PDP 150-15
Reading Questions for Your Journal
INSTRUCTIONS: The purpose of these reading questions is to get you to periodically stop and think
about what you have read and reflect on it. Read the first few questions, then as you read the text try to
answer these questions as they arise. The questions are ordered to correspond to the text order. You do
not have to answer all of the questions, only 50% of them. When I check your journals, I will look for
evidence that you have considered the questions and have responded to roughly half of them.
You are also required to write some thoughts about 50% of the Discussion Questions that follow each
set of reading questions. We will be using these discussion questions in class, so your preparation in
advance will help.
Text: “Sources of stress among college students” from College Student Journal by S.E. Ross, et al.
No questions
Text: “Alcohol And Sexual Assault” from Alcohol Research & Health by Antonia Abbey et al.
Reading Questions:
1. What percent of college women had been sexually assaulted according to the data?
2. What percentage of college women had been raped?
3. What percentage of college men admit to sexual assault or rape?
4. What percent of violent crimes involve alcohol?
5. What percentage of sexual assaults occur between people who know each other?
6. Drinking alcohol is often an excuse (in men) for what?
7. How do some men view women who drink and go out to bars?
8. Is aggression linked to the pharmacological or psychological effect of alcohol consumption?
9. Is sexual behavior linked to the pharmacological or psychological effect of alcohol consumption?
10. How does alcohol affect subtle communications between men and women?
11. How does alcohol affect men and women to make assaults more likely?
Discussion Questions:
1. From your point of view (either what you know personally or what others have told you), what is the
purpose of alcohol at college parties?
2. Do you think college students get an unfair reputation when it comes to alcohol abuse?
3. Who do you think is more at risk of harm when drinking and socializing are mixed at college parties
– males or females?
4. What do you think males should do in order to minimize harm?
5. What do you think females should do in order to minimize harm?
6. Who carries the ultimate responsibility for rape/sexual assault avoidance – males or females?
7. How do you think consent for sex (at or after a party) is obtained? Non-verbal cues, verbally, etc.?
8. What do you think of Bridgewater College being a dry campus?
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PDP 150-15
Reading Questions for Your Journal
Text: Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
Reading Questions:
Part I: Banishment
1. What is it that Jon’s parents want him to do?
2. How do the other gulls act?
3. What drives Jon?
4. What is the purpose of life according to the Gull Elders?
5. Did Jon’s flying skills ever become practical?
6. What was Jon’s reaction to his banishment?
Part II: Heaven
1. What is Jon’s first definition of heaven?
2. What definition of heaven does Chiang provide Jon?
3. What was Fletcher’s reaction to banishment?
4. Why do you think Jon wanted to return to his flock?
Part III: Return to the Flock
1. What is Jon’s definition of love?
Discussion Questions:
1. How do you feel about learning for practical reasons versus learning for learning’s sake? What is
the value of learning if it does not provide utility?
2. What is your definition of heaven and how do/will you get there?
3. Which of Jon’s definitions of heaven (first def. and final def.) do you think will provide a better life
for gulls on Earth? How can this be?
4. Describe how you feel about Jon staying with Sully and the other curious gulls versus returning to
the flock? What would you have done? Why?
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PDP 150-15
Reading Questions for Your Journal
Text: “Learning is not Fun” by Jim Josefson
Reading Questions:
1. Do the lies we are told as kids (such as Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, etc.) and being told “learning is
fun” have a legitimate purpose in our maturation process, or should they be discontinued?
2. What level of human experience did Greek philosophers define as “private happiness”?
3. Is affluence an end itself or a means to achieving other virtues?
4. What is techne?
5. Why is it more virtuous to want to satisfy the needs of our friends rather than the needs of our own
bodies?
6. How is truth determined according to Plato?
7. What does education involve according to Josefson?
8. What is learning if it is not fun?
Discussion Questions:
1. Should your preconceived notions be the same notions you have when you graduate?
2. How do you think your parents feel about you changing your point on issues that they taught you to
believe?
3. By what means do you learn things? Which ways of knowing do you think are the best?
4. What do you think your professors are going to expect you to do during the next four years?
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PDP 150-15
Reading Questions for Your Journal
Text: The Public Value of the Liberal Arts from Academic Questions by John Agresto
Reading Questions:
1. The liberal arts discover truth through what?
2. The liberal art do not use what ways of knowing truth?
3. What are the three mentioned antagonists to reason?
4. What does dogma mean (look it up)?
5. Who was Western Civilizations first liberal artist?
6. What is another way to view the enterprise of the liberal arts?
7. Who is the most obvious beneficiary of a liberal education?
8. How does the individual benefit?
9. Why do some see the liberal arts as dangerous?
10. By working to perfect the individual, how do the liberal arts benefit society?
11. What skills do the liberal arts teach?
12. How do the liberal arts help a person professionally?
Discussion Questions:
1. Why is knowledge better than opinion?
2. What is wrong with religious dogma as it applied to political decisions?
3. What are the characteristics you would value in a political leader?
4. Consider the following situations:
a. a Christian Scientists’ belief in prayer for healing instead of modern medicine
b. a Fundamentalist Mormon who believes women cannot get into heaven unless they marry a
man
c. a Jew who believes research that says that establishing trade relations with enemy tribes leads
to less conflicts and wars
d. the impact abstinence only sex education has had on international programs that involve
family planning, contraception, abortion counseling, etc.
e. the National Academy of Sciences stating Creationism is not a science and should not be
taught in a biology course in the public schools
f. An atheist who is convinced by peace psychology research that shows that violent responses
to unprovoked attacks do not lead to lasting peace
g. Catholic Church – women cannot become priests
h. a Protestant who is convinced by evidence that shows the current policy of drug enforcement
has led to an increase in drug related crimes
How do the people who believe these things know that they are right? Is it valid or permitted to present
evidence to show these practices or beliefs are in error? Which of these beliefs or practices be allowed to
occur? Protected by our government? Encouraged by national leaders?
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Reading Questions for Your Journal
Text: “Living Like Weasels” by Annie Dillard
Reading Questions:
1. What does the author mean by, “but I might learn something of mindlessness, something of the
purity of living in the physical sense and the dignity of living without bias or motive”?
2. What does the author mean when she writes, “And I suspect that for me the way is like the weasel's:
open to time and death painlessly”?
3. What is the author suggesting about how we should live in the last three paragraphs?
Discussion Questions:
1. What logical fallacy might you ascribe to this essay?
2. Do you think the author is proposing a “live close to the earth” lifestyle or a “live with the tenacity
of a weasel” lifestyle?
3. If it is “live close to the earth”, what about community responsibility, intellectual growth, nutrition,
immunizations, creature comforts? Do they taint our lives or enable our lives?
4. If “live with the tenacity of a weasel” lifestyle, are we to only try to do one thing well? Can we be
parents and professionals? Can we be professionals and have involved personal lives? Can we work
on two or more talents at a time?
5. Is there any link between this essay and “Learning to Read and Write”? Do the authors agree or
disagree on the topic of wanting to live like an animal?
Text: “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave” Chapter 7: Learning to
Read and Write
Reading Questions:
1. What or who turned the slaves’ mistress from kind-hearted to cruel?
2. What topic did the slave read about that really engaged him?
3. What was the effect on his world-view (what changed in him)?
4. How did it make the slave feel about learning?
5. Who and what did he envy as a result of his “awakening”? Why?
6. How did the slave trick people into teaching him to write?
Discussion Questions:
1. Why did the author regret learning to read and write while he was a slave? What was the source of
his suffering?
2. What would you choose: ignorance and relative happiness or knowledge and possible mental
anguish?
3. Is knowledge and awareness to be sought even if it results in suffering or guilt? Is it moral/ethical?
Think of genocides in other countries or atrocities/starvation that occurs on the other side of the
globe. Do you want to know about these things?
4. Is there any link between this essay and “Living Like Weasels”? Do the authors agree or disagree on
the topic of wanting to live like an animal?
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Reading Questions for Your Journal
Texts: “Husbands are to be the Leaders of Their Families” from Hell? Yes! by Robert Jeffress
and “The Purpose of a Wife” from Christian Womanhood by Janice Wolfe
Reading Questions:
“Husbands are to be the Leaders of Their Families”
1. Define egalitarian (look it up).
2. Is the husband more worthy than the wife according to Jeffress?
3. Do the properties of men and women that Jeffress describes on page 127 make men and women
seem equal but different or do they point to one being a superior physical specimen?
4. Ladies, how do you like being described as a “helper”? Does it help to know that the same word is
used to describe God as “mankind’s helper”?
5. “Anything in the nature with two heads is a freak” - what fallacy is this?
6. Does Jeffress imply that all women have superior skills in finances over men?
7. Does Jeffress imply that when a woman is considering tow different marriage proposals from two
different men (one Christian and one atheist), she must also decide if she is willing to give up her
decision-making authority and submit to one husband but not the other?
“The Purpose of a Wife Part I”
1. What is the author trying to do with the two references to “the world will criticize the kind of
commitment in marriage that calls for sacrifice and submission”?
“The Purpose of a Wife Part II”
2. What is the author trying to say with “a wife who tells everyone about her husband’s sacrifices and
victories will be hated by those whose hearts are hardened by unbelief”?
3. How do you feel about the sentence, “she should realize those sacrifices are for her because of her
weaknesses”?
4. How does “don’t even let him start the questioning” jive with the liberal arts theme of always being
open-minded?
Discussion Questions:
1. Ladies, how do you feel about being your husband’s best cheerleader?
2. Guys, how would you feel about your wife being your best cheerleader to all of her friends?
3. Who benefits most by this sort of marriage hierarchy?
4. What were the genders of the people who wrote the text upon which these ideas are based?
5. How does this marital arrangement compare to your parent’s or your grandparent’s?
6. Could you live under this arrangement?
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Reading Questions for Your Journal
Text: “Homeward Bound” from American Prospect by Linda Hirshman
Reading Questions:
Part I.
1. Have you ever wondered how it is possible for the student body of most colleges and universities to
be more than 50% women and yet most of the important political, corporate, and religious positions
are male dominated?
2. What do your think Hirshman means by the traditional family? Who plays what role?
3. Why do you think Hirshman thinks the traditional family needs to be unreconstructed?
4. When Hirshman mentions her class on “sexual bargaining”, what do you think the reason is that half
of the women agreed they would abandon their full-time career for their children but none of the
men said the same? What does this say about the fun/challenge/prestige of raising children?
Part II
5. Do you favor “choice feminism” over radical feminism (that women should not be house makers)?
6. Do you think housework is degrading when it is your make job? What about child rearing?
7. Are women betraying the future of other women by choosing to quit work and raise kids (and
perpetuate the stereotype and social expectations that women are meant to do this work)?
Part III
8. What do you think about mark Twain’s quote “A man who chooses not to read is just as ignorant as
a man who cannot” as applied to women and their career/family choices? Is it fair? Is it offensive?
9. Is Hirshman contradicting the discussion we had about liberal arts (being the best form of education)
when she states that women aught to not study in the liberal arts but only focus on their careers?
10. Ladies: what do you think about Hirshman’s marrying advice? Is it too rational?
Discussion Questions:
1. Since about 50% of women who graduate with college/advanced degrees drop out of the full-time
workforce, should scholarships at liberal arts colleges go to just men since they will most likely end
up in positions that will do the greatest good for the community (remember our discussion about the
Public benefits of the Liberal Arts)?
2. How do you think the Civil Rights movement would have faired if most (or many) Blacks freely
chose to remain in slave-like employment to white landowners? Don’t they have the constitutional
choice to make this decision?
3. Ladies, do you want to flourish in a career or is family life your main goal?
4. To the guys: what do you expect of your future wife?
5. Is Hirshman creating a bifurcation fallacy by stating that either women betray their feminist
predecessors by choosing family over career or they act as good feminist role models when they
choose career over family?
6. What about the issue of income security for women? If a woman quits her job to raise the kids and
then is divorced, has she put herself into a bad position financially? It is terrible to even think about
these things?
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Reading Questions for Your Journal
Text: “Salvation” by Langston Hughes
Reading Questions:
1. In the 2nd paragraph, where is Hughes’ knowledge coming from: observation and experience or
authority?
2. Westley’s conversion was less than authentic. Speculate on the authenticity of the other children
that have been saved minutes earlier?
3. What did Langston think should have happened to Westley as a result of his curse and deception?
Why would he think this? Where did he get this idea?
Discussion Questions:
1. Why was the interpretation of the events by the adults so different from Langston’s?
2. Do you think the adults actually felt what Langston thought he was supposed to feel?
a. if not, why would the adults act and talk as they did?
b. if so, why didn’t Langston feel what he was supposed to?
c. was there something wrong with Langston?
3. What has been your experience with salvation? Did it happen like Langston or like Auntie Reed and
the minister?
4. Is this something that Langston would just grow into, like the understanding of the Easter Bunny,
Santa Claus, etc.?
5. The adults around Langston had certainly built up a community of believers and it gave purpose to
the lives of many of them. What does this say about an atheist? Are they missing out on something
good?
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Reading Questions for Your Journal
Text: Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial on Moral Issues. Issue #2 – Does Morality
Need Religion?
Yes: Stephen Layman
Reading Questions:
1. What do you think of Layman’s argument that since people feel unfulfilled by this life, there must be
an afterlife where people’s longings will be fulfilled (assuming God is good)?
2. How about the statement that there must be an afterlife because there is no justice in this world, so
there must be an afterlife to provide justice?
3. Is Layman right in stating that morality describes things that are right and not necessarily providing
benefit to the individual and/or society (in other words, feeding the hungry and caring for the sick is
only moral because God said so and not because it provides a benefit to society and the individual)?
4. What is a secret violation?
5. What do you think of Layman’s argument about secret violations? Do you need to know that God is
always watching you in order for you to do what is moral?
6. What about the (c) argument? How would a non-religious person convince an amoral person to
behave in a certain way?
7. Do you agree (as Layman seems to be implying) that non-religious individuals would not value the
preservation of their species over themselves?
Discussion Questions
1. What does it say about an individual who does not kill and steal only because these things have been
declared wrong by a religion? How would this person act if these rules were not in place (or s/he
just did not know about them)?
2. After Layman describes the justification for etiquette he claims that morality is justified because it
pays. Then he goes on to imply that if it does not pay to act in morally in a certain instance, then one
will not be moral (an follow the rule). Is this true about you? Would you steal something small
from a store that the storeowner will probably not miss or go broke over? If not, then is it because
you just know it is not right?
3. How much does habit play into non-religious morality? Can we say we will not steal small things
(even though they won’t really hurt anyone) because we know it will lead us to steal bigger things?
Is this just an understanding of human nature, is it stealing because God said it was wrong, or is this
a slippery slope argument?
4. Would Layman’s argument (that morality is based on Christianity) be the same if he were from
another religion?
5. If Layman is right that morality needs religion, how do we learn what the moral code is? Which
religion do we use for our moral code? How do we know the book or revelation we are using was
from God?
6. What do we do about acts that are not explicitly defined by God in the moral code (like genetically
modified foods, rape, environmental pollution, etc.)?
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No: John Arthur
Reading Questions:
1. Do you agree with Arthur’s definition of morality and religion?
2. Is the existence of contradictory and vague moral mandates in the Bible a good argument for
morality being independent from religion?
3. Do you think Christians pick and choose moral lessons in the Bible based on their own underlying
moral code?
4. Do you think it is true that God could change his mind about what is right and wrong? Are we to
abide by this change? Does this occur in the transition from the Old Testament (wrath of God,
genocide, etc.) to the New Testament (love thine enemy, turn the other cheek, etc.)?
5. What is the point of the argument between Socrates and Euthyphro? Which is Socrates arguing is
bigger, the gods or holiness (virtue)?
6. In your opinion, does what God loves define what is good, or does God love what is good?
7. Do you agree with Arthur that morality has influenced religion throughout history?
8. What do you think of defending your actions to your peers as a means of determining what is moral
and immoral?
Discussion Questions:
1. If morality does not need religion, then where does the moral code come from?
2. If Socrates is correct in asserting that the gods love what is good, how do we know what is good?
3. How are we not forced into moral relativism if the is not a god to define good and evil?
4. Can we believe in God if He does not define what is good and therefore is limited in power by not
establishing what is good?
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Reading Questions for Your Journal
Text: “A Christian Manifesto” by Francis Shaeffer
Reading Questions:
1. Before you read this document, do the following:
a. define atheism
b. write how you personally feel about atheists
c. do you know any?
2. What does Schaffer mean by the “problem of public school” or the breakdown of the family?
3. What is humanism (look it up – don’t go by Schaffer’s definition).
4. How is humanism different that Christianity?
5. Does Schaffer provide evidence that the societal ills he mentions are caused by the societal shift to
humanism? Does he need to? Do you think he is right?
6. Do you agree that without God there is no meaning to life? Could other people besides yourself
possibly find any meaning without God?
7. What does Schaffer mean by “knowledge from God”? By what means does this knowledge come to
humans?
8. What name do we give a system of morality (that Schaffer describes) that is arbitrarily defined by
humans?
9. Schaffer describes how things become “law” in a humanistic society. Do you believe he is correct?
Where do laws come from if not from our legislatures?
10. Is it necessary to have a Creator in order for there to be inalienable rights?
11. How does humanism cause people to lose their freedoms, according to Schaffer?
12. Schaffer claims the government of America is anti-God. Is this fair to claim? Are most of the
elected officials Christians or atheists?
13. Is it impossible to love or behold beauty without God?
14. Concerning abortion, is it fair to say that because abortion is legal “the courts of this country have
forced this view and its results on the total population”? Is this the same or different than a country
going to war even though not everyone thinks it is the right thing to do?
15. Is it possible to think abortion is wrong, just like some people think drinking alcohol is wrong, even
though it is still okay to be legal?
16. If you pay taxes, should you have the right to change what is being taught in public schools? Could
you, for example, change the historical interpretation of the Crusades if you did not like the current
version?
17. Schaffer mentions tyranny several times. Explain the phrase “tyranny of the majority”. Is this what
Schaffer means?
18. Schaffer writes, “… all you have to do is look at TV programs” – is this a good source of
information about our world? Why or why not?
19. What is euthanasia (look it up)? Do you think humanism naturally promotes euthanasia?
20. Schaffer mentions that man is unique because he is made in the image of God. Does this imply
Christians are cruel to animals (since animals are not made in God’s image and therefore do not
deserve the same treatment)?
21. Do you think Newsweek is a proper source for a “scientific viewpoint” as Schaffer posits? Do real
scientists publish their findings in Newsweek?
22. Is it fair to compare a woman who gets an abortion to Stalin, Hitler, and Mao?
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Reading Questions for Your Journal
23. Do you think Schaffer has correctly named the reason for West Germany’s abortion decision? Does
he provide any evidence? Does he need to?
24. When Schaffer writes “once this door is opened, there is something to be afraid of”. Is this a
slippery slope argument?
25. Is it fair to equate humanism with communism?
26. When Schaffer writes “By law, you are no more allowed to teach religious values in our public
schools than you are in the schools of Russia tonight (under communism) – which religious values is
he referring to? Hindu? Muslim? Christian? Are these universal values? What does public mean in
public schools?
27. Does Schaffer’s statement “they believe that God never, never, never wanted people to be under
tyrannical governments” jive with Romans 13:1
Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that
which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.
28. What do you make of Schaffer’s argument about the “abominable Hard Choices” (a TV show) and
his show? Is he fair in his assessment of the situation?
29. Schaffer claims that the 1st Amendment means, “the State would never interfere with religion”. Is
the converse true – that religion can interfere with the state? Is this what Schaffer is advocating?
30. Is Schaffer contradicting himself when he claims that humanism removes freedoms and at the same
time provides choice?
31. Schaffer writes, “It is the duty of a Christian to disobey the government”. How does this jive with
Romans 13:1 (above)?
32. Summarize Schaffer’s argument. Then provide a sentence or two of your opinion of it.
33. Whether you agree with Schaffer or not, rate the intellectual depth of his arguments. Are they
simpleminded, average, highly intelligent?
Discussion Questions:
1. If an atheist has an abortion, does it mean a Christian should? If a Christian does not want an
abortion, does this mean an atheist cannot?
2. Is Schaeffer claiming that the questioning of all authority is causing societal problems or just he
questioning of religious authority?
3. Does your experience tell you that it is illegal for students to meet and pray at school?
4. Did you get through school without learning any religious values?
5. Where is the place for religious training – in the public schools or not?
6. What has it been like in the past or present to live in a theocracy?
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Text: “An Atheist Manifesto” by Sam Harris
Reading Questions:
1. Before you read this document, do the following:
a. define Christian
b. write how you personally feel about Christians
c. do you know any?
2. Is it okay for parents to believe in an omniscient being when they have not proof that there is one (as
it applies to them trying their children’s safety to it)?
3. What is the main purpose for the belief that God is always watching out for us?
d. that it will protect us (even though it does not always work out that way)
e. the comfort the belief provides
f. something else
4. Harris uses the word superstitions. What does superstitious mean (look it up)? Is it fair to call all
Christians, Jews, and Muslims superstitious?
5. Define rational and irrational (look them up)?
6. What is Harris referring to when he states our public policies are appropriate to a medieval
theocracy? What is a theocracy?
7. How would you characterize Harris’ description of heaven?
8. What was your reaction to “these poor people died talking to an imaginary friend.”?
9. Why did 80% of the people polled (from New Orleans) strengthen their faith after Katrina destroyed
their homes? Do they know something that Harris does not?
10. Is it morally objectionable to believe you were favored by God to be spared (in the aftermath of a
storm, for example) when others around you are killed? Is this arrogance or is it grace?
11. What does Harris mean when he writes, “it seems that any fact, no matter how infelicitous, can be
rendered compatible with religious faith”? Is this a fair judgment?
12. What is theodicy (look it up)?
13. Is Harris justified in comparing the Christian god with Zeus and Thor? Why or why not? Would
your answer be the same if you were a Viking?
The Nature of Belief
14. Do you have a negative view of people who do not believe in a god?
15. What distinction is Harris drawing between religious fundamentalists and religious moderates (how
are they different)?
16. Is the comparison between the diamond in the backyard and God fair? Would you consider a person
who believed this insane?
17. Is Harris relying too heavily on reason in his arguments? Do you really need reason to believe
everything you believe?
18. What do you think of the statement, “Faith is nothing more than the license religious people give
themselves to keep believing when reasons fail”?
Faith and the Good Society
19. Do you agree that “religious faith does nothing to ensure society’s health” given all of the statistics
that Harris provides?
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20. Do you think American religious beliefs responsible for the huge gap between CEO and average
employee salaries, or is it something else like American social values?
21. Do you understand how a person can be smart and rational enough to build a bomb and also believe
in heavenly rewards (like 72 virgins given to males who participate in suicide bombings)?
22. Is a person that espouses heretical ideas about religion dangerous to a community? Should they be
censored, locked up, or killed (as they once were)?
23. Is Harris correct when he claims that “certainty without evidence” is divisive, dehumanizing, and
undiplomatic?
24. Summarize Harris’ argument. Then provide a sentence or two of your opinion of it.
25. Whether you agree with Harris or not, rate the intellectual depth of his arguments. Are they
simpleminded, average, highly intelligent?
Discussion Questions:
1. Is it okay to tolerate irrationality in other people (even those who are in positions of authority)?
2. Do you believe that “one’s convictions should be proportional to one’s evidence”?
3. Is it immoral and anti-intellectual to believe in something without evidence?
4. Is Harris arguing for restricted thought – that people should not be allowed to believe in a god?
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Reading Questions for Your Journal
Text: Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial on Moral Issues. Issue #13: Should Same-Sex
Marriage be Allowed? 10th edition
Yes: Jonathan Rauch
Reading Questions:
1. Do you agree that the government should be encouraging marriage because of childrearing and for
no other reason? no because financial and mental welfare is also a societal imperative
2. Since children are already being raised in same-sex households, should the government be interested
in making these households more stable through marriage? I think so
3. Do you agree that marriage stabilizes a heterosexual relationship? Would the same be true for a
homosexual relationship? Does the author have proof?
4. Do you think gay marriage would reduce the spread of AIDS? Do you think marriage reduces the
spread of AIDS in heterosexuals?
5. Do you think parents of gays and lesbians would be more supportive of same-sex marriage than the
general public?
Discussion Questions
1. List the legal benefits to marriage.
a. health care benefits are accessible and discounted for spouses and children
b. hospital visitation rights
c. power of the executor rights
d. default inheritance and inheritance tax exemption
e. tax breaks
2. Do you think lesbian relationships are different (more or less stable) than gay male relationships?
3. Do you think those against same-sex marriage wish to rid the world of homosexuality?
4. Do you think marriage is a stabilizing institution in our society?
5. What does society gain by excluding same-sex marriage? What does it lose by allowing it? Is there
evidence?
6. Do you think same-sex marriage erodes heterosexual marriage? Is there evidence?
7. Do you think children are harmed when raised in same-sex households? How?
8. Do you think children are harmed when raised in opposite-sex households? How?
9. Do you agree that society should demand marriage among same-sex partners, not simply allow it?
No: Jeff Jordan
Reading Questions:
1. Do you agree that you are not a whole person until you are married?
2. Are our whole identities predicated upon our producing offspring?
3. Do you agree that marriage tames males? What about females?
4. Define sine qua non.
5. Does Jordan make sense when he says,
“The communal model is just as compatible with liberalism as
transactional model. Thus … same-sex marriage requires the state to
adopt a controversial model (transactional).” ?
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6. Do you think same-sex marriage should not be allowed simply because it increases the tax burden on
the rest of society?
7. Do you think childrearing is the only benefit to society that marriage provides?
8. Is having a child naturally better than adopting?
9. Do you think gender differentiation in parenting is necessary? What do the studies say?
10. If the desire to stop same-sex marriage because it will lead to polygamy, how do the Christians,
Jews, and Muslims among us answer to this when Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all polygamists?
11. What do you think of the communal definition that promotes marriage whose characteristics are
“reproductive in type, even if not in effect”?
As Bad as Antimiscengenation?
12. Do you believe homosexuals are being discriminated against like Blacks were during the post-Civil
War era?
Discussion Questions
1. Jordan argues that when the definition of marriage is not exclusive to single-pair male and female,
then anything goes like polygamy. What sort of fallacy is this?
2. Are couples that do not have children being immoral (by costing society something)?
3. Look at the A-F argument as presented by Jordan.
a. A&B are what fallacy?
b. for D, does the recognition of same-sex marriage by the State imply that the State is
declaring Christianity wrong? What about legalized alcohol offending Islam? Are laws
against stoning people (adulterers, rebellious sons) offending Judaism and Christianity?
What about working on the Sabbath?
c. what fallacy is E?
4. Should it be assumed that arguments against same-sex marriage are not anti-gay?
5. Should the rights of homosexuals to marriage be subject to a vote by the majority or is it a protected
right? Is it the same for regular marriage (could a vote make it illegal)?
6. Should the integration of Blacks in schools or the permission of mixed marriages be subject to a vote
by the majority or are they protected by the constitution?
7. Should the majority dictate the rights of the minority – no matter who they are?
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Text: The Cunning of History by Richard Rubenstein
Reading Questions:
Chapter 1
1. (p. 3) What moral and psychological terms could describe the scenes of the concentration camp?
2. (p.4) According to the author, after the world had a chance to review the archives of the Nazi’s, what
best describes the Holocaust?
3. Define bureaucracy.
4. (p. 4) What groups in Germany were involved in the Holocaust?
5. (p. 6) According to the author, was the Holocaust built on feelings toward Jews at a single point in
history or was it just an intensified expression of feelings and tendencies that have been around for a
long time?
6. (p. 7) According to the author, what was the difference between the domination by the U.S. with the
atomic bomb attacks and the Nazi death camps?
7. (p. 7) How many people died per day for how long during World War I?
8. (p. 8) What was the tragedy of the Battle of Verdun?
9. (p. 10) According to the author, what was the reason the large loss of life was so acceptable during
WWI?
10. (p. 11) What government program began in Germany the very day that WWII broke out in 1939?
11. Define denaturalization.
12. (p. 15-16) Give other examples of countries using concentration camps before or during WWII.
13. What was the legal term for the Jewish internment?
14. (p. 18) Where was the French government considering sending their Jewish refugees?
15. (p. 20) What does the author imply about Britain by presenting the letter from Richard Law and the
subsequent description of Allied air supremacy over Europe in 1944?
16. (p. 19) According to the author, why do we have detailed knowledge of the Nazi plans and acts of
extermination while British (and possibly U.S.) complicity remains uncertain?
17. (p. 21) According to the author, was the extermination of the Jews a purely German problem?
Chapter 2: Bureaucratic Domination
18. (p. 25) Why did Himmler and Eicke restrain guards at concentration camps from carrying out
sporadic beatings and retaliatory attacks?
19. (p. 26) Why was starvation the least difficult method of killing the Jews?
20. (p. 27) According to the author, what made it possible to overcome the moral barrier that had
prevented mass extermination of the Jews in the past?
21. (p. 30) According to the author, was the Nazi extermination a result of an “antireligious explosion
of paganism” in Europe or of the secularization of Judeo-Christian values?
22. (p. 32) List some countries that actively stripped citizenship from some of their citizens?
23. (p. 33) What does it mean to be stateless?
Chapter 3: Modernization of Slavery
24. (p. 40) What were some of the differences between North American slavery and the treatment of the
Jews during WWII?
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Chapter 4: The Health Professions and Corporate Enterprise
25. (p. 48-49) What other use did Jewish prisoners find in the medical professions?
26. What happened to the Germans who were only partly Jewish?
27. (p. 52) According to the author, what might the Nazi have done to their enemies had they won the
war (in order to maintain their power and world domination)?
28. (p. 53,54) Have unethical medical experiments on human subjects been something only Nazi’s did
during WWII?
29. (p. 58) How did the industrial sector of Germany benefit from the Nazi government’s internment of
the Jews?
30. (p. 61) What was the only incentive required to keep the Jews working in the factories?
31. Explain how the phrase “it’s just business” might be applied to the industrial sector’s involvement in
the Holocaust?
32. (p. 63) How severely were the corporate executives treated after the war?
Chapter 5: The Victim’s Response
33. (p. 68) Why is it understandable for Jews to not like historians implying Jews played a role in
allowing the exterminations to take place?
34. (p. 70) Why did the Jews submit to the extermination?
35. (p. 72) How did the Jewish leaders help the Nazis?
Chapter 6: A Century of Progress
36. (p. 82) Has the following statement come true in the past 6 years?
“Should, for example, … a catastrophic war break out, a future president
might be tempted by the readiness of a desperate nation to accept radical
measures in order to solve its woes”
37. Define enemy combatant according to the Bush Administration (web search is OK).
38. (p. 87-89) What is the problem with maintaining national sovereignty when it comes to legal
proceedings?
39. (p. 92) According to the author, what are the two inseparable properties of a civilization?
Discussion Questions:
1. Do you have any Jewish friends? Do you know any Jews by name?
2. Why do you think there was not a groundswell of citizen outrage in Germany over the extermination
of the Jews (when the average citizen knew of Jewish neighbors who were forcibly moved out of
their homes and their property confiscated)?
3. Concerning the Japanese interment by the Roosevelt Administration during WWII, do you think it
was right? Why was it done? Why was there not a groundswell of protests from the citizens to stop
it?
4. What do you think about the situation with the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay? Should they be
exempt from the legal rights that U.S. citizens have?
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Text: “Tragedy of the Commons” from Science by Garrett Hardin
Reading Questions:
1. What does “maximum good for maximum people” mean? How would apply to the food supply and
the number of calories that each person eats?
2. What does personal advantage in the Freedom of the Commons result in, according to the author?
3. What do you think about the "Conscience is self-eliminating" section? Will unselfish acts simply
lead to the elimination of unselfishness because the selfish will prosper at the expense of the
unselfish?
4. What does our president say in the face of rising prices of gas and energy? His appeal is to our
conscience. He could do the right thing and punish all consumers equally with a tax on fuel, thus
bringing the solution under better control. Yet he appeals to the unselfish while the selfish continue
to consume.
5. How can taxes influence personal and societal behavior?
6. What is the balance between freedom and sustainability? Do we need restrictions on everything in
order to be freer? Is this an impossibility (we will either need to live with the tragedy of the
commons in a free society or we live in a restrictive society that is healthier)?
Discussion Questions:
1. How does this problem apply to the current controversy over illegal immigration?
2. Do you see the difference between values and interests as the author states them? How willing are
you to compromise your values (your right to have children, your right to drive whatever car you
want, your right to live in a house bugger than your needs, etc.) when you consider the needs of
your community?
3. How willing are you to compromise your religious/cultural/ethnic values when you live with others
who do not share your values (Muslims, immigrants, Jews, atheists)?
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Text: Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial on Moral Issues. Issue #1 – Is Moral
Relativism Correct? 9th edition
**** NOTE: This is not in your Taking Sides Book! It is in a handout! ****************
Yes: Melville Herskovits
Reading Questions:
1. Can you appreciate the example of polygamy the author initially presents? Do you see it as moral
for any perspective?
2. Define cultural relativism according to the author.
3. Would you consider the “demon possession” or other trance-like states to be abnormal in your
culture? What about speaking in tongues in a church?
4. Define ethnocentrism according to the author. Does the author’s food argument convince you or
moral relativism?
6. What is the difference between moral absolutes and moral universals?
Discussion Questions:
1. Do you think our military might has something to do with our American insistence that other
countries be like use (Viet Nam, Cuba, Korea, Iraq, etc.)?
2. Are you convinced that morality is relative to culture?
3. When you travel to a foreign country and do something that the locals think is rude, who is right?
4. Do all morals have to be relative? Is there some middle ground?
5. Cultures differ in their treatment of women and differ in their food preference. Are the morals that
govern each of the same importance? Why or why not?
6. Is it possible for one culture to judge another? Consider female circumcision and the acceptance of
slavery.
7. What do you think of polygamy? Is it OK for you? Can it be for others? Even in the U.S.? What
about Old Testament polygamy (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob)?
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No: Louis Pojman
Reading Questions:
1. Define ethnocentrism
2. Define moral skepticism
3. Define ethical relativism
4. Define moral objectivism
5. Define cultural relativism
6. Define subjectivism
7. Do you agree with subjectivism?
8. Define conventionalism
9. What is the problem with conventionalism according to Pojman?
10. Does it make sense that cultural relativism seems to be a fact but ethical relativism is not?
Discussion Questions:
1. Where do the moral codes come from if ethical relativism is incorrect?
2. Is it possible to judge other cultures’ moral codes and decide which one’s are more or less moral? Is
this being judgmental?
3. Why is it important for us to think about the source and nature of morality? When you walk out of
here and fall into a situation where you are confronted with the choice to download free music or
DVD’s w/o the permission of the artist or record company, what will you do and why?
• If you were a subjectivist, you would say…
• If you were an ethical relativist, you would say…
• If you were a moral objectivist or universalist, you would say…
4. How does an individual and a society relate morally?
• Does the individual have a responsibility to uphold the society’s moral code?
• Is morality an individual thing (what you do, not what you do in a society)?
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Text: The Meaning of it All by Richard Feynman
Part I: The Uncertainty of Science
Reading Questions:
1. What are the three descriptions of science according to Feynman?
2. What is the value and drawback of science?
3. Name some of the exciting things about science that Feynman muses over?
4. Pay close attention to what Feynman says on the bottom of page 26 and forward.
5. What harm can come from thinking you know something exactly right?
6. What is the positive result of doubt?
Discussion Questions:
1. What are you absolutely sure about?
2. Is absolute certainty a form of arrogance?
3. Is absolute certainty an honest or dishonest outlook?
4. What is it about absolute certainty that cuts off discussion?
5. Why is discussion valuable?
6. What happens to opposing sides when discussion breaks down and is not possible?
7. Where does absolute certainty come from? Are we born with it? Is it transcendent? Do we trust
that our elders got it right?
Part II: The Uncertainty of Values
Reading Questions:
1. What is the problem, according to Feynman, with believing with absolute faith and in absolute
dogma?
2. Can Feynman tell which of his friends is an atheist or a believer in God by their ethical/moral
actions?
3. What are Feynman’s three aspects of religion?
4. According to Feynman, what is the problem with the interaction between inspiration, absolute faith
in religion, and doubt?
5. According to Feynman, what did the Founding Fathers of the U.S. value and think?
Discussion Questions:
1. Are you concerned that your Bridgewater Education will make you question your beliefs about the
world?
2. What do you think your parents think of this (you questioning your values)?
3. Do your parents have the right to expect you to remain the same on your general worldview?
4. Is it just science that causes this problem of uncertainty and doubting?
5. Must there be a conflict between religion and science?
6. When would a conflict between science and religion be more likely: (1) when religion requires strict
adherence to teachings and beliefs, or (2) when the religion does not require strict adherence?
7. What is more important to you in life: (1) finding the truth at all costs, or (2) being comfortable with
what you already know?
8. What do you think of the statement “ignorance is bliss”? How does it apply to this discussion?
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I would encourage you to ask other faculty, relatives, friends, and “old folks” how they reconcile their
beliefs about religion and science.
Part III: This Unscientific Age
Reading Questions:
1. How is “this age” unscientific?
2. What does Feynman value in a politician?
3. Would Feynman’s example of a mind reader and the evidence that he describes convince you?
4. Why is it not sacrilegious for Feynman to test miracles?
5. Do you think Feynman goes too far in demanding a test for things, like astrology, before he and
other people will believe them? How many things in life is he (or you) prepared to test?
6. Do you believe that missionaries (or any other highly religious people) are no or less likely to suffer
from shipwrecks, car accidents, etc.?
7. Can you appreciate Feynman’s description of paranoia?
Discussion Questions:
1. What do you think about a politician who does not have an immediate answer to every problem
presented to him/her? Is it a sign of weakness or strength?
2. Shouldn’t people be allowed to believe in faith healing despite Feynman’s protests? What about
children who are dependent on their parents’ belief?
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Text: “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Reading Questions:
1. What is the reason that King is in the Birmingham jail, according to him?
2. What are the four steps in any nonviolent campaign?
3. Describe the situation in Birmingham.
4. Describe the process of self-purification.
5. What is the purpose of nonviolent direct action?
6. What does King mean by “nonviolent gadflies”?
7. What kind of law does King advocate breaking?
8. How does King propose to break unjust laws – in private or public?
9. Why is King more disappointed with the moderate white people instead of the violent KKK
members?
10. What was King’s point in describing the situations of the robbed, Socrates, and Christ?
11. What does King mean when he says that time becomes the ally of the forces of social stagnation?
12. Why does King gain satisfaction from being called an extremist?
13. Did the White leaders come to King’s aid in his time of need?
14. How did White religious leaders comply with the orders to desegregate?
15. What does King mean when he writes, “the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek”?
Discussion Questions:
1. What is your opinion of nonviolent protest? Do you think it is effective? The best method of
protest?
2. King was more frustrated with the moderate white people instead of the violent KKK. Linda
Hirshman (the feminist) was more frustrated with the “choice feminists” and not the anti-feminists.
Sam Harris (Atheist Manifesto) claimed that the problem of religious irrationality was with the
moderate Christians, not Fundamentalist Christians. Why isn’t the problem usually with the
extremists but in the moderates?
3. Are their parallels between this extreme vs. moderate reaction to Civil Rights and the current
controversy over Same Sex Marriage?
4. Was King too aggressive in his approach to desegregation? Should he have been more patient?
5. What is your opinion of civil disobedience?
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