Midterm Study Guide

Midterm Study Guide

Quiz Jan.23
1. Name two of the ways you can earn a base in our class. (See "course requirements" & other info in the sidebar & on the syllabus)
2. How many bases must you earn, for each run you claim on the daily scorecard?
3. How do you earn your first base in each class?
4. Can you earn bases from the daily quiz if you're not present?
5. How can you earn bases on days when you're not present?
6. What should you write in your daily personal log?
7. Suppose you came to class one day, turned on the computer/projector and opened the CoPhi site, had 3 correct answers on the daily quiz, and had posted a comment, a discussion question,  and an alternate quiz question before class. How many runs would you claim in your personal log and on the scorecard that day?
8. How many bases do you get for posting a short, relevant weekly essay of at least 250 words?
9. What are Dr. Oliver's office hours? Where is his office? What is his email address?
10. How do critics who conflate physicalism with eliminative materialism mis-portray atheists?

11. Why isn't atheism parasitic on religion?

12. Does Baggini agree that absence of evidence is never evidence of absence?

13. What did David Hume point out about our tendencies of belief?

14. Give an example of an abductive argument supporting atheism.

15. Why isn't atheism a faith position?

Quiz Jan 25
1. The Euthyphro Dilemma implies what about the properties of goodness?
2. What is Kierkegaard's (and Woody Allen's) existentialist point about Abraham and morality?
3. Morality is about acting in whose best interests?
4. What's the "first step in moral thinking"?
5. Does Baggini think it matters whether judgments like "pain is bad" are factual?
6. Did Sartre deny that human life lacks purpose or meaning?
7. What's problematic about seeking meaning in life by serving somebody else's purposes? [See Rick & Morty on passing the butter, below]
8. What "vital point" do we miss, if we focus too much on goals?
9. What's the nirvana dilemma?

Quiz Jan 30, JB 5-7
1. "Anaxagoras is the earliest historical figure to have been indicted for atheism" (Jennifer Michael Hecht, Doubt: A History... & see Tim Whitmarsh's Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World - "Disbelief in the supernatural is as old as the hills"), but the first "avowedly atheist work" was by whom? Who does Baggini name as some of his ancient precursors?
2. Did original Marxist communism advocate religious oppression?
3. Which of the traditional god arguments does Baggini find "philosophically interesting" but banal?
4. How do most believers justify their faith, according to Baggini?
5. What methodological principle does Baggini invoke, to reject the imposition of stringent standards of evidence and truth?

6. What's a humanist?

Quiz Feb 1 AA Intro, 1

1. "A lot of women are turned off by" what perceived demographic imbalance in contemporary atheism?

2. What important link with "potentially damaging implications" has begun to be explored by "only a handful of studies"?

3. What 'ism are New Atheists commonly accused of committing?

4. How does Anthony Grayling define humanism?

5. What prominent 19th century African-American said he would "welcome atheism..."

Quiz Feb 6 AA 2-5
1. What common misunderstanding of those who leave the faith does Lynnette attribute to many Christians?
2. What comforted Lynnette in compensation for her father's inadequacies?
3. How did Lynnette talk to God? (What did she take to mean that He was telling her something?)
4. Why does Lynnette feel happier as a nontheist?
5. For what was Chris taught sin is responsible?
6. What led Chris to reject hell?
7. What existentialist philosophers did Chris read? What did he conclude about the origins of morality?
8. What puzzled Cora about prayer?
9. What did Cora read that shocked her?
10. Striving for "perfect compliance" with Mormon principles prevents what?
11. What choices did Naima not know she had?

Quiz Feb 8, AA 6-10

1. How does James say the Holy Spirit communicates with members of LDS?

2. Mormons support what with a feeling of moral duty?

3. Fear of what confrontation made James reluctant to come out as an atheist?

4. Where did James take refuge?

5. Shawn's parents' advanced degrees did nothing to... ?
6. Adults who claim godliness are also children in what sense?
7. How did Shawn's parents' generation view children?
8. What does David say psychologists call a hardwired predisposition to infer a God who answers prayers?
9. David struggled with filling our what part of an online form?
10. What tradition focuses on altering the "condition(s) requiring illusions such as religiosity"?

Quiz Feb 13 AA 11-15
1. How did Billy Graham scare David?
2. What feelings did David often have in response to conversations with classmates at his small Christian college?
3.What was David's reaction to listening to Julia Sweeney?
4. What struck David as ridiculous, barbaric, and petty?
5. What do some studies show about marital satisfaction among the religious?
6. What was more important to Ethan than finding an atheist partner?
7. What calculation led Ethan to consider his chances of finding love bleak?
8. Does Ethan say he was raised atheist?
9. What did Sen question about her brother's fate?
10. What was Ronnelle's mother reaction to his coming out?

Quiz Feb 15, AA 16-20

1. By what early teachings did Kevin consider himself "infected"?

2. Who coined the term "atheophobia"?

3. How do most theists deal with distasteful bible verses?

4. What does Kevin consider his parental responsibility with regard to religion?

5. Which of Dan Barker's principles does Kevin prefer to the ten commandments?

6. What ultimately made Amy an atheist?

7. What saddens Adrienne about her sisters?

8. To what stage of a relationship is agnosticism analogous?

9. What language did Justus find "stilted"?

10. What podcast helped Justus become more comfortable with his loss of faith?

Quiz Feb 20 AA 21-23
1. What's the name of Pam's atheist group, and what do they do?
2. What did Pam think she needed, as a child, in order to understand religion?
3. Who was the first openly-atheist person Pam met?
4. What kind of a person does Pam say it makes you, if you're openly an atheist?
5. Why does Pam think it important for atheists to come out?
6. What "murky line" makes it hard to identify religious harassment?
7. What does Sam wonder about theists who are offended by atheists?
8. What pseudonym provided cover for the Amarillo Atheists Society?
9. What have the courts said about withholding medical treatment from children on religious grounds?
10. What is the Bible passage that Jehovah's Witnesses invoke to justify refusing blood transfusions?
11. What book changed Camilo's life?
12. What line do clinical psychology students straddle?

Quiz Feb 22 AA 24-End

1. How does John think it's possible to talk about his opinions openly without getting into a big fight?
2. What's a good icebreaker?
3. How many millennials are disenchanted with religion?
4. Comparisons of theists and atheists demonstrate what?
5. What puzzled Ulla about God, as a kid?
6. What's Ulla's reaction to pictures from the Hubble telescope?
7. How does Ulla react to "I will pray for you"?
8. What did Betty think the Presbyterian choir in her childhood church was doing?
9. What's Betty's view of people praying for her husband's dementia?
10. What did Margaret's Congregationalist-Universalist father believe about an afterlife?
11. What misconception was perpetrated by House and Bones?
12. Why isn't Margaret afraid of death?