mosque, etc. You are free to believe what you want in Hinduism. Growing up with this kind of ideology as well as the principles of an Indian family I have become a very accepting of other people who are not like me. I expect other people to atleast treat me with the same respect, especially a college. By being so closely affliated with Irish Catholics a little seed of doubt entered my mind about Notre Dame. I always brushed off the fact of Notre Dame's affliation, thinking that it really didn't make a difference but I always had that doubt in the back of my mind. When I came across Bob Jones University (the extreme of the extreme) I immediately thought of Notre Dame and wondered if it could be like that too. Thats why I came here and asked. I hope this explanation helps you guys understand what I was trying to ask. :)</p>
<p>I don't mind the rant, nameless, it keeps my mind ticking. You are a young whippersnapper of a Domer who can survive the weather (we just experienced it this past weekend). I'm a middle-aged Domer who needs to keep my brain active with something other than Sudokos. :) Actually, this is the kind of debate that fascinated me at ND; the kind, in fact, that still does. Difference is that now I realize just how important the issues are that I used to believe were merely hypothetical. </p>
<p>Obviously, different religions have been persecuted over the years in many ways. My personal belief is that I am a Catholic because I was culturally raised to be one. I don't believe that those who don't share my faith are destined to hell, or that those who do will be automatically spared from it, or even, in fact, that hell exists. I do believe that there is a common moral underpinning to virtually every organized religion, a set of universal values that guides it. The older I get, the more I see in life, the more I realize that those universal values are far more crucial to the long-term existence of a society than I ever understood when I was your age. </p>
<p>In fact, when I was your age, I was an agnostic in Domerland; a born and bred Catholic with 12 years of Catholic education prior to going to Notre Dame. I'd had enough; enough of rules that didn't make sense to me, enough of the hypocrisy of those whose patent judgmentalism seemed to defy everything for which Jesus himself appeared to have stood, enough of this lottery of which God is THE God that provides the ticket to heaven. </p>
<p>It wasn't until the birth of my oldest, now a sophomore at ND, that I was convinced there was a God. Hard to explain until you've been there, witnessing new life in your arms, knowing that its existence is explained by something that transcends what mankind and its technology could ever hope to create. In time, I came to realize that hypocrisy and arbitrary rules and the rest of it are all part of the human condition, present in any group whether religious or secular. It was a long process, but I came to understand why Catholicism mattered to me. Rather than sit in the pews and marvel at the audacity of some people who would dare to take communion and act superior when so many of their actions seemed to bely their faith, I realized that the true miracle of the Eucharist was that all of us--myself included--had the faith and hope to be there anyway, making the effort to transcend our human condition.</p>
<p>A few years back, when I was disgusted with the Catholic heirarchy that had so botched the molestation scandals, awash in their own arrogance, I took some very long walks around those same Notre Dame lakes, as I decided whether to remain a Catholic or not. In the end, I was inspired to stay. The Church needs outspoken activists within its ranks, not among the ranks of its former membership. And so I have.</p>
<p>There is not enough space in a message reply, nor time that I would have to write, to explain how I have arrived where I am. Suffice it so say, however, that I have come to believe that spirituality, espoused through many religions, is that guiding hand which leads society to fulfillment. My beef with secularism is it discards the universal moral code common to nearly all religions, replacing it with a relativism that is a prescription not only for chaos, but for the ultimate decay and demise of society. In the end, God makes more sense than any other explanation. Again, this isn't something I picked up in a weekend seminar or retreat, but rather the products of decades of living. It is said that religion is for those who fear hell, sprituality is for those who have been there. It is through the latter that I came to appreciate and accept the former.</p>
<p>So, yes, when I hear people deriding the genuine practice and adherence to religion as somehow being less "cool" than a secular viewpoint, I am bound to speak out. </p>
<p>For those reading in on this, it is these kind of debates, as stated, that made my experience at Notre Dame most valuable. (It was the Faust era, so it certainly wasn't the football!) </p>
<p>Suffice it to say, I see Notre Dame as a beacon of courage, retaining its core values and beliefs, embracing its religious identity, at a time when the academic community is prone to frown on religion as the domain of the intellectually inferior. It is in the fine tradition of great Catholic thinkers and philosophers, such as Thomas Aquinas, that ND gives a home to those who believe that intellectualism, enlightenment, and religious faith need not be mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>That's why I'm thrilled my son is there today, and my daughter will be there next year. The Notre Dame experience is one of those that lasts a lifetime, revealing itself with the stages of life. I can think of no better way to prepare them to be leaders of the next generation.</p>
<p>ddjones--</p>
<p>Excellent post. I don't really have much to say because it seems that we agree on much more than I think either of us originally thought. Reading about your spiritual path was really eye-opening, and left me wondering where I'm going to eventually end up.</p>
<p>To anyone reading this thread--if this is the kind of stuff you find yourself thinking and debating about, Notre Dame might just be the place for you, for it is an environment in which these discussions are encouraged. Of course, I still have my issues with the administration, but the professors here are top notch and are more than willing to deal with these kinds of topics with an open mind.</p>
<p>Pyar....Lots of ND students are non catholic. I bet you can find out %'s on their website. I went there, am Protestant, and had no issues.</p>
<p>Visited ND last September. Beautiful campus,nice kids,reminded me of a large,wealthy Catholic high school. That can be good for some,and slightly too goody-goody for others. This is a school one should visit if you did not attend a Catholic high school.</p>