Required Book:

Brian Davies (ed.), Philosophy of Religion: a Guide and Anthology (Oxford, 2000).
Daniel Dennett, Breaking the Spell (Viking, 2006).

Course Requirements:

(1) Daily readings, attendance, class engagement (15%)
(2) Two papers each of about 6 pages in length (40%):
(3) 3 short-answer quizzes (20%)
(4) A take-home final exam (25%)

Papers: papers require research beyond the material assigned for class. For your first paper, I would like you to focus on proofs for God’s existence. There various approaches you might take here: you might examine more closely and assess a particular proof you find interesting; you might reflect more generally on the relevance of the proofs for religious belief (does the rationality of believing in God depend on being able to prove (or at least having evidence for) God’s existence?); you might consider what religious significance, if any, proofs might have; you might consider whether there is proof, or at least evidence, that God does not exist. Some of what we’ll read addresses these questions and it should not be difficult to find other relevant material. The second paper topic is up to you. I will be very happy to make suggestions, talk with you about what you've read, help you sort out the issues, etc. Generally, papers should be philosophical, where, for our purposes, this means they should be analytical or argumentative papers (and so not merely papers reporting on the views of others, or describing religious practices or beliefs, though papers may include some of this). We will be considering material concerned with the scientific study of religion itself, and writing about that and about what you see as its relevance for belief would be appropriate in the 2nd paper. Similarly, writing about the significance of Biblical studies, or historical or comparative studies of religion for the rationality of belief would also be appropriate. Only extreme circumstances justify turning in a paper late (or missing a quiz), and these should be cleared if in any way possible before the event in question. I am interested in your using scholarly sources in researching these papers--Wikipedia is not a scholarly source. Make sure you document carefully material you use in writing your papers. Academic dishonesty will result in your failing the course.

The short-answer quizzes will generally consist of identification/definition questions answerable in one or two sentences. At least some questions on quizzes will concern material in the reading not explicitly discussed in class. They should take around 15 minutes to complete.

The final exam will consist of three or four essay questions concerned with arguments we’ve discussed.

I also expect your attendance and engagement in class. This is a philosophy class and unless you are actively engaged in thinking about the issues we'll be discussing, you are not functioning as a philosopher. In particular, I am interested in knowing that you are doing the assigned reading. I expect that over the course of the block you will make it clear to me that you are so reading, by answering questions concerned with the reading and engaging in discussions centered the readings. Missing 3 or more classes will result in your receiving a zero for this component of your grade. Missing 5 or more will result in your failing the course.

Our classroom will be an electronics-free zone: no computers, cell phones, or other sorts of electronic devices may be on table tops or otherwise visible in class.

Cornell College is committed to providing equal educational opportunities to all students.  If you have a documented learning disability and will need any accommodation in this course, you must request the accommodation(s) as early as possible and no later than the third day of the term. Additional information about the policies and procedures for accommodation of learning disabilities is available on the Cornell web site at
 http://cornellcollege.edu/academic_affairs/disabilities/.

We will begin the course looking at some traditional arguments concerned with God’s existence. These arguments raise a number of interesting questions about the nature of religious belief and its rationality which we will consider as the course develops. What, if any, sorts of reasons does the believer need for thinking God exists? How are the claims of religion related to our understanding of the world and to scientific descriptions of that world? What is the relationship between religious faith and reason? How are we to understand the meaning of religious claims? Do religious utterances function as factual claims that may or may not be true, or do they play a different sort of role in the lives of believers? In the second half of the course we’ll turn our attention to Daniel Dennett’s recent book, Breaking the Spell. Dennett is interested in the picture that emerges when religion itself is regarded as an object of scientific study. How might religions have come to occupy the place they do in human cultures? What does their natural history suggest about the rationality/desirability of religious belief? Dennett is a prominent neo-atheist and this book has received lots of attention, both positive and negative.

Very Tentative Schedule of Readings: