Rel
375. Exam Questions
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.
Sept. 19, 2008
Rel 375– 08. EXAM #2 Wednesday,
Oct. 22.
Section Four: Miracles
Ch. 8. Belief in Miracles Today
1.. Explain the difference between true supernatural miracles (#6 on.p.
82) and at least three of the other possible definitions of "miracle" on pp.
81-82.
2. One conception of how God works in time and space is "strong
supernaturalism." Explain how this differs from "naturalistic religion."
3. Discuss the plausibility of some of the cures at Lourdes being the result
of miracles (how many have happened; what requirements must be met to
qualify as a possible miracles – I am interested in your understanding of
the relevant information, not whether any of the cures in fact is or is not
a miracle).
4. Describe the conclusions of Asser and Swan on the effectiveness of
relying on prayer alone by Christian Science and some Christian
fundamentalist groups to handle children’s diseases.
Ch. 9. A Brief History of Christian Thought about Miracles
5. Explain why Stoic philosophers objected to Christian belief in divine
miraculous interventions, and how Bishop Irenaeus responded.
6. Describe Augustine’s first 3 opinions of how wondrous events in nature
might come about, and which of them is most compatible with cosmological
naturalism
7. Explain the difference between the "absolute" and "ordained" power of
God, and why an emphasis (by nominalism) on the latter ended up emphasizing
the need for an empirical study of nature.
Ch. 10. Modern Theologies about Miracles
8. What were the "irrationalities" of the 17th century (and
other times) that made a search for a "rational" religion more appealing?
9. Roughly cite Lord Herbert of Cherbury’s five major "rational" religious
beliefs that could be universally acceptable to people of all traditions (he
thought). Discuss whether all deists rejected all miracles (you do not have
to remember the names of specific deists – except Boyle and Jefferson).
10. Explain Hume’s way of balancing the probability of a miracle against the
probability of the validity of testimony in favor of that miracle – i.e.,
that probability that the testimony is not mistaken.
11. How did Schleiermacher argue that belief in miracles is actually
contrary to true religion, and that true religion therefore gives support to
a scientific approach to nature.
12. Explain and illustrate what Bultmann did when he "demythologized."
13. Explain how some20th century Christians use quantum theory and chaos
theory to describe how God might intervene (Special Divine Agency or Action)
without violating the laws of nature.
14. Explain this statement: "fundamentalism arose in response to
Scheiermacher’s liberal theology."
Section Five: Cosmic Evolution
Ch. 11. Varieties of Universes
15. Contrast the amount of overall order to the universe expected or
portrayed in primitive, archaic, and classical civilizations.
16. Explain the differences among a cyclical, everlasting, and "linear" view
of the universe, identifying at least one group or person who held each of
them and some related ideas held by each.
17. Describe what is meant in general by a "great chain of being" and
describe also the Platonists (neo-Platonists, in fact) version of it.
18. What was 17th century corpuscularism? Explain whether
it supported scientific naturalism.
Ch. 12. Cosmic Order
19. Describe two problems or oddities that were part of the Ptolemaic
geocentric view; and two that the Copernican view included, which Galileo
could not answer.
20. What is the most likely biblical view of the structure of the universe?
Did early Christians like Augustine hold firmly to it. How did the Pope in
Galileo’s time come to defend the Ptolemaic view?
21. Explain the connection people of the 17th century perceived
between Ptolemaic cosmic order and the many aspects of social order, and how
the new astronomy undercut this neat cosmic order.
22. Explain Edwin Hubble’s startling discovery in the 1920s about some of
the larger "stars" in the sky and their motion relative to Earth.
Ch. 13. Religious Interpretations of the Cosmos
23. Explain why the Earth could not exist unless there were first huge
stars going through processes which began about 3 billion years ago.
24. Explain the two major aspects of Teilhard’s "law of complexification,"
which are differentiation and convergence. What does Teilhard claim will lie
beyond even current "hominization"?
25. Briefly define, and describe the case for, the Strong Anthropic
Principle (SAP).
26. Explain the extent to which the existence of countless "universes" (or a
"multiverse") could undercut the SAP, and how certain or uncertain the
existence of such universes might be.
27. Describe Hartshorne’s notion of God and how this God interacts
with the universe.
FINAL EXAM Scheduled for 4:30 on Monday, Dec. 15 (but may be
taken on Tues., Dec. 16 at 1:00 in HM 119)
375 – 08 Final Exam
Ch. 14 Basic Theories of Evolution
1. Describe Paley’s whole "argument from design;" give some example of
the design he saw in nature.
2. What are the geological theories called "catastrophism" and "uniformitarianism"?
Explain which of them fits best with scientific naturalism.
3. Describe the 3 major aspects of Darwin’s theory and explain why it can be
called a "mechanistic" account.
4. Explain how Spencer and Haeckel’s ideas as well as Driesch’s theory
differed from Darwin’s.
5. Explain why it is reasonable to say that Darwin’s theory is not just a
"social construction."
Ch. 15. Evolution and Christianity: five challenges to faith
6. Explain how the theory of evolution can challenge the Bible, and
Gosse’s response.
7. Describe what evidence makes evolution seem unplanned and brutal
8. Describe Tim LaHaye’s major objection to the theory of evolution. How
does his fundamentalist position differ from 19th century
religious people who at least partly accepted evolution?
9. Briefly describe Young Earth Creationists’ 3 types of attack on
evolutionary theory.
Ch. 16. The New Creationism: Intelligent Design
10. Summarize Dembski’s reasons for saying there must be an Intelligent
Intervener
11. What arguments does Behe use in Darwin’s Black Box to say there
must be an Intelligent Intervener?
12. What response do critics of Behe make to his argument in this book?
14. Describe the various theological issues that Behe and Hunter identify
Ch. 17. The Soul Tradition
15. Briefly describe the major different ideas that Judaism might have
borrowed from Persia and from both philosophical and popular Greek sources.
16. Describe the earliest Christian notions of the inner self or psyche,
found in Paul and in other sources.
17. Describe the notions of the soul entertained by Augustine.
18. According to Aquinas, what is the nature of the soul and what are its
major functions?
19. This chapter notes that geocentrism and belief in a spiritual soul are
both remnants of ancient Greek science. Explain the difference between the
two, however, in establishing whether they are true.
Ch. 18. Science on the Mind
20. What does the history of tool use by hominids indicate about the
evolution of intelligence; give some specifics about this.
21. Describe aspects of language use that seem to indicate that it is the
brain that does human thinking.
22. Describe the development of intelligence in an individual, beginning
from childhood, that suggests, it is the developing brain which does human
thinking.
23. Provide evidence from neurophysiology that also suggests it is the brain
that does human thinking.
ch. 19. The freedom of a Material Soul
24. Explain what it means to say that human consciousness represents a
"complexity frontier" that has emerged through evolution into CSI
25. What is the fundamental claim that sociobiology makes about a lot of
human behavior? Give an example or two.
26. Give some examples of ways in which cultural development ("nurture") has
produced important specific changes in human behavior.
27. Describe briefly problems with the concept of "free (uncaused) will" and
how inner freedom may not need to be defined in this way.
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