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, to claim your daily participation run on the scorecard?
3. How do you earn your first base in each class? (How do you "get on 1st base"?)
4. Can you earn bases from the daily quiz?
5. How can you earn bases on days when you're not present?
6. Do bases accumulate from one class to the next? (Think of this by analogy with baseball: do runners who didn't score in the previous inning get to score in the next one?)
7. Suppose you came to class one day, turned on the computer/projector and opened the A&P site, had posted a comment, a discussion question, and an alternate quiz question before class. How many bases did you earn? How many runs? What will you write on the scorecard?
8. How can you indicate extra bases (beyond the four required to earn your daily participation run) on the scorecard?
9. What are Dr. Oliver's office hours? Where is his office? What is his email address?
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10. How do critics who conflate physicalism with eliminative materialism mis-portray atheists? (5)
11. Why isn't atheism parasitic on religion? (9)
12. Does Baggini agree that absence of evidence is never evidence of absence? (16)
13. What did David Hume point out about our tendencies of belief? (20)
14. Give an example of an abductive argument supporting atheism. (29)
15. Why isn't atheism a faith position? (32)
Discussion Questions (please also post your own DQs, alternative Quiz Questions, additional comments, relevant links...)
- [Inspired by Jamil's posted intro]: Is "'atheism' a negative statement," literally and/or figuratively? If so, is this due to the intrinsic meaning of the word or more to the connotations it has acquired through misunderstanding and misconstrual?
- Were you raised by "Bible thumpers," indoctrinated mildly or rigorously, given compelling reasons to believe the claims of a particular faith tradition, etc.? How do you compare your religious experience with Baggini's?
- Do you have any "dark preconceptions" about atheists or theists that you're willing to put aside, in our class? Are you willing to try the Rawlsian "Veil of Ignorance" thought experiment, and pretend you don't yet know if you're a theist or an atheist? Are you willing to follow Spinoza's example in trying to understand other points of view rather than dismiss or ridicule them?
- What's your view of eliminative materialism? Can something be real but not strictly physical or "stuff"-like - love, for ex.?
- Are you annoyed by "Honk if you love Jesus" stickers?
- Can you give an example of evidence for naturalism that is NOT at the same time evidence for atheism?
- Are people at funerals who say "he/she is in a better place" being gullible? What better word(s) would you suggest?
- Do you agree that Plato (for ex.) is guilty of perpetuating a "collective myth" about knowledge and certainty? (24)
- Do you agree that to explain something is inherently to naturalize it?
- Comment: "Belief in life after death is contrary to the wealth of evidence we have that people are mortal animals." (32)
- Comment: "Our fear of hell should be pretty small." (34)
- If you're not 100% certain that atheism is true, should you be an agnostic?
- Please post your own suggested Discussion Questions
- A Short History of Truth: Consolations for a Post-Truth World (Baggini)-"How did we find ourselves in a "post-truth" world of "alternative facts"? And can we get out of it? A Short History of Truth identifies ten types of supposed truth and explains how easily each can become the midwife of falsehood. There is no species of truth that we can rely on unquestioningly, but that does not mean the truth can never be established. Attaining truth is an achievement we need to work for..." gr
- Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, Immortality, and Utopia (Shermer)-"concludes with an uplifting paean to purpose and progress and how we can live well in the here-and-now, whether or not there is a hereafter"... and cites current, startling stats on what Americans believe, noting that even a third of atheists & agnostics say they believe in an afterlife. "Say what?"
Shermer in conversation with Deepak Chopra... [Julia Sweeney on Deepak Chopra, in Letting Go of God]... Shermer at Google... Skeptic... "If there's no God, is murder wrong?"
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And, as mentioned in class for those non-believers who miss the congregating, hymns, social ritual etc. associated with traditional religion: Sunday Assembly... Sunday Assembly Nashville ("a celebration of the one life we know we have")... on YouTube (see me there, Dec.'16)
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Q: If you're not 100% sure that atheism is true, should you be agnostic?
ReplyDeleteI think that the great majority of people live in a state of spiritual apathy. Even for the firm believer, I cannot think that they spend their days pondering how God will judge their daily activities, if each of their little mistakes or unseen, unspoken sins might be building up to the next Flood (or Fire, I guess, He did promise not to do that again). I think that the mental leap from “I definitely believe” to “I am unsure” is far more important than the distinction between an agnostic “I do not know” or “I cannot know” and the atheist “I am dang sure”. The step away from theistic certainty seems the greater one and any further down the spectrum of unbelief is just defining the feeling.
So, back to spiritual apathy. I like me some Kantian ethics. If one seeks to live a moral, just life, to be a Good person, then they will act in such a way to define themselves so. How they define the Good then is what is important. But motivation is what is important to the question of our topic. Do we do Good because we wish to be Good because, well, it's good to be Good? Or because God told us to? And how does the Good religious person square the Good with the... not so Good in their religious teachings? Help thy neighbor, unless they are wearing mixed fabric clothing, or eat pork, or are homosexual? Or is the Good theist actually behaving in spiritual apathy, disregarding the all-seeing eye of God on the daily basis, and simply trying to do Good for it's own sake?
The Good trumps every other consideration. Good does not know the name of God, it is its own thing, to be defined as each of us sees it. This was a long walk to come back around to the question, and my answer is that it doesn't matter. The questioning non-believer has already taken the step of removing the Good from the hands of God. The rest is just words and definitions.
http://thebadgeronline.com/2015/11/why-atheism-is-not-a-position-of-faith/
ReplyDelete#8
Discussion Question:Were you raised by "Bible thumpers," indoctrinated mildly or rigorously, given compelling reasons to believe the claims of a particular faith tradition, etc.? How do you compare your religious experience with Baggini's?
ReplyDeleteI was raised by my incredibly religious grandmother. I would not call her a "Bible Thumper" but religion was (and is) incredibly important to her. Every morning she would read a passage from the Bible, and she expected me to pray routinely from the age of five. However, even with this strict Christian upbringing, I never really had problems with the church. While I began to question my faith around the age of ten, I enjoyed going to church. I got to see my friends who went to different schools, we would eat out at a restaurant afterward, and the games in children's church were generally enjoyable.
It was honestly the people who drove me away from Christianity. My sister came out as lesbian when I was around eleven or twelve. I couldn't understand why everyone was so upset and angry. It genuinely didn't seem like a big deal to me. Later, in middle school and even high school the Christian kids were the same kids who enjoyed picking on other kids, going out and drinking, and engaging in activities that were not Christ-like at all. The hypocrisy of it all really disgusted me, and acted as the final nail in the coffin for religion.
However, like Baggini, my experiences growing up in church were moderately pleasant.
Discussion Question: Are people at funerals who say "he/she is in a better place" being gullible? What better word(s) would you suggest?
ReplyDeleteI went to the funeral of a friend’s mother a couple of weeks ago. As he was wrapping up, the pastor did a whole piece on the glory and wonders of heaven, and how it was such a wonderful place for those there. He said that, even if we could, we wouldn’t want to bring her back to be with us. Really? That struck me as a bit too far. I’m quite sure my friend would want her mother (who was younger than me) back. I wondered how many there, even this pastor, would accept an offer to be dispatched to heaven at that very moment. And if not, why not? Why aren’t those who really believe this clamoring for death? Saying someone is in a better place is an insensitive comment to the bereaved who have lost their mother father, wife, child. Is it a comfort to the parents of a young child who tragically died?
Thank you Jesus for taking our child to the better place. How great thou art. If I lost my wife or a child, say it to me and I’ll show you the better place. How about just saying “she had a good life, and we all will miss her.” Or for those suffering with a terrible quality of life, “her suffering is over, she is at peace now.”
Quiz questions for 1/23
ReplyDeleteMany people think that atheists believe that there is no God and no , no , or no . (3)
What does it mean to be “dogmatic”? (23)
On p. 11, Baggini warns against atheism being too positive, seen as a "passport to happiness." Many atheists, some very prominent, do seem to suggest that atheism--understood as a negation of religion--is a reliable way to rid the world of the woes of religion. Atheism is like a panacea for all manner of violence, discrimination, intolerance, hate, suffering, etc. What do you think? Would the world necessarily be a better place if more--better, all--of us were atheists?
ReplyDelete