Joseph Shamis plans his classes around it. He plans his work schedule around it. He even plans his lunch breaks around it. \nSince converting to Islam while at IU, Shamis, a senior, said prayer has become second nature to him, just like brushing his teeth. It's something he makes time for and something that's become routine.\n"(Prayer) affects everything you do, really," Shamis said. "Even if you feel like you're losing your faith, you do the prayers anyway. It keeps you grounded."\nBefore his conversion in 2001, he spent a lot of time exploring Christianity. It was only when he began reading books on Islam and met some Muslims on campus that he decided to join the Islamic community.\nFor curious students like Shamis, many campus groups and classes exist to assist students in exploring and maintaining religion. Students and faculty agree that college is the best and easiest time to explore religion, although they find different reasons as to why students actually choose to do so.\nThrough reading books and taking classes in anthropology, Shamis learned a lot about concepts of God and understanding different people. It was during this period of exploration that Shamis found what he was personally looking for in a faith.\n"If you're a Muslim, you believe there's just one God, and it's the right religion of God," Shamis said. "I was kind of looking around, and I think the concept of God in Islam is the clearest one -- all-powerful, all-compassionate."
OPPORTUNITY TO STUDY\nStudents who want to study religion as an academic subject can do so through courses in Religious Studies. This semester, 24 classes were offered in Religious Studies, covering everything from the Buddhism to Christianity to Taoism.\n"We fight the stigma, 'Oh you're taking a religious studies course so you must be religious,'" said Religious Studies Advisor Caroline Dowd-Higgins. "Maybe they are religious or maybe they just want to learn about religion, what makes religion and how religion evolves."\nDowd-Higgins said she has found a constant increase in the study of religion at IU. When she accepted the advising job three years ago, there were 140 Religious Studies majors. Currently, 224 people are Religious Studies majors, 60 are minors and more than 1,500 people are taking courses in the school.\nMany opportunities exist for those wanting to explore religion beyond the classroom.\nPeople interested in Eastern religions like Buddhism or Hinduism may find support from organizations and centers like the Indian Student Association and the Tibetan Culture Center off-campus. Students interested in learning more about Paganism can attend Earth Religions meetings and events. Judaism is supported by the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center, and Islam is supported by the Muslim Student Union and the Islamic Center off-campus. Christianity can be explored or maintained in groups like InterVarsity, Campus Crusade for Christ and Navigators. \nSophomore Andrew Henry, a member of Navigators, said the support he receives from the group helps him maintain his faith each day.\n"Being at Navigators, you get to know a lot of good people," Henry said. "I find a lot of solid Christian guys and godly Christian girls. When you need it, you can ask them for prayer. They can also help correct you. It just helps me conform my life to my faith."\nAside from obtaining help from fellow Navigators, Henry attends Bible studies, church services off campus and Navigators events to continue to live his faith each day. He also prays with his roommate and listens to Christian music.\nThe Helene G. Simon Hillel Center also offers several opportunities for Jewish students to maintain their faith.\n"We provide cultural, religious and educational programming, a place for people to hang out and meet other Jewish students and support services if they need someone to talk to," said Rabbi Sue Shifron, executive director at the Hillel Center. "In addition, if there are students interested in exploring Judaism, we offer a conversion class here, but only if they come to us."\nMore students are using these services each year as the number of Jewish students expands on campus, Shifron said. \n"IU is a supportive place for Jewish students to come, so more students are coming," Shifron said. "The Jewish Studies program is strong, and IU in general provides a strong environment for a Jewish student."\nFor the estimated 400 IU students who claim Islam as their religion, the Muslim Student Union provides support. Much of this support is offered through community activities.\n"The reason for community is both practical and religious," MSU President Nathan Ainslie said. "In a minority group, one's identity can be strengthened in a group, and Islam, finding its roots in a tribal area, places much importance on uniting community." \nThe MSU also offers a weekly Quran study group, a study circle to discuss general topics like defending Islam and tolerance in Islam and an office in the IMU available for prayer and discussion.\n"One of our goals is to make people comfortable with practicing their faith if they want to -- to get involved in stuff and understand their faith," Ainslie said. "In some parts of the world they're just taught to (practice Islam), but where everyone isn't doing it, you have to struggle to fortify your beliefs and strengthen your religion."\nAinslie said college is a good time to strengthen religion and beliefs.\n"A big part of college is being on your own, answering questions, dealing with cold hard reality," Ainslie said. "Some people never address (religion), but college is the time when a lot of people do address it."\nAssistant Professor Melissa Wilde, who teaches and researches the sociology of religion, said people between the ages of 18 and 24 are exploring religion the most.\n"College is a time where you're exposed to more people of different religions and courses and even people with no religion, so if you want to explore it, it's an option," Wilde said.\nWilde identified two determinates of religious activity: how a person is brought up and his or her age. She said 80 percent of people raised in a certain religion remain in that religion their whole lives. Age refers to people returning to religion when they marry or have children.\n"There is also evidence that people raised with no religion -- about half -- take it to be as serious a definition of who they are as people in religion," Wilde said. "Fourteen percent of America claims no religion."\nBased on these ideas, students may choose not to explore religion because they don't want to change or because they define themselves to be permanently non-religious. \nWilde said this points out a contradiction. While religion is often taught as a choice, many people only remain in a religion because they were born into it.\nIU-Purdue University at Indianapolis Professor Conrad Cherry helped write a book on campus religion with co-authors Betty DeBerg and Amanda Porterfield. They studied religion on university campuses and, in 2001, published "Religion on Campus." Through observing four different types of campuses throughout the United States, they concluded the opposite -- that "religion has become more optional and pluralistic."\nAlthough they found religion to be more of a choice, especially in state schools, they said they did find it to be prevalent today.\n"It is possible that young people in American culture have never been more enthusiastically engaged in religious practice or with religious ideas," they wrote.\nAinslie said he agrees that religion can be a link to a larger world.\n"Everyone should study world religions, just like everyone should study a language," he said. "It really helps you understand other people, and you never know when it's going to help you understand other cultures."\n-- Contact staff writer Jackie Walker at jaclwalk@indiana.edu.
