See below for questions for Exams #2 and #3.

 Rel 375-07.  Exam #1, on Method and God.  Sept. 24 Wednesday.

These questions are all based on the text for the course, Religion and Science.  Classroom lectures are intended only to aid in understanding the text.

On the day of the exam, 9 poker chips will be drawn, with numbers between 1 and 27, to match the 27 questions below.  You will answer 6 of those questions in class, any 6 you individually choose.  The answers will have to be relatively brief.  In a 75 minute class, you will have only about 12 minutes for each answer.  But the more thorough answers will, of course, probably get a better grade.  Some of these questions are more difficult and probably call for more exposition.  If you select only the 6 questions calling for the shortest response of the nine, that will deprive you of a chance to get a high grade for thorough exposition of a complex issue. 

 Introduction:
      1. Describe the major changes in culture and religion (pp. 7-9),
             and the implications for religion's situation today, perhaps challenged again to change.     

 Chapter 1.  Faith and Reason as Methods in Religion. 
      2.  Describe Galileo's argument that it is all right to use science to figure out when to follow the bible.
      3.  Summarize the "through version” of what the words "faith" and "reason" usually mean.

Chapter 2.  Modern Theologies about Faith
      4.  Describe well any three of these four theological positions about the basis of faith:
           a) external evidence, b) internal evidence, c) inner existential commitment, d) radical orthodoxy.
      5.  Describe each of Fowler's stages; also describe Kwilecki's objection to using them

Chapter 3.  The Method of Science.
      6.  Describe the three major forms of "naturalism" and give two reasons why science uses naturalism.
      7.  Describe what "materialism" has meant and how "emergentism" counterbalances it.
      8.  Describe the four major aspects or steps of the method science and the rule of "fit" as in networks or puzzles.

Chapter 4.  The Limits of Science
      9.  Describe the "If A, then B" nature of science, explaining why this method cannot fully prove anything.
     10. Describe the arguments for and against the claim that science is based on faith.
     11. Describe how science achieves some objectivity through double blind studies and through publishing results.

Chapter 5.  Criticisms of Science
     12.  What do postmodernists mean when they say that all knowledge of socially constructed.
     13.  Describe Lindbeck's postliberal notion of religion. 
     14.  Describe the double case Pomo makes against the validity of science, that it is
             a) the product of only a particular culture and is b) based on values.
      15.  Describe the "it works" defense of science as a universally valid method,
             and why it should should not be surprising that our sense work fairly well.

 Chapter 6.  The Reality and Nature of God
      16.  Explain why the shift from belief in gods to monotheism provided a ffoundation for early science.
      17.  Describe the views of the ancient Stoics and Platonists and Aristotle about the Ultimate Reality
      18.  Explain Anselm's definition of "God" (include the material preceding the passage from Anselm)..
      19.  Describe Aquinas's argument that if this is a contingent universe, as it seems to be,
             there must be a necessary (cannot not-exist) Uncaused Cause of that universe
      20.  Explain the limited way Aquinas says we must apply attributes to God (Good, Powerful, etc.)

Chapter 7.  Science-Based Atheism and Some Religious Responses
      21.  Name at least two ways in which the development of science has undercut belief in God
      22.  Explain what "the problem of evil" consists of, and why it also can challenge belief in God
      23.  Describe Feuerbach's position on a) the finite human person's capacity for the infinite,
               b) God as a "projection" of idealized human attributes, and c) how this is self-alienating.
      24.  Explain the several aspects of Freud's theory of the origin and maintenance of religion
      25.  Describe Richard Dawkins' argument that a) there is no rational basis for belief in God,
                b) religion is harmful, and  c) why God the Designer would have had to be designed.
      26.  Cite three reasons provided by McGrath why Dawkins is wrong.
      27.  Describe Rahner's characterization as humans as open to infinite mystery,
                as well as the four responses Rahner says a person can have towards this mystery.

 Ch. 4.  The nature and existence of God.  Be able to:
      16. discuss the appearance ca. 600 BCE of the notion of a single Ultimate and how this can lead to science.
      17. describe the metaphysical Ultimates of the Stoics, the Epicureans, and the Platonists;
      18. clearly distinguish the 3 basic notions of God given in the text (p. 80);
      19. give Anselm’s reason why God must be “that than which nothing greater can be conceived;”
      20. discuss how Aquinas establishes the existence of God and what he says
            about how people can know and name God;
       21. provide some description of the Ultimate reality according to Hindu and Taoist traditions.

 Ch. 5.  Science-based atheisms and some religious responses.  Be able to:
      22. define atheism and describe how early science nibbled away at belief in God;
      23. describe the basic positions of Feuerbach, Max, and Freud on belief in God;
      24. describe Dawkins’ argument in support of atheism today, and McGrath’s response
      25. discuss Karl Rahner’s 3 major points of analysis in favor of a trust in the Ultimate (God).
      (use Larson and Witham’s study to show a link between science and atheism today, if that is useful)

Exam #2. Wed., Oct. 24.   Miracles and the Cosmos. Chs. 6-10

Section Three: Miracles

Ch. 6. Belief in Miracles Today
1. Define or describe at least four different possible meanings of the word “miracle,” being sure to include strictly supernatural miracles as one of the four. Give an imaginary example of each.
2. Explain the tension between belief in the intelligibility of the universe and belief in miracles, and how methodological naturalism and cosmological naturalism deal with this.
3. Explain the approaches used by Schleiermacher and by Bultmann to handle disbelief in miracles.
4. Describe the Templeton Foundation-funded attempt to test or demonstrate the power of prayer, and the outcome of this attempt.

Ch. 7. A Brief History of Christian Thought on Miracles.
5. What objections did the ancient Stoics make to Christian belief in mircles; what was the Stoic position on the intelligibility of the universe?
6. Describe Augustine’s four different theories on how “wonders” might be produced in the universe.
7. Explain the difference between the Absolute power of God and the Ordained power of God; explain how the distinction led to support for the empirical method which science would come to stress.
8. Describe the different positions on miracles taken by deists [you do not have to memorize the names of specific deists].

Section Four: The Cosmos

Ch. 8. Varieties of Universes
9. Describe the different degrees of order to the universe in primitive, archaic (polytheistic) and classical or historic religions.
10. Describe the differences among everlasting, cyclical, and “linear” universes (use both p. 88 & 101).
11. Describe the Neoplatonist universe, showing why its view is said to include the notion of a great hierarchical chain of being or order.
12, Compare the 17th century Neoplatonist views to the mechanistic view of the “corpuscularist, explaining which of these expects to find more regular and reliable order in nature.

Ch. 9. Cosmic Order
13. Describe the picture of the universe that appears in the Hebrew Scriptures (“Old Testament”) and compare it to the two different models of the universe in ancient Greek thought (Aristarchus & Hipparcus-Ptolemy)
14. Using the poetry cited in this chapter as well as the ideas of Pascal at the end, explain why the new astronomy of Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler was so deeply disturbing to 17th century people.
15. Describe Hubble’s two major discoveries – galaxies and expansion – and what these might imply concerning the size and direction of the universe.

Ch. 10. Religious Interpretations of the Cosmos
16. Describe Teilhard de Chardin’s interpretation of the history of the cosmos and its future.
17. Describe the evidence for the SAP and discuss how strong it is
18. Describe the characteristic of earth that make it especially apt for life; explain why this does not constitute good evidence for a SAP argument.