Religious Faith Evidence Article Analyses Here is the essay prompt: Regardless of whether you are religious/spiritual or not, interact with the following question: If a person happens to have religious faith, how important do you think evidence should be for anyone in relation to those faith beliefs?
Religious Faith Evidence Article Analyses
In other words, give me your best thinking that defends your particular view on how important evidence should be for a person who has religious beliefs. If you think the evidence is important, tell me why with various specific reasons. If you do not think the evidence is important in the religious realm, tell me why with various specific reasons. Include why you do not prefer an opposing view in your essay. Be sure to interact with the two different conceptions of faith listed below that were discussed in class (Please note: You may or may not prefer one of the two definitions below. Your answer need not be limited to them. For some of you, you may have a personal position that is a bit different). Whatever your position is, be sure to keep your essay focus on the role of evidence in relation to faith, not on other side issues that are not relevant to this emphasis–because your essay is to be about religious epistemology. Also, be sure to make distinctions between subjective/intuitive evidence and objective/historical and scientific evidence as to their importance or not to your position.
Religious Faith Evidence Article Analyses
Philosophical conception: “Faith is trusting in an object or person or belief or concept that you, first of all, have determined to be true or not through evidence filtered through accepted epistemological standards that you personally found to be compelling. The reality first and then the trust.” (Note: evidence here can include subjective or intuitive experience, and/or scientific or historical type of evidence.)
Popular, “on the street” conception: “Faith believes in something which cannot be proved with evidence.” or “If you need evidence that you don’t have faith.”
What lowers a grade?
Poor writing mechanics resulting in a paper that is hard to follow.
Not keeping the focus of the essay on your personal position about the relationship between evidence and faith that is stressed above in the prompt. The importance of evidence or not, subjective or objective or not is to be an emphasis.
Not meeting the minimum word count noted above (Your 850-word count minimum is not to include any word count from the preface outline).
No preface outline included before the beginning of your essay.
Basic structure:
Your preface outline
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Instructions for Building Exodus 19 to 40 Commentary
You will draw from your class notes, assigned readings, extra research, and observations in order
to create a personalized reference work for your study of Exodus. There is some flexibility here, as you may choose to focus on specific aspects of the book (i.e. linguistic, socio-cultural, literary, etc.). It will in any case be academic. In other words, this is not about application or personal reflection on the biblical text.
This assignment will be a test of your research skills. It will require organization, clarity, understanding, the ability to separate important information from the unimportant, and the ability to distill that important information.
It will contain the following:
1. Section by section commentary ( Exodus 19 to 40)
a. Delineate your sections
b. Provide a roughly balanced commentary throughout each section
i. For reasons of space, pick an aspect of study that interests you and focus on that. For example, if you have a languages background, you might like to focus on linguistic aspects of Exodus. If you like archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern studies, then you might focus on the socio-cultural connections. If you like biblical theology, then you will focus on theological questions and so on.
c. Do not forget to include where you found information!
i. Citation style should conform to Chicago/Turabian or SBL formats. Footnotes are preferred.
ii. Remember that commonly known information (e.g. 586 BCE was the destruction of the first Temple) does not need cited, but specific arguments or lesser known material does. While it is better to err on the side of citing everything (as plagiarism is the ultimate academic sin!), students sometimes cite so much that it distracts from the flow of the discussion.
Feel free to adopt the style of your favorite commentary (albeit abbreviated). Some commentaries provide very short blurbs about each verse, while others will write a longer analysis of larger sections. Use whatever style you think is best for presenting the information.
Do NOT include:
o The biblical text itself. This unnecessarily takes up space. I have many Bibles that I can reference when I look at your commentary.
o Any long quotes, either from the Bible or from your research. Anything must be distilled and put into your own words.
o Superfluous charts or diagrams (or basically anything which is an obvious attempt to use space).
If you make a chart or diagram and it really does fit the commentary well, then that is fine.
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Describe your meditation experiences. What did you learn?
CHAPTER FOUR
SUSTAINABLE LIVING AND CONSCIOUS EATING
By Lisa Schmidt
I am nourished by the earth
My food is alive with nutrients
My senses are ignited
My body is satisfied.
Maria Napoli
“The most effective diet is one eaten in the context of the principles that sustain the Tree of Life itself. This model for conscious living of a spiritual life includes meditation and/or prayer; cultivation of wisdom; good fellowship with other conscious people; right livelihood; respect for the Earth and its inhabitants; love of the family and all humanity; respect for all people and cultures; respect for the forces of Mother Nature; respect and love for our own body and mind; and love for the overall totality of who we are. ”
—Dr. Gabriel Cousens, Conscious Eating1 The Tree of Life.1
The following chapter will offer you an opportunity to reflect on the food you eat, where it comes from, how you eat, and what happens in your body the moment you take a mouthful. Your eating experience will most likely change for life as you mindfully acknowledge what your current patterns of nutrition; pay attention how you choose the food you eat and when you eat; accept your experiences and decisions without judgment and finally take action to make a choice for change. Be gentle with yourself and take time to absorb the information shared with you in “sustainable living for conscious eating” as you will most likely find that change needs to take place in your life, yet we mindfully need to take small steps as we become aware of the changes we need to make, take time to practice and develop new behaviors and attitudes toward our nutrition and finally, begin to integrate healthy and nutritious behaviors that will improve the quality of our lives. Let the journey begin!
Food has energetic properties, and learning how to use its effects to enhance health and well-being is an age-old practice. From the origins of mankind, hunter-gatherers learned about local plants, and knew which were edible and how to use others as medicine. This type of knowledge about plants and their medicinal uses formed the basis of Western herbal traditions and traditional Asian medical systems. However, the seventeenth century brought the Western view of man as machine and the body as subject to mechanical laws. Under this conceptual framework where Newtonian physics and pre-evolutionary biology project a mechanical view into a microscopic realm, the wisdom of food as medicine was lost in the West. Mechanics work in explaining machines, but the body cannot be entirely explained with this metaphor. In other traditions, the use of herbs and plants as medicine remains alive and vital. With a four thousand year tradition of food as medicine for humans, we can find written records of Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicine practices with time-proven protocols. Reclaiming this wisdom and melding it with modern nutrition knowledge help us choose foods that encourage healthful metabolic processes. This allows us to use plants in nutritionally healthful ways that form our connection to Nature and all living things.
Moving beyond man as machine and seeing all living beings as a part of Nature that is interconnected changes our view of food and the act of eating. Nourishment becomes much more than just about what you and your family ingest for dinner. It’s also about the ripples that result from your need to eat, the entire world, and all of its inhabitants. We are all links in an enormous, complex food chain, and our lives depend upon our love and gratitude for all the other links. Buying organic spinach from a local farmer not only supports the farmer’s family; it also supports microorganisms in the soil, plankton in water, and less junk in the landfill. Making conscious grocery store decisions support the sustainability of all living beings, and our collective futures.
When we remember that the Earth is the provider of our food, we learn how to eat consciously: awake, aware, and alive. No packaged product, protein powder, or laboratory formula can offer the same vitality and sustenance as Nature’s direct offering. Nourished from within, we are able to give back to each other, our families, and our communities. As we sit down together and break bread in families, the food sharing ritual holds tremendous power. It is the spiritual glue that holds us together as families, friends, and communities.2
What we eat is linked to our awareness. Our food choices show our harmony (or lack of harmony) with ourselves, the world, and all of creation. The way we choose to eat and what we choose to eat makes us feel secure. This feeling of security makes it difficult, if not impossible, to change our diet unless presented with disease or pain associated with our current eating pattern. Many people are unwilling to make needed dietary or lifestyle changes even when their life depends on it.
Food as Energy
When we eat foods that are appropriate to our own individual needs we extract energy from our environment in harmony with the natural world. As we honor and respect our own body rhythms and eat in tune with our needs, we align with Nature and use food resources sustainably. Reducing waste, minimizing our carbon footprint, and maximizing finite resources, our bodies thrive. As we increase our connection to the process of eating and the world around us, we shift into harmony and make conscious lifestyle choices. We eat mindfully, consciously, and with love and affection for the Earth and ourselves.
Every day, we must meet the energy needs of our bodies despite fluctuations in the availability of the many nutrients the body needs. How do the cells of our bodies use fuel molecules, and what is involved in this process? The human body is dynamic and our cells have to switch between producing and using energy that we create from ingesting plants and animals. The body’s ability to adapt in the face of always changing conditions is crucial, and only possible because of its ability to self-regulate. As our bodies move between different physiological conditions like sleeping through the night, we “break the fast” in the morning which requires the body to change into a different metabolic state. At other times, we might be simply resting, or exercising. In all situations, the type and amount of nutrients available as cellular fuel changes abruptly. In order to provide the energy the body needs, we eat a variety of food, which the body in its amazing process converts into the energy we need to live. Through eating, we transform plants and animals into mitochondria, called our “cellular power plants” because they generate most of the cell’s supply of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is used as a source of chemical energy3 by all plants and animals, fueling all life functions. In addition to supplying cellular energy, mitochondria are involved in other tasks such as signaling, cellular differentiation, cell death, as well as the control of the cell cycle and cell growth.3
Let’s look at this transformation through the example of eating a tuna sandwich. How does our body accomplish this magic act of eating the mitochondria of plants and animals and converting them into our own mitochondria? The process of conversion is accomplished through the body’s process of digestion. Before we even begin the mechanical act of chewing, digestion begins in the mouth. Our salivary glands secrete fluid even when we think about eating, or smell food, or pick up the sandwich. This lubrication allows us to soften and break down the food for chewing, which grinds the sandwich into smaller particles (using the teeth), and saliva provides better interaction with taste receptors, making food more pleasurable to our senses. One type of saliva, salivary amylase, is slightly acidic, and it is perfectly adjusted pH helps break down starches from the sandwich (for example, the bread) and turns the complex starch molecules into single units—again, preparing the food for digestion. The mechanical (chewing) and chemical (amylase) process is the beginning of the metabolism of the tuna, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, and bread—otherwise known as protein, fats, and carbohydrates. Let’s take a walk through the food processing experience.
The biochemical pathway of food—eating a Sandwich
The bread—a primarily carbohydrate source of energy—starts to break down into simple sugar units which can be rapidly transported by our mitochondria across the intestinal wall and delivered quickly to body tissues. This classic conversion of plant mitochondria (from the bread) into our own mitochondria is delivered throughout the body in a singular sugar unit called glucose, an important energy source in all living organisms and a component of many carbohydrates. Fat in the form of mayonnaise begins its breakdown into lipids. Lipids are a group of naturally occurring molecules that include fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E, and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, triglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The main jobs that lipids perform in the body include storing energy, acting as signaling messengers to other cells, and providing structure for cell membranes.4
Not only does fat in the mayonnaise break down into molecules that help facilitate essential functions in our bodies like nerve conduction, hormone synthesis, and neurological transmission, it also provides a delivery vehicle for taste. Calorie dense, fat delivers twice the energy—in the form of calories—as protein or carbohydrates. It is also very effective in delivering flavors to the brain, enhancing the way processed foods taste, and encourage in subtle ways of our desire for more.
Next comes our assimilation of the tuna, the protein product that our body breaks down into amino acids. As the building blocks of protein, amino acids are the building blocks of life itself. Take a mindful moment and imagine eating the tuna sandwich, paying attention to what is happening in your body as it is assimilated. We use amino acids following digestion to help the body break down food, grow, repair body tissue, and perform many other key functions. The body can also use them as a source of energy, but it is a less efficient fuel than using sugars. Every cell in the body contains protein. It is a major part of the skin, muscles, organs, and glands. Protein is also found in almost all body fluids. The tuna in the sandwich provides about ½ your daily protein requirement. It is from an animal source (fish)—but we can also get protein from plants. In fact, this sandwich provides protein in the tomato, lettuce, bread, and even the mayonnaise. You do not need to eat animal products to get all the protein you need in your diet.5 The lettuce and tomato also begin breaking down into other kinds of carbohydrates:glucose and fructose.
What happens next to the broken down food? It moves by peristaltic waves stimulated by the nervous system to the stomach. Acid hydrolysis (hydrochloric acid, HCL) contributes to its degradation. HCL release is stimulated by a hormone called gastrin, which is released by the endocrine glands in the stomach in response to food; gastric releasing peptide (GRP), and the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. HCL uncoils protein strands, and activates the stomach enzyme PEPSIN. Proteins from the tuna part of our sandwich are broken down into smaller molecules called polypeptides by the pepsin and HCL. The HCL changes the protein structure, and activates pepsinogen (another hormone), which activates the pepsin in the stomach. Pepsin cleaves (“cuts”) proteins from large polypeptides into smaller polypeptides and frees amino acids. At the same time, the partially broken down fats are assimilated by the breakdown of their chemical structure into smaller units. Churning action of the stomach mixes the fat with water and the stomach acid, further breaking down the food into smaller and smaller units.
There isn’t digestion happening in the stomach—so far, food is simply being broken down through this complex process into smaller and smaller usable units. In the stomach, only water and certain fat-soluble drugs are absorbed, as is alcohol. The sandwich keeps moving, and becomes acid chyme, moving further into the intestine for digestion. The sandwich is now liquefied, and passes into the duodenum, the first segment of the small intestine. Ten inches long, it performs the important function of neutralizing the liquid to the appropriate pH, protecting the sensitive epithelial tissue in the intestine from damage. More intestinal cells release digestive juices, which help to move nutrients from the liquefied food throughout the small intestine. The balance of pH is really important, and our bodies are designed to keep the pH at just the right levels. With pH calibrated, the pancreas releases amylase, CCK, and secretin (enzymes and hormones). The nervous system is involved too, and helps to control the right amount to complete the digestive process.
More splitting of polypeptides (proteins) continues as enzymes are activated. You could say that the small intestine completely liquefies and absorbs the proteins. A cascade of reactions involving other enzymes happens as the protein continues to degrade. Once the protein breaks down into the individual amino acids they pass through the walls of the intestine. These free amino acids are then distributed by the blood system to all the body’s tissues, especially muscle, where they build back up again into proteins! Any extra amino acids are broken down by the liver, which is converted into glucose or fatty acids (stored in the body), with part of the amino acid excreted from the body as urine.
The full digestion of sugars leads to their absorption into the body and conversion by the liver and other tissues into fatty acids, amino acids, and glycogen. This process is less complicated for the body than digesting proteins. Sugars in the form of glycogen convert readily into energy, and have a big role in providing fuel to the body.
What happens to the fats? Their digestion and absorption relies upon bile and pancreatic secretions. When fat enters the SI, the gallbladder receives a signal to release bile to liquefy the fat. Bile’s emulsifying action converts fat globules into smaller droplets that repel each other. Did you know what an important role your gallbladder plays? The myth that the gall bladder is an unnecessary organ is demystified here as we see its very significant role as the main liquefier of fat! Following the emulsification process, enzymes get easy access to fat droplets. The pancreas secretes other hormones, which release the fatty acid part of the lipid, breaking it down into usable components.
Small particles called micelles are formed. Fitting in between microvilli, the microscopic parts of cells that increase its surface area, the micelles then move products of fat digestion from the SI to the brush border of the intestine where they can be absorbed into the intestinal cells. Following their absorption, they are broken down into glycerol and fatty acids, which recombine into triglycerides. The triglycerides become incorporated into another transport vehicle called chylomicrons, which move into the lymphatic system. The chylomicrons then go to adipose tissue, muscle, and liver where the fats are deposited in the body for longer-term storage.
Anything left over from this amazing story will exit through the large intestine as feces. If all goes well, this final step removes indigestible fiber, some intestinal prokaryotes along for the ride, and bacteria. What a journey!
The Individual’s Relationship to Food
The wonderful thing about food is you get three votes a day. Every one of them has the potential to change the world.
—Michael Pollan
Food and Our Emotions
How have you noticed the central role food plays in your life? From the time we are born we are developing deep associations between food and our emotions. As infants, our cries are answered with mother’s milk and Nature’s design, which combines a complete experience of receiving physical food with emotional connection and safety. Finding ways to nurture healthy emotional connections while feeding our bodies is the ultimate nourishment. We spend our lives linking food to our emotional needs in ways that attempt to recreate that early experience. Culturally, food plays a central role in life’s rituals. We celebrate occasions like weddings, holidays, graduations, and promotions, and food becomes a significant focus and strongly linked to emotions. Expressions like “drowning our sorrows,” “power lunches,” “chicken soup for the soul,” and even “swallow your pride” demonstrate how we use food to express, suppress, and manage love and many other emotions.
In light of these factors, we have many mixed feelings about food. Experiencing extremes with food are not unusual, including dieting, stuffing, fasting, gorging, starving, cravings, and even the bingeing/purging of anorexia and bulimia. We are a nation where one third of the US population is significantly overweight, and more than one quarter-24 percent of adult males, 27 percent of adult females, and 27 percent of children—are obese.6
In one sense, overeating leading to excessive weight is a disease of affluence. However, multiple factors are at play that include changes in genetics, major innovations that cause us to move around less (the automobile, television), an abundant, cheap food supply that is nutrient poor, and changing through technology plants and animals designed to feed us in perfect harmony with Nature. This manipulation of foods into “food like substances” is suspected to have negatively impacted our health in ways that have profoundly affected our ability to remain within normal weight ranges….
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Philosophy Benedict XVI and the Second Vatican Council
Philosophy Benedict XVI and the Second Vatican Council
There is a 600-word essay assignment which involves responding to two primary texts written by Benedict XVI and the Second Vatican Council. The essay assignment is due Tuesday, April 2nd. Essays that are late will be lowered by 5 points. The essay assignment constitutes 20% of the overall grade. Guidelines for the essay assignment are below and on the course website.
Response Essay Assignment (Shared Assignment THE 1000C)
This essay involves responding to the following two primary texts: Benedict XVI on the Identity of Humanity and The Second Vatican Council on Human Nature. These texts are located on the Blackboard website in the folder titled Response Essay Assignment.
Read the two assigned texts. In response, write a 600-word essay in which you do the following:
1) Briefly state the main idea of each reading (What is the author’s argument/main point/thesis?)
2) Briefly describe any points of agreement or disagreement (Do the authors agree or disagree? How so?)
3) Evaluate and take a position on the readings (Do you agree with one author over the other?
Why/why not? What is your own position in relation to the readings?)
PLEASE ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING:
a) Formatting: When writing the essay, please double-space and use 12-point font with 1 inch margins all around. Formatting essays must follow a recognized standard format (e.g. MLA, APA).
b) Citations: All materials taken from these texts must be properly cited by using footnotes or parenthetical styles. Even when you paraphrase, you must cite sources.
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Interpreting Human Culture Through Religion/ Book Essay
The book to use for this assignment is called CROSSING & DWELLING: A theory of Religion, By: Thomas A. Tweed. It’s very important that this paper contains references and ideas from the book.
Assignment Details:
We are digging very deeply into considerations about how to analyze human culture. We are doing this by exploring religion as an experience of migration and homemaking. This is a highly theoretical unit, but the value in front-loading the theory in the course and using such a big topic as religion as a starting point is that it shows us how to experience something with which we’re all familiar in society in a new way. If we conceive of religion (our own religion, another person’s religion, a historical spiritual tradition, a particular religious practice in a specific geographical location, or all of the above!) as something that functions to orient humans in time and space and that operates, in Tweed’s words, as a “confluence of organic-cultural flows that intensify joy and confront suffering by drawing on human and suprahuman forces to make homes and cross boundaries” (54), then we might find that we understand practices, spaces, beliefs, and people who are “doing religion” in new ways and learn new things that we might not have otherwise been able to grasp quite as fully. The goal here is simply to understand human societies outside of our own a little better, and this is how we are starting that process.
So, for Unit 1, I’d like you to explore Tweed’s approach to understanding religion by analyzing and describing one human cultural product of any kind (whether religious or not) using this method of interpretation. I modeled it for you in the analysis of the Twelve Steps as a religion, and I’d like to see you thoroughly explore some aspect of humanity in any time and in any place through this interpretive framework. You can explore a sporting event, a building, a particular religious artifact or ritual, a text, or a work of art (or anything else you think would fit into this methodology). Think about some facet of human existence (preferably one that you aren’t overly familiar with) and use Tweed’s theory to explore it.
For this assignment, you’ll only need to reference Tweed and your own artifact/cultural product, so no formal citations are required (only page numbers and a bibliography with information on how to access any sources you used besides Tweed). For this very first assignment, I’m most interested in seeing that your brains are starting to process these abstract theories in a more material way and that you are generating new and thoughtful connections. So, while the assignment itself is not overly formal, I want to see some good thinking from you!
The required length for this assignment is 500-1000 words (approximately 2-4 pages). If you do use an outside source besides Tweed, please cite it using whatever citation style is appropriate for your field. For references to Tweed, simply note the page numbers that you’re referencing.
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The Life of the Catacombs Art and the Early Christians 1. Your research paper should be approximately 1000-1200 words, not including bibliography or works cited.
The Life of the Catacombs Art and the Early Christians
2. The essay should use at least five (5) legitimate source in addition to your course manual or your textbook. You are to demonstrate that you actually researched the topic. If you use only the internet this will affect your grade. 3. You CAN use scholarly articles written and available online. 4. You CAN include interviews with gallery directors and artists where appropriate 5. You can NOT use general encyclopedias online or text such as Wikipedia, Britannica, Encarta, etc or online art dictionaries. 6. Include no more than three (3) low resolution, compressed images in your paper. These two images should be the most significant objects and/or buildings related to your chosen topic. 7. You must use a standard letter size page in portrait view (21.59cm x 27.94/ 8” x 11”) 8. You must use either 1.5 or double spacing.9. You must use Times New Roman font size 12 font. 10. You must use 3cm margins on all edges. 11. You may indicate a paragraph change by either a line space or by indenting, BUT you must be consistent. 12.
Your paper is to be free of spelling and grammatical errors.
You may use either English or American spelling, again you must be consistent. 13. Cite dates as follows: 1832-1836; 15
July 1836; the fifteenth-century; c. 1500; fifteenth-century houses. 14. Place quotations within double inverted commas; quotations within quotations in single inverted commas.
Quotations more than 6 lines long should start on the next line and use a single-spaced block quote format. 15.
Italicize the titles of books, journals, works of art, buildings, and these? do not underline them. 16. You may use any standard referencing style (APA, MLA, etc) for citing the information sources such as books, articles, or theses.
Choose one referencing style and use it consistently.
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Instructions: Answer ALL THREE of the Essay Questions. Your essay should be one file, and submitted into the Midterm Dropbox no later than March 15th by 11:59 PM.
Question 1: Compare and contrast Plato’s theory of Forms with metaphysical beliefs of Taoism. Be sure to summarize Plato’s various levels of reality and Taoism’s Yin-Yang conception. You’d do well to inform the general reader about what the Forms are and the relationship of Yin-Yang have in philosophical Taoism. Devote at least 1 page to Plato’s theory of Forms and at least 1 page to Taoism’s metaphysical tenets. Be sure to document any external sources used. Then, in a second part to this question, you should try and offer a reason why you think one version of reality is true than the other (at least 2 pages).
Question 2: In the reading with Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics detail the reasons why pleasure is not the highest good, but why it is the case that virtue leads to happiness. Recall that a virtue is defined for Aristotle as a reliable disposition displayed over time. You’d do well to pay attention to some of the videos on Aristotle on virtue as well as what is meant by excess and deficiency in relationship to virtue as well as my lectures on virtue in your personal notes (at least 1.5 pages).
Question 3: Compare and contrast the major ethical tenets of Buddhism with the agapic conception of love in Christianity. What about them is different regarding salvation in Christianity and mindfulness in Buddhism? Your answer must include an explanation of the Four Noble Truths, the Eight-fold Path, and the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount we read in the Gospel of Matthew (at least two pages). You may include other Christian sources of insight if you wish.
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Topic 3 – Visit and observe a Southeast Asian Religious Center/Site
If you choose the third topic, you will be visiting and observing a Southeast Asianreligious site in Southern California. Orange County and LA County have many temples, wats, churches, mosques, ashrams, etc. that have been founded by Southeast Asian immigrants and refugees.
The professor will provide you with a partial list of possible sites that you could choose to visit for this assignment.
In addition to describing the physical properties of the site, you need to discuss the people that you observe and the activities/behaviors they engage in at the religious center while you are there. Please plan to spend at least one hour at the site you visit (more time is better). Please take field notes while you are there.
Please do always show courtesy and respect when you visit any religious site. Please include a word count on your ethnography. 1500 word minimum
Your paper should be well organized, clearly written, and incorporate proper grammar and spelling as appropriate to any university level paper.
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Contemporary Moral Issues Ten Commandments Final Paper Assignment
Research and write about a topic related to the Ten Commandments in roughly 6-8 pages
Contemporary Moral Issues Ten Commandments
Important Deadlines:
Week 10: One-on-one Final Paper Meeting to provide a status update on your research (10pts)
Suggested topics:
Select one commandment and research what one religious tradition has said about that commandment
o E.g. Jews and Christians have various interpretations of the graven image commandment
Select one commandment and research other biblical references to the topic
o E.g. If you’re interested in adultery in the Bible, you could research it, and compare other
biblical passages to the prohibition in the Decalogue.
o E.g. If you’re interested in metaphorical interpretations, you could research depictions of God
as father and mother and make connections to the commandment on honoring parents
Critique one of the chapters in The Ten Commandments: The Reciprocity of Faithfulness
o There are chapters we will not read, e.g. Ch. 15 on Idolatry; Ch. 19 on Just War and Murder;
Ch. 20 on Adultery. Select a chapter, read, comment, and critique it, and then find another
a scholar who writes about the topic and compare/contrast their treatments
Research and write about what one scholar has said about the Decalogue, e.g. Philo, Irenaeus,
Augustine, Aquinas, Luther
Compare/contrast any version of the Decalogue with an ancient Near Eastern treaty
Research Passover, Shavuot, or Sukkot and describe ancient and modern celebrations.
Research the Ten Commandments and their influence on the New Testament. You could write about
how one New Testament book remembers/edits/expands upon the commandments.
Research biblical and archaeological evidence about the Exodus or about the development of
religious practices in ancient Israel
Research American Blue Laws and how they’re influenced by the Sabbath commandment. “Blue
laws” or “Sunday Laws” are tied to religious (Puritan Christian) standards of proper behavior. For
instance, several states forbid the purchase of alcohol or gambling on Sundays.
Research and write about debates over the public display of the Ten Commandments
A topic of your choice
The draft should be 4-5 pages and should include:
A working thesis that asserts your paper’s objective (10pts)
A detailed outline of about 1 page that shows the major sections and content of the paper (25pts)
Works Cited formatted in MLA with at least 3 sources beyond the Bible, Coogan, and Brown (10pts)
2-3 pages of your paper that show use of scholarly sources. These pages should show evidence of the early stages of your paper. It can include quotations from sources, but they should not be the bulk of the draft. Avoid grandiose overviews and introductions. Your pages can be excerpts from any section of the paper. (50pts)
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Importance of Religion Essay Paper In an essay of at least five paragraphs, with an introduction and a conclusion,
Importance of Religion
discuss how important religion has been to the national narrative and to America’s sense of mission at home and abroad. How important do you think it will remain to the American story? What religious directions do you imagine the American story might take in the years ahead? If you think religion belongs to the past and we live in a new age of reason, you need to check out the facts: 84% of the world’s population identifies with a religious group. Members of this demographic are generally younger and produce more children than those who have no religious affiliation, so the world is getting more religious, not less – although there are significant geographical variations.
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