Fr. Dennis Tamburello, O.F.M.

Clare Center, 783-2924

http://www.siena.edu/tamburello

Short Writing Assignment #1: Write a 2-3 page double-spaced essay responding to Eric Law’s lecture. Include in your essay (1) a description of the thesis of the lecture, and a brief summary of how he develops the thesis; (2) a thoughtful response to one point in the lecture that you found particularly interesting or provocative; (3) a brief statement about how you think the lecture relates to Foundations. Due Tuesday, Jan. 30.

Remember to follow the rules of good writing and to proofread and correct your paper before turning it in. Don't forget to use the services of the Writing Center.

UNIT I: Religious World Views

Short Writing Assignment #2 due today
Write a 2-3 page essay (double-spaced) analyzing a story in Genesis 3-11 (e.g., the first sin, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Ark, the tower of Babel). What insights into human experience do you think the story contains? What kind of view of the world and/or the sacred seems to be taken? (Refer back to Dr. Dalton's web page if necessary.) Finally, give your own reaction to the story or any aspect of it.

Remember to follow the rules of good writing and to proofread and correct your paper before turning it in. Don't forget to use the services of the Writing Center.

Please reflect on the following questions in preparation for Tuesday's discussion:

1. Luke has been called the gospel of universal salvation, the gospel of women, and the gospel of the poor. What passages can you find that illustrate these themes? What points does Luke want to make about salvation, women, and the poor?
2. Do any of the other gospels discuss Jesus's childhood?
3. Luke's gospel is filled with "parables," stories told by Jesus that try to get people thinking in a new way about life and about God. What insights into God and human experience are contained in parables like the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, etc.? Pick one or two parables that you particularly like, and be prepared to talk about them.
4. What kind of person does Luke think Jesus is? What kind of picture does he paint of Jesus (think, for example, of how Jesus relates to people in this gospel)?

Some questions for discussion of the Dhammapada:

1. What does the Buddha have to say about desire? Is desire always bad?
2. What are some of the differences between a fool and a wise person, according to the Buddha?
3. The Buddha says "Want nothing" (e.g., p. 24). What is the result of a life without desires? What is the significance of these words in relation to our discussion last semester of "Affluenza?"
4. The Buddha says, "do not make light of your failings. . . do not belittle your virtues" (p. 34). What can the Buddha teach us about self-knowledge?
5. Why is the Buddha against violence?
6. What does the Buddha have to say about pleasure and pain? anger? Do you think his words can apply to your own life?
7. What connection does the Buddha see between our thoughts and the world?
8. Where are the "five precepts" mentioned in the text?
9. What do you think is the meaning of the last sentence of the Dhammapada?
10. Where do you see parallels between the Buddha's teachings and the life and teachings of Jesus in Luke's gospel?

In reading the introduction pay especially careful attention to pp. xxi-xliii. The following discussion questions relate to pp. 1-17:

1. Ivan says, "It’s not that I don’t accept God, you must understand; it’s the world created by Him that I don’t and cannot accept" (5). What does Ivan mean by this? Why can’t he accept this world as God’s creation?
2. On p. 16, Ivan talks about an imaginary world where all people could be happy and at peace if a single baby was tortured to death. Would it be right or wrong to let a single baby suffer so that all persons could have happiness and peace?
3. Ivan refuses to follow a God who would allow innocent children to suffer. What is Aloysha’s view of this? Does he have an answer for his brother?
4. What is your own view on the question of God’s responsibility for human suffering? Why do innocent children suffer? If God is all-good and all-powerful, is God responsible in some way for the suffering of innocent children? But if God isn’t all-good, or God isn’t all-powerful, is God really God?

REMEMBER that we will begin by discussing question #4 from the reading for 2/27.

Please use the following questions to prepare for our discussion of pp. 19-37:

1. Why does the Grand Inquisitor imprison Jesus? What does he fear about Jesus?
2. What does Ivan mean when he says that the Grand Inquisitor and his colleagues "have vanquished freedom and have done so to make men happy" (24)? How does the story of the Grand Inquisitor demonstrate the tension between freedom and happiness?
3. What does the ending of "The Grand Inquisitor" mean? What is the meaning of the dialogue on page 37 where the brothers discuss whether "everything is lawful"?
4. What is the meaning of "The Grand Inquisitor" for today? For your own life?

Unit II: Secular/Scientific World Views

Short Writing Assignment #3 due today
Write a 2-3 page essay (typed, double-spaced) responding to The Secular Humanist Declaration. Your essay may take one of the following forms:
- Discuss the point you most agree with and the point you most disagree with, and why
- To what extent does the Secular Humanist Declaration express or not express a worldview similar to yours at this point in your life? Explain.
- How would you defend a religious world view against the Secular Humanist Declaration?

Study Questions for pp. 1-73 of Gould. Use these to review for the quiz:

1. What is Gould's view on progress as characterizing the history of life?
2. Why does Gould not think that humankind is representative of life as a whole? What life form does Gould see as most dominant and most significant?
3. What does Gould argue is more significant: "trends" or "variations in entire systems"? Why?
4. Gould speaks of a "dethronement" of human arrogance that was brought about by paleontology. What is it?
5. Does Gould think that increased complexity is a sign of progress in evolution?
6. What is the difference between a mean, a mode, and a median?
7. What is Gould's opinion of the way people interpret reality in terms of "averages?"
8. Why does Gould argue that neither the mean nor the median value of mortality rates for his disease was relevant to his case?
9. What is the significance of "walls" in Gould's argument? (What is a wall and what function does it have?)
10. What is the significance of seeing evolutionary history more as a "bush" than a "ladder?"
11. Does Gould totally deny that evolutionary trends exist, or does he reinterpret the meaning of trends?
12. What does Gould mean by "life's little joke?" Why is the evolution of the horse a good example of the joke?
13. Does Gould think that the evolution of the horse could have ended up differently? What are the implications of this for human beings? (What does he mean by his last sentence on p. 73?)

Study questions for chapters 12 and 13:

Chapter 12:
1. If you were asked to describe the "bare bones" of natural selection, how would you proceed? What are the facts from which natural selection follows as an inference?
2. What fact is NOT included in Darwin's theory of natural selection?
3. According to Gould, does 'adaptation to changing environments' always lead to greater complexity?
4. What is Gould's take on Darwin's argument for progress on the basis of biotic competition? Why doesn't he buy it? How does Gould's reasoning here relate to what we learned about the Enlightenment?

Chapter 13:
1. What conclusion does Gould draw from the "drunkard's walk" illustration?
2. What is "Cope's Rule?" Does Gould think it is valid?
3. Does Gould think that selection favors large size? Why or why not?

Study questions for Chapter 14 of Gould:

1. At the beginning of the chapter, Gould again summarizes his thesis about trends. What is that thesis?
2. Gould argues against progress "of the whole" (p. 168). The question occurred to me, which I ask you to ponder as well: why can't there be progress of one part of the whole? Why couldn't this be significant? (Note: the epilogue will address this question somewhat.)
3. According to Gould, for how long did bacteria alone constitute the history of life?
4. Why does Gould deny that we should measure progress by the 'right tail' of life's distribution curve?
5. Why does Gould argue that a tendency towards decreased complexity may be characteristic of natural selection?
6. On what basis does Gould claim that "humans are here by the luck of the draw"?
7. "If we must characterize the whole by a representative part," what would that part be? What is life's constant mode, according to Gould?
8. According to Gould, how "diverse" are bacteria?
9. Where do we fit on the genealogical map on p. 180?
10. How does Gould make the claim for bacterial domination with respect to: time; indestructibility; taxonomy; ubiquity; utility; biomass?
11. What does Gould suggest about the existence of bacterial life in the universe?
12. What is the difference between a passive and a driven system? Why is this important to Gould's argument?
13. If the evolution of multicellular life were to begin all over again, from scratch, does Gould think we'd be here? Do you think we would?
14. Gould seems desperate in this book to make the point that we humans should not be so arrogant and self-centered. What other readings and themes in Foundations (both semesters) have challenged us to think about this point?

Discussion questions for Polkinghorne:

1. What is Polkinghorne's thesis in this chapter? Are science and religion conflicting or complementary?
2. How does Polkinghorne think that people have misunderstood the stories of Galileo and Darwin?
3. Does Polkinghorne think that radical revision of beliefs is easier for scientists than for theologians?
4. Does Polkinghorne think there is such a thing as a "bare" scientific fact? Why or why not? Why does Polkinghorne speak of science as "complex?"
5. Does Polkinghorne seem to accept the idea of science as "saving the appearances?" What about the pragmatic view of science?
6. What is "critical realism" and why is it significant?
7. What are Lindbeck's three approaches to the practice of theology?
8. Does Polkinghorne think that "critical realism" can apply to theology?
9. What are the possible modes of interaction between science and religion? Which ones does Polkinghorne seem to favor?
10. What is the most significant thing you learned in reading this chapter?

Unit III: The American Experience

Discussion questions for Dostoevsky:

1. Why is Zossima’s brother so happy as he nears his death? What does he mean when he says that "everyone is really responsible to all men for all men and for everything" (41)?
2. Why did Zossima decide not to go through with the duel? What happened to change his way of thinking about life and his relation to other people?
3. The key to Zossima’s theology appears at page 76 when he says, "There is only one means of salvation, then: take yourself and make yourself responsible for all men’s sins; that is the truth, you know, friends, for as soon as you sincerely make yourself responsible for everything and for all men, you will see that it is really so, and that you are to blame for everyone and for all things." What does this mean? Are we really responsible for each other? What is the result of seeing the world in this way?
4. How does Zossima’s life and preaching serve as an "answer" to Ivan’s attack on God for allowing innocent children to suffer?