Philosophy of Religion Syllabus, Online
Philosophy of Religion, sect. 50
Fall 2021
Online
Professor Matt McCormick, Department of Philosophy, CSUS
Catalog: Phil 131. Philosophy of Religion. Introduction to philosophical theology, the philosophical study of religious assertions, arguments, and beliefs: the existence and nature of God; the rationality of religious belief; the relation of faith to reason; the problem of evil; immortality and resurrection; the possibility of miracles; the meaning of religious language. Includes both traditional and contemporary approaches.
This course also satisfies GE Area C2. The GE Area C Learning Outcomes are here.
Required Text: There are no required texts for this course in the bookstore.
All readings will be linked in the course schedule. You will need a reliable computer and Internet access for SacCT, assignments, readings, and lectures. You should have access to a secondary computer with reliable Internet access available as a backup.
This course is entirely online.
The readings are linked on the schedule.
All lectures are on my YouTube channel here: Prof. McCormick's YouTube Channel
All testing will be done in Canvas.
All writing will be done in Google Docs available through your Google Account.
Contact with the Professor will be through email: mccormick@csus.edu
The Course:
Religion is perhaps one of the most widespread and familiar of human behaviors. For as long as humans have been recognizably human, they have been religious. Religious claims are of particular interest to philosophers because they raise so many important metaphysical issues. That is, religious claims often make assertions about the ultimate nature of reality, the existence of souls, an afterlife, and most importantly, the existence of a God or gods. Part of the reason people have such a strong interest in religion is because of the implications religious claims would have on our lives if they are true.
We will discuss the philosophical, metaphysical, and epistemological foundations of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. There will be some discussion of Buddhism and Hinduism, as well. At the outset we will concern several issues surrounding the relationship of religion, science, and morality. Then we will consider some of the most influential and recent arguments that have been given for the existence of an all powerful, all knowing, all good, personal, and singular God. This notion is central to the predominant western and non-western monotheistic traditions. We will consider different epistemological approaches to religious belief, arguments for and against the existence of God, the problem of evil, faith, revelation, mysticism, the creation-evolution debate, the attributes of God, miracles, religion and rationality, and so on. We will operate with some assumptions: 1) serious rational inquiry and respectful dialogue on religious issues can help us learn about God, religion, and ourselves, and 2) we can obtain better, more reasonable positions regarding these topics. The perspectives and contributions of various ethnic, socio-economic, and religious groups will be considered in the discussions and readings.
Student Outcome Goals: This course has several major goals for students.
1) To develop the ability to think critically, objectively, and carefully about religious claims and issues.
2) To familiarize students with the major issues and arguments in the philosophy of religion.
3) To equip students with a number of basic, essential skills of philosophical analysis.
4) To expose students to diverse ethnic, cultural, historical, and social traditions as they intersect with religious issues.
5) To develop students' writing skills, textual analysis skills, and oral discussion/debate skills.
These goals will be met and assessed with reading assignments, reading quizzes, tests, vocabulary assessment, quizzes, class discussions, lectures, and philosophical research.
GE Learning Outcome Goals: Area C2: Humanities The learning objectives associated with C2 should focus on the human condition. Specifically, students completing C2 requirements should be able to:
A. Demonstrate knowledge of the conventions and methods of the study of the humanities.
B. Investigate, describe, and analyze the roles and effects of human culture and understanding in the development of human societies.
C. Compare and analyze various conceptions of humankind.
D. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the historical development of cultures and civilizations, including their animating ideas and values.
Grade Structure for the Course
Go to the Course Schedule for information about what readings are assigned, assignments, and links to projects.
Course Policies: Office hours, attendance policies, being tardy, late and missed assignments, makeup policy, cheating, intellectual property rights, students with disabilities, laptops,
A special note about the online format: the conventions, expectations, and rules for this online course will be different than many of the traditional courses you are used to. First, a word about cheating. An online course presents particular challenges concerning academic honesty.
A warning: the assignments, assessments, and course have been designed to make academic dishonesty more difficult and more risky than simply doing the work as assigned.
No cheating of any sort will be tolerated in this course. All sources must be cited and given appropriate credit. The author of any information from the Internet or another student from class must be given credit; using such information without indicating the source is stealing someone else's hard work and it is immoral. Cutting and pasting someone else's work is not acceptable. It is also unacceptable to make minor revisions in language to disguise someone else's sentences/ideas.
It is unacceptable to do any coursework for anyone else, either in the course now, or in the future. If anyone approaches you to take a quiz, or do a course assignment for them, notify me immediately. Any students caught violating this or any of the other academic honesty policies will be failed from the course and reported to the administration for disciplinary action, within the bounds of the University Policy Manual.
From the university policy manual: Plagiarism at Sacramento State includes but is not limited to:
The act of incorporating into one’s own work the ideas, words, sentences, paragraphs, or parts thereof, or the specific substance of another’s work without giving appropriate credit thereby representing the product as entirely one's own. Examples include not only word-for-word copying, but also the "mosaic" (i.e., interspersing a few of one’s own words while, in essence, copying another’s work), the paraphrase (i.e., rewriting another’s work while still using the other’s fundamental idea or theory); fabrication (i.e., inventing or counterfeiting sources), ghost-writing (i.e., submitting another’s work as one’s own) and failure to include quotation marks on material that is otherwise acknowledged; and
Representing as one’s own another’s artistic or scholarly works such as musical compositions, computer programs, photographs, paintings, drawing, sculptures, or similar works.
Collaboration: Students are allowed, even encouraged, to discuss lectures, readings, and assignments with each other. But every students must do his or her own work. Be cautious of sharing your notes, ideas, work, assignments, or papers with other students. Once you have given them a copy of or access to your work, you cannot control what they might do with it. If two or more students' work are found to violate the policy, all of the students will receive the same punishment, even if one did the work and the other plagiarized. Also beware of relationships with other students in which you stand to lose more than you gain. A student who freeloads off of your hard work might elevates his or her grade (or he might bring yours down) without working, and you get no benefit. Furthermore, you put yourself at risk for severe penalties for cheating.
Here is the university policy on academic honesty:
The attempt by a student to cheat on an exam or other academic assignment or to engage in plagiarism is a violation of a fundamental principle of academic honesty and integrity and will not be tolerated in the University. Formal procedures exist for dealing with these cases and penalties will be imposed on students who are found guilty of academic dishonesty. In the event of expulsion, suspension or probation, a notation is made on the student’s transcript. Suspension and probation notations remain on the transcript for the life of the suspension/probation. For information, contact the office of the Vice President for Student Affairs.
All students will be responsible for reading and following the university honesty, plagiarism, and cheating policies. They are posted at:
http://www.csus.edu/umanual/AcademicHonestyPolicyandProcedures.htm
Second, the online format puts much more responsibility on you as a student. There are numerous deadlines that you will be responsible for meeting. And you will not have as much face time contact with the professor for guidance, reminders, or encouragement as you would normally. The professor will be available on email, on the Google Group discussion group, and in chat sessions to discuss the course, answer questions, and help with assignments. But making effective use of those contact opportunities will require that you be responsible, plan ahead, and be highly self-motivated to do the work.
Third, the widespread misconception about online courses is that they are easier on the whole than traditional courses. Do not expect this course to be less rigorous or demanding. In fact, in many ways it will be more demanding and require more independent work from you.
Fourth, the conventional wisdom is that online courses are not as pedagogically effective as traditional courses. This course is designed to employ effective, but challenging, methods for learning. Expect to invest time and energy into the course, and expect to gather significant rewards from the material.
Google Docs: the Video Projects and the papers for the class must be submitted in an online word processor called Google Docs. This program stores your work on the web and allows you to share it with others (me).
1. After you have established a Google account, you can go to this page https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount to access other services.
2. In the upper right hand corner, there are links in a pattern of 9 dots. Click on that, and then click on Drive.
3. To create a new document, click "Create" in the upper left hand corner, and click on "Document."
4. Type your work and edit it in the window that opens.
5. Give it a title by clicking on "Untitled Document" in the upper left, and renaming it. Your work will be periodically saved automatically.
You will create one document for this course. It should be named last name Religion.
e.g. Smith Religion
I collect and put student work into folders by the title. Please do not put anything else in the title than last name Religion. No hyphens, quotes, dashes, commas, and so on. And please do not title the whole document after the heading for the first entry or I won't be able to find the work and give you credit for it.
All of your written work for the course will go into this file--Do not create multiple, separate files for the different assignments. One student, one document.
I will track when the projects and papers were completed with the Revision History function in Google Docs. Any changes made to the documents made after the due date and time will be recorded there and be treated as late work according to the late policies on the Office Hours and Course Policies page.
As each project is due, open the document and add the project for that week to the top so that the document will contain all of them at the end of the semester. Each project will have a section heading in bold listed in the assignments.
7. Save the document with the "Save" button in the upper right.
8. Also on the upper right is a "Share" button. Click on it, then click on "Invite People." Be sure the "can edit" option is checked. If you don't share it with me as a collaborator, I cannot grade your work.
9. In the box that comes up, enter my email address: mccormick@csus.edu
10. Click: Invite Collaborators
11. Be sure to put your name on the document and in the message to me with your assignments.
12. Send it (bottom right), and be sure to send a copy to yourself for backup.
13. Explore the other functions in the Google docs program.
14. If you prefer to write your work in another program, do so, and then cut and paste it into Google Docs.
If you do upload a document, be sure to re-title your essay according to step 6 and follow the rest of the steps. Also be sure that the formatting has been preserved.
Here are a couple of videos explaining how Google Docs works:
Sharing Options in Google Docs
All of the journal entry assignments are linked on the schedule. They are on this page.