TRS 121: Belief and Unbelief/Spring, 2013

Classroom: D120

Prof. Paul Giurlanda

Office: Dante 326 (Office hours are posted on my office door, as are other announcements and cool cartoons.)

Email:

Are you interested in any of these questions?

Is there a God?

If so, so what?

If not, so what?

Is the universe benign, malign or just indifferent?

Is there a life after death, and if so, do I need to bring along a change of underwear?

Are you capable of serious, sustained intellectual inquiry? Read on!

By the end of the course, I hope and expect that you will be able to:

Explain, either orally or in writing, to an intelligent person, some of the major arguments offered against religious faith

Explain, either orally or in writing, the responses of a person of faith might offer to those arguments.

[More specifically] Set the thought of atheists like Camus and Sam Harris in dialogue with religious believers like Tillich (Dynamics of Faith) and Gregory Ganssle (A Reasonable God: Engaging the New Atheists).

Offer a reasoned agreement or disagreement with William James in his updating of Pascal’s wager that demonstrates you have understood his (often misunderstood) main point in his lecture, “The Will to Believe.”

Course Requirements:

1. Five 25 point objective tests125

2. Midterm paper of 4 to 5 pages 50

3. Final paper of 6 to 8 pages100

Honor code:

You may be aware that, as a college, we have created an “honor code” system for dealing with violations of academic integrity. For more information:

For the moment, you need to know that I will not tolerate any forms of academic dishonesty. If you’re not clear what “academic dishonesty” means, consult the website. There’s an old legal principle: “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” In a nutshell: if you write something, unless you tell me differently, I assume that it’s your production, not your best friend’s or roommate’s or that of a writer you’ve read. Learn the principles of citation and use them in any paper you write.

Attendance Policy

1. Absences, whatever their reason, have a negative effect on learning, especially in a course like this one, which depends on student/student and student/professor interaction.

2. There is no distinction between excused and unexcused absence; however, I would appreciate it if you would let me know when you’re not going to be in class.

Cell phone Policy

These should be PUT AWAY, TURNED OFF and NOT VISIBLE. If I have to tell you to put away your phone, I’ll put a dreaded “CP” on your attendance card. Two of these = one point deduction on final grade. This could be the difference between B- and B, for example.

Participation

1. This involves a lot more than bodily presence. Participating in the class means contributing to the learning process and thus making the classroom experience a positive one for all. I look for the following markers:

a. having the right book for the day’s discussion

b. asking good questions & being ready to answer some

c. remaining focused in class (no cells, laptops, etc.)

d. not initiating or participating in cross-talk

e. being on time

f. being respectful of other students and professor

2. Admittedly, judging participation is somewhat subjective, so I will use a rather coarse scale:

Average: no effect on grade

Above average: three pts. addition to final grade

Below average:three pts. deduction from final grade

Required Texts:

Camus, Albert. “The Myth of Sisyphus.” (Essay) in The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays. New York: Knopf Doubleday, 1991. (Available on-line at

Camus, Albert. The Plague. New York: Random House, 1991.

Ganssle, Gregory, A Reasonable God: Engaging the New Face of Atheism. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2009.

Harris, Sam, The End of Faith. New York: Norton, 2005.

James, William. Varieties of Religious Experience. Barnes and Noble Classics, 2004.

James, Will to Believe and Other Essays. New York: Dover, 1956. (Photocopied selections; all of this book is in the public domain and available on-line.)

Steinfels, Peter, “Further Adrift: The American Church’s Crisis of Attrition.” Commonweal, October 22, 2010.

Tillich, Paul, Dynamics of Faith. New York: Harper, 1957.

Various photocopied materials.

Suggested Resources:

Allen, Woody, dir. Bullets over Broadway. 1994. [Film]

Allen, Woody, dir. Crimes and Misdemeanors. 1989. [film]

Allen, Woody, dir. Match Point, 2005. [Film]

Bruce Beresford, dir., Black Robe. 1991. [Film]

Endo, Shusaku. Silence. New York: Taplinger, 1980. [Novel]

Mendes, Samuel, dir. American Beauty. 1999. [Film]

Required (and most of the suggested) resources are on reserve.

A note on citation. Note that the above bibliography is in MLA style. If you go to the SMC library webpage, then click on “Research” (left column), then on “Citing Information” (right column), you will then be directed to the MLA style guide. YOU MAY ALSO USE THE CHICAGO STYLE GUIDE, which makes use of footnotes. This was the style I learned in graduate school, and I tend to prefer it. I’m switching to MLA just because it seems to be more popular now. However, you can follow either the MLA style or the Chicago style in ALL your papers unless otherwise notified by me. Failure to do this will result in a lower grade.

Handing in Papers/Late Paper Policy

Papers are to be handed in on time, in printed out form, not emailed (and NEVER faxed). A paper handed in late will be penalized five points for each class it’s late. Athletes and others in special circumstances may request to email their papers.

Schedule of Assignments

On this day: You must have read:

February 6 / First day of Spring Term!
February 8 / Peter Steinfels article, “Further Adrift: The American Church’s Crisis of Attrition” (photocopied)
February 10 / Harris, Chapter One, “Reason in Exile” / Drop/Add Period ENDS
February 13 / Camus, 3-33
February 15 / Harris, Chapter Two, “The Nature of Belief” / Last day to turn in Drop/Add form.
February 17 / Harris, Chapter Three, “In the Shadow of God”
February 20 / Camus, finish Part One
February 22 / Harris, Chapter Six, “A Science of Good and Evil”
February 24 / Harris, Chapter Seven, “Experiments in Consciousness”
February 27 / Camus, 67-99 (end of Paneloux’s sermon)
February 29 / Test on Harris
March 2 / Camus, 100-130
March 5 / Camus, finish Part Two
March 7 / (SKIP PART THREE!) Camus, 189-219
March 9 / Camus, 220-257
March 12 / Camus, END
March 14 / Test on Camus
March 16 / Ganssle, Intro + ch. 1
March 19 / Ganssle, ch. 2 / Mid-term week
March 21 / Ganssle, ch. 3
March 23 / Ganssle, ch. 4
March 26 / Ganssle, ch. 5
March 28 / Ganssle, chapter six
March 30 / Ganssle, chapter seven plus “A Modest Conclusion” / Mid-term paper due; Easter break starts on Saturday, the 31st
April 11 / Test on Ganssle
April 13 / Tillich, chapter one
April 16 / Tillich chapter two
April 18 / Tillich, chapter three
April 20 / Tillich, chapter four
April 23 / Tillich, chapter five / Last Day for P/F Grading
April 25 / Tillich, chapter six / Easter Recess
April 27 / Test on Tillich
April 30 / William James, “The Will to Believe” (essay)
May 2 / William James, “Is Life Worth Living?”
May 4 / James, Chapter 18 from Varieties of Religious Experience
May 7 / James, Chapter 19 from Varieties
May 9 / James, Chapter 20 from Varieties
May 11 / Test on James
May 14 / Final Exam Time, 11:30 to 1:30 / Final Paper Due

A note on the midterm and final papers:

One of my goals this semester is to work with you in writing an excellent final paper. The general topic of your mid-term paper will be “A philosophical and/or theological comparison of Camus’ The Plague and Harris.” I think you can examine these two authors from a) a strictly philosophical perspective (what is their view of reality and life) and also b) from a theological perspective (how do they view the possibility that life has a supernatural or religious meaning). I can’t emphasize enough that your first paragraph needs to tell us a) WHAT you intend to do and b) HOW you intend to do it.

Did I mention that your first paragraph you need to your reader a) WHAT you intend to do and b) HOW you intend to do it?

I’d like to clarify another point often made murky by professors, and it’s this: a paper that simply repeats class discussion or simply re-tells the story of a novel or text is a boring paper, in my view. I assume you already have the read the material and understood it, at least on a basic level. The purpose of your paper is to go deeper than that, show original (though grounded) thought, and not to bore the pants off your beloved professor.

I’ll pass out a set of suggested finalpaper topics later; however, just to give you a head start, I’ll tell you that I’m partial to papers which incorporate films, and I’m a big admirer of the films above. They’re on reserve, and start watching them now. I would suggest starting with Crimes and Misdemeanors. As you watch these films, take notes and ask yourself questions.

Your final paper will offer you choices, one of which is to respond to the defenses of religious faith (and in Ganssle’s case a direct response to Harris) offered by Ganssle and Harris, and to an extent, William James. (Whether James might be considered a “Christian” is debatable, but that he defends religious faith is not.) More on that later.

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