Remaining assignments:

Professor Nobis will be in his office Thursday from 11:30 to 1. 
He will be at class regular time, for review and discussion, Friday as well.

1. Small group project on theodicy, due Wednesday after Thanksgiving, the last day of class. Assignment below.

2. Final exam on various arguments for and against God's existence and related issues. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, FROM 1PM-3PM
Since the last exam, we have read and discussed:
1. the cosmological argument(s),
2.  the teleological / design argument(s),
3.  arguments from religious experience(s), both as explicit attempts to reason from religious experience to justify religious beliefs, as well as the question of whether religious experiences justify religious beliefs without any explicit reasoning,
4. Pascal's wager,
5. argument(s) for the non-existence of God from the existence of certain kinds of evil.
This exam is an opportunity for you to show that you understand these arguments and the most common objections to them, i.e., that you are able to explain the argument and explain at least two objections to them.

For this in class exam, you need to be prepared to be able to carefully explain all these arguments and the objections. You will only be asked, however, to explain three of them, and you will be told which 3 at the time of the exam. 

 3. Final paper. I want you to find an argumentative essay on a topic in philosophy of religion and write a paper about it, to show that you are able to state an argument or explain an argumentative discussion, evaluate that argument and follow all the guidance about writing found in Vaughn and Pryor. I will provide many options for this, including:

•  God Is Not Dead Yet: How current philosophers argue for his existence. 

• God: Philosophers weigh in Alex Byrne, http://bostonreview.net/BR34.1/byrne.php 

  Good Minus God - http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/good-minus-god/ 

• Does It Matter Whether God Exists? http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/22/does-it-matter-whether-god-exists/   

• An Imperfect God, By YORAM HAZONY 

  Religion  and Respect, Simon Blackburn

   

If you do do a paper on another article, you must get that article approved by Dr. Nobis.

For any graduating seniors, this paper is due, in hardcopy (submitted in the philosophy and religion office) and via Turnitin, by Wednesday, December 5 at noon. 

For everyone else, this paper is due, in hardcopy (submitted in the philosophy and religion office) and via Turnitin, by Monday, December 10. Please feel free to send Dr. Nobis a draft for comments, and to submit early.