Unit 3 Assignment

Instructions: Please note that the questions below are based on the Unit readings and are intended to be both an outline of the units’ material and the basis for your Unit Assessment, so please give your best effort to answering them thoroughly. The task is to respond to all 30 of the questions below. Each question will be worth one point.

The format for submission is to include the questions with the replies. Example:

How does one know what the good life is? 

 – The good life is…

1.     Define Theology. How is Theology different from the Philosophy of Religion?

2.     What are some of the questions Philosophy of Religion deals with?

3.     What are some of the difficulties and misconceptions associated with asking the question, what is Religion?

4.     List some of the common characteristics of religion.

5.     What are some of the common traits shared by the Religions of the West, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam?

6.     Define Theism, Monotheism, Pantheism, Panentheism, Polytheism, and Agnosticism.

7.     What are the three necessary properties associated with God in Western religious thought? Explain what each one means.

8.     What are some of the philosophical problem associated with the characteristics given to God in the Western Religious traditions?

9.     Briefly describe the Ontological Argument. (75-100 words)

10.  Briefly describe the Cosmological argument. (75-100 words)

11.  Briefly describe the Teleological Argument. (75-100 words)

12.  List and briefly explain the arguments that strive to prove God’s existence through experience.

13.  What is the philosophical Problem of Evil?

14.  What is a Theodicy?

15.  What is Natural Evil and how is it distinguished form Moral Evil? Give examples of both.

16.  What is Physical and Metaphysical evil? Give examples.

17.  What is the argument against God’s existence based on Natural Evil? Explain.

18.  Briefly describe the Theodicies of Augustine, Iraneus and John Hick.

19.  Contrast the claims of J.L. Makie and Alvin Plantinga.

20.  What is the meaning behind Alvin Plantinga’s Trans World Depravity?

21.  Explain the Free-Will arguments, and the counter arguments as they relate to the problem of moral evil.

22.  Briefly summarize the theodicy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz. Be sure to include his idea of the “best of all possible worlds.”(75-100 words)

23.  What is Process Theology? What is Open theism? What is Dipolar theism?

24.  How does Atheism resolve the problem of Evil?

25.  What is a Blik? What is a religious Blik? Give an example of both.

26.  What were Wittgenstein observations about the limits of language? How does it relate to foundational beliefs?

27.  Explain the Evidentialist Position on Basic Belief Systems.

28.  How does Thomas Aquinas explain the relationship between faith and reason? What is the difference between the commensurable, incommensurable, irrational and translational explanations of the relationship of faith and reason?

29.  Describe the reasoning involved in Pascal’s Wager? (75-100 words)

30.  What is Fideism? And, what is the Coherentist explanation of the relationship between faith and reason?

Unit 3 Assignment

Instructions: Please note that the questions below are based on the Unit readings and are intended to be both an outline of the units’ material and the basis for your Unit Assessment, so please give your best effort to answering them thoroughly. The task is to respond to all 30 of the questions below. Each question will be worth one point.

The format for submission is to include the questions with the replies. Example:

How does one know what the good life is? 

 – The good life is…

1.     Define Theology. How is Theology different from the Philosophy of Religion?

2.     What are some of the questions Philosophy of Religion deals with?

3.     What are some of the difficulties and misconceptions associated with asking the question, what is Religion?

4.     List some of the common characteristics of religion.

5.     What are some of the common traits shared by the Religions of the West, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam?

6.     Define Theism, Monotheism, Pantheism, Panentheism, Polytheism, and Agnosticism.

7.     What are the three necessary properties associated with God in Western religious thought? Explain what each one means.

8.     What are some of the philosophical problem associated with the characteristics given to God in the Western Religious traditions?

9.     Briefly describe the Ontological Argument. (75-100 words)

10.  Briefly describe the Cosmological argument. (75-100 words)

11.  Briefly describe the Teleological Argument. (75-100 words)

12.  List and briefly explain the arguments that strive to prove God’s existence through experience.

13.  What is the philosophical Problem of Evil?

14.  What is a Theodicy?

15.  What is Natural Evil and how is it distinguished form Moral Evil? Give examples of both.

16.  What is Physical and Metaphysical evil? Give examples.

17.  What is the argument against God’s existence based on Natural Evil? Explain.

18.  Briefly describe the Theodicies of Augustine, Iraneus and John Hick.

19.  Contrast the claims of J.L. Makie and Alvin Plantinga.

20.  What is the meaning behind Alvin Plantinga’s Trans World Depravity?

21.  Explain the Free-Will arguments, and the counter arguments as they relate to the problem of moral evil.

22.  Briefly summarize the theodicy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz. Be sure to include his idea of the “best of all possible worlds.”(75-100 words)

23.  What is Process Theology? What is Open theism? What is Dipolar theism?

24.  How does Atheism resolve the problem of Evil?

25.  What is a Blik? What is a religious Blik? Give an example of both.

26.  What were Wittgenstein observations about the limits of language? How does it relate to foundational beliefs?

27.  Explain the Evidentialist Position on Basic Belief Systems.

28.  How does Thomas Aquinas explain the relationship between faith and reason? What is the difference between the commensurable, incommensurable, irrational and translational explanations of the relationship of faith and reason?

29.  Describe the reasoning involved in Pascal’s Wager? (75-100 words)

30.  What is Fideism? And, what is the Coherentist explanation of the relationship between faith and reason?

  1. Logic is the study of reason and arguments.

A. True

B. False

2. Philosophy studies life’s most basic questions.

A. True

B. False

3. Philosophical questions are primarily subjective in nature.

A. True

B. False

4. The value of studying philosophy is that it develops your analytical abilities and your

capacity for abstract thought.

A. True

B. False

5. The word philosophy derives from two ancient Greek words: philia, which means love,

and sophia, which means wisdom.

A. True

B. False

6. Philosophical questions are conceptual in nature; __________ deal in probability and

plausibility rather than absolute truth and falsehood.

A. Philosophical uncertainties

B. Philosophical answers

C. Philosophical doubts

D. Philosophical statements

7. A major philosophical concept, ________________, deals with basic human character-

istics and similar traits in other beings like chimpanzees and dolphins.

A. Personhood

B. Selfhood

C. Self-being

D. Primitive self

Unit 1 Examination

45

Introduction to Philosophy

8. A(n) ________ fallacy involves an argument’s subject matter.

A. Formal

B. Informal

C. Truth

D. False

9. The two parts of an argument are _____.

A. Premises and conclusion

B. Fact and conclusion

C. Premises and falsehoods

D. Facts and truths

10. Another word for the facts, evidence, theories, or ideas that allegedly lead to an argu-

ment’s claim is _____.

A. Premises

B. Conclusions

C. Formal fallacy

D. Informal fallacy

11. If it’s sunny, Jennifer goes surfing. Jennifer went surfing today. Therefore, it must

have been sunny. This is an excellent illustration of affirming the consequent, a for-

mal fallacy.

A. True

B. False

12. “A square has four sides” is a necessary and sufficient condition for defining a

square.

A. True

B. False

13. The potions riddle in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” is an excellent example

of logical thinking.

A. True

B. False

Unit 1 Examination

46

Introduction to Philosophy

14. If someone is a student at Hogwart’s, then he or she is studying witchcraft and wiz-

ardry. Neville Longbottom is a student at Hogwart’s. Therefore, Neville Longbottom is

studying witchcraft and wizardry. This is an excellent example of Modus Ponens, or

the Asserting Rule.

A. True

B. False

15. Analytical thinking is the philosophical application of psychoanalysis.

A. True

B. False

16. Crossing the finish line first in a race in which you competed fairly and without cheat-

ing is a necessary and sufficient condition for you to be the winner.

A. True

B. False

17. The idea that there is one special person somewhere in the world that is your destiny

to meet and fall in love with is an example of ______.

A. Fatalism

B. Determinism

C. Free will

D. Pragmatism

18. A theory that claims that all human behavior is the result of scientifically identifiable

natural forces is an example of _____.

A. Fatalism

B. Determinism

C. Free will

D. Pragmatism

19. B.F. Skinner believes that human freedom is impossible.

A. True

B. False

Unit 1 Examination

47

Introduction to Philosophy

20. Freudianism claims that the human personality has neither conscious nor uncon-

scious dimensions.

A. True

B. False

21. A “Freudian slip” is an example of how the unconscious can determine what we say.

A. True

B. False

22. Sartre accepts the idea that _______________, that is, the theory that our choices

determine our nature.

A. Existence precedes essence

B. Essence precedes existence

C. Free will

D. Determinism

23. The theory of free will implies about responsibility that because our actions result

from our own choices, we are fully responsible for them.

A. True

B. False

24. Aristotle agrees with the following statement: The more we understand people, the more we know how little responsibility they have for their actions.

A. True

B. False

25. According to Ellis, irrational beliefs prove that determinism is correct.

A. True

B. False