Overview
Readings and Other Sources:
-The Age of Reason, Thomas Paine (Nuvision Publications, 2007)
-Create Your Own Religion, Daniele Bolelli (Disinfo Books, 2013)
-Living Religions, Mary Pat Fisher (Pearson 10th edition, 2017) SUGGESTED, not required
-Primary Sources: This course will use several primary sources. Some are contained in the assigned books. Others will be for you to find on the net as part of preparation for the papers.
Answer in short-answer format. This is not an exercise in copying and pasting, so I expect the answers to be written in your own words, and not to be identical to the sentences found in your classmates’ assignments. Demonstrate deep understanding of the information you are being asked and its broader signifigance. For example if you are being asked when something happened do not just provide and date or one sentence answers, talk briefly about the signifigance of that time I relation to the event.
1 In what year was “The Age of Reason” published?
2 What is the religious view embraced by Thomas Paine?
3 What is his opinion of the Book of Ruth?
4 What is the essence of Paine’s argument?
5 List at least 3 reasons why Paine holds a negative view of the Bible.
6 Why does he believe Christianity to be hostile to science?
7 What relationship—in Paine’s mind—should exist between religion and science?
All of the following are based on Create Your Own Religion:
8. How does the Ojibwa belief about “windingo” relate to accumulation of wealth?
9 According to the Gospels, why did Jesus at first refused to heal a non-Jewish woman?
10 What is a possible relationship between laughter and religious dogma?
11 Explain the argument presented in the book for the possible connection between faith and fanaticism.
12 Explain the possible pitfalls of relying exclusively on reason as a possible epistemological tool.
13 In which ways did Jesus break Jewish laws?
14 In which way is paradox a central theme of the book?
15 How is the Yin-Yang symbol paradoxical?
16 In the Judeo-Christian tradition, what punishments does God inflict because of Eve’s transgression?
17 What are the 5 Pillars of Islam?
18 What are the two main subdivisions within Islam? What do they differ on?
19 Which one is more popular (numerically speaking)?
20 What is Sufism?
21 Which one of the 6 Ways of Being Religious fits Sufism?
22 Why has it sometimes being persecuted by some orthodox Muslims?
23 What is the Hadith?
24 Is there one or multiple versions of the Hadith?
25 What is the Shari’a?
26 Why is the Shari’a followed by some Islamic governments but not by others?
27 When was the role of Caliph abolished?
28 What terminated the Abbasid dynasty? 29 What did the Edict of Theodosius in 395 say?
30 Who was Constantine and why is he important in Christian history?
31 The Roman empire was usually tolerant of many religions, so why did they persecute Christians?
32 Do we have any independent sources about Jesus written during his lifetime?
33 How was Christianity used to justify the colonization of the Americas?
34 When was the modern State of Israel established?
35 How long had it been since the last time that an independent Jewish state existed?
36 List 3 examples of European antisemitism.
37 What kind of rationale did Christianity provide for antisemitism?
38 Were Jewish people in Spain treated better under Islamic or Christian rule?