Gabriel sat back in one of the armchairs in the student center, waiting for his partner to arrive. The Sociology of Religion was a deeply fascinating class, but the young man was a bit less than pleased to have a group project. He wasn’t a fan of group projects in general. He preferred completing assignments on his own. That way, he could ensure it was done just how he wanted. A group project in a class like this, though, seemed like a bad idea. Anything involving religion could cause a good bit of butting heads. Of course, that could have been why the professor assigned the project in the first place. Perhaps he wanted to see who could actually work together objectively to figure it out, and who would get caught up in their own religious beliefs.
Gabe didn’t exactly have religious beliefs, but he did have a lot to say about religion. Having been raised in a strict, Catholic household had all but driven him away from religion completely. He hadn’t set foot in a church since coming to college. His parents still pushed from over 2,000 miles away, but Gabriel refused to go back. Too many years of having it shoved down his throat made him swear he would never do that to his own kids, if he ever had any. The only way that he was still connected to anything religious was through his study of it. It fascinated him how so many different groups and people could believe so strongly in a religion. His own faith had faltered with all the rules and the lack of answers to questions.
Mentally shaking himself, Gabriel reached down to his backpack and pulled out Émile Durkheim’s Suicide. The young man hated starting projects in the library. The need for quiet made it a bad place to discuss and figure out where the project was going to go. As an alternative, Gabe had suggested meeting at the student center instead. To make sure they weren’t completely unprepared, though, he had brought a couple of library books with him. He hoped Suicide, a study of suicide rates between Protestants and Catholics would be a good place to start.
