Final
1. YOUR NAME.
Joseph Kemmerly; Fri 11:00AM
2. YOUR USERNAME.
joekemmerly
3. List your attendance (how many classes missed? how many classes
were you late to?).
I was always on time and I never missed class. I sat in the middle of class and close to the front.
4. List the titles to each of the two movies, along with a synopsis
of their themes. I also want you to list the "format" that you used
for your two films.
My first digital film is entitled Outer Space by Joseph Kemmerly. This film had a number of images of space, stars, galaxies, etc. I presented my film on October 7. I created my film using Pinnacle. I saved it onto a CD-RW as a MPEG. I also have my video streaming off the CSULB server. You can see it here:
http://www.csulb.edu/~jkemmerl/Movie1.wmv
My second digital film is entitled Social Evolution by Joseph Kemmerly. This film was about social evolution. Specifically, it presents theories about social evolution as to whether society evolves in a predetermined way or in a spontaneous way. I presented this film on December 2. I used Pinnacle again. Again, I saved it on a CD-RW as a MPEG. You gave me a B to B+. The video is streaming off the CSULB server. You can see it here:
http://www.csulb.edu/~jkemmerl/socialevolution3.wmv
5. Did you read all 5 books? (fully? skip-read? looked at the cover?
we had to read books?)
Yes, I read all five books. The first three took me approximately two weeks per book. The latter two were easier to read and took me about one week per book.
6. Give me a link to your field trip so I can access it for
reference.
http://metaphysicaldiversity.blogspot.com/2005/12/field-trips.html
Pass +
7. Also give me a link to your autobiography so I can cross-
reference items if I need to.
http://metaphysicaldiversity.blogspot.com/2005/11/autobiography.html
8. What grade did you finally receive on the midterm?
Here are your words from the email you sent me:
VERY GOOD WORK.
Solid B/B+ which puts you squarely in the "A" bracket.
nice.
8. What grade do you deserve in this class? Substantiate your answer.
I believe I deserve an A in the class. I had perfect attendance and was never late. I turned in all of the assignments on time and my assignments have consistently been high in quality. Also, I read all of the books that were assigned. I also posted on the message board regularly.
9. List any extra credit or other circumstances that may help your
overall grade.
I had perfect attendance and did very well on all of my assignments.
---------------------
Here's the "meat" (or, in my case, "tofu") of the test:
10. Explain Malcolm X's vision of Islam and why he was inspired to
convert to it.
Malcolm X believes in a form of Islam that would be considered foreign to most traditional Muslims. While he was in prison, Malcolm X joined a radical, militant group known as the Nation of Islam (NOI). The NOI believes that, before African-Americans arrived to the USA as slaves, Africans were Muslim and, therefore, should convert back to Islam as a way of retrieving their lost heritage.
Malcolm X was probably inspired to convert to his brand of Islam because of a combination of his own socio-economic conditions as well as the changing intellectual climate that would be a precursor to the 1950’s to 60’s civil rights movement. Malcolm X was appalled by what he saw around him and he thought that African-Americans have not progressed much since slave times and that they had to “liberate” themselves from the white man.
11. What are the three most significant factors motivating Malcolm X's
understanding of race relations (between blacks and whites).
Substantiate your answers.
I believe one of the first things that motivated, as I mentioned in the previous question, Malcolm X was his own economic conditions while growing up. While he was living in Harlem he experienced the dark side of life. He was involved in drug-dealing, pimping, and robbery as well as other things that would likely have a significant effect on one’s own world view, most likely making him pessimistic and cynical.
Malcolm X’s own experience growing up didn’t exist in a bubble, though. He saw his fellow African-Americans experiencing political discrimination and economic hardship as well. Seeing this phenomenon gave Malcolm X a sort of racial collectivist view where he thought that African-Americans should rise up and liberate themselves. This is where he developed an overtly antagonistic view toward those outside of his race, particularly towards Whites and Jews.
Another motivating factor is Malcolm X’s own distorted view of history. He subscribes to something similar to noble savage theory, that everything was going fine for Africans until the evil white man showed up and ruined everything. This line of thinking is found throughout his writing. He blames whites for all of the problems in the world including colonialism and imperialism; making him a sort of Noam Chomksy of his time.
12. Are there different versions of Islam? Detail your answers.
The two major schools of Islam are Sunni and Shia. The split began shortly after the death of Muhammad. The problem was that he didn’t appoint a successor so there was a lot of confusion regarding who lead be the leader of Islam. This debate led to a civil war within the Muslim world called the Fitna.
Sunnis follow a tradition that began with Abu Bakr, who was Muhammad’s father-in-law. Bakr, according to Sunnis, was the first Caliph or successor. They believe that Bakr along with Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan, and Ali ibn Abi Talib were the Four Righteously Guided Caliphs or those that Sunnis believe followed in the traditions of Muhammad. Modernly, Sunnis are the largest group within Islam.
Shia, on the other hand, disregard the first three Caliphs, but favor Ali ibn Abi Talib and believe that he was chosen by Muhammad. Within Shia Islam, the largest school of thought is known as the Twelvers. Twelvers are those who believe that the succession of Imams, similar to the Sunni Caliph, should go as follows:
1. Ali ibn Abu Talib (600 - 661)
2. Hasan ibn Ali (625 - 669)
3. Husayn ibn Ali (626 - 680)
4. Ali ibn Husayn (658 - 713)
5. Muhammad al-Baqir (676 - 743)
6. Jafar as-Sadiq (703 - 765)
7. Musa al-Kazim (745 - 799)
8. Ali ar-Rida (765 - 818)
9. Muhammad at-Taqi (810 - 835)
10. Ali al-Hadi (827 - 868)
11. Hasan al-Askari (846 - 874)
12. Muhammad al-Mahdi (868 - ?)
Modernly, the Shia school is significantly smaller than the Sunni school. Shia can be found mostly in Iran though they also have a significant presence in Iraq.
There are also a number of tiny schools of Islam. Many of them are quite militant such as Wahhabism and Salafism. Islam has also inspired or influenced a number of related faiths such as Yazidis and the Druze.
13. Why does Ken Wilber argue for a holistic or QUADRANT
understanding of religion and spiritual life?
Wilber finds the idea of a quadrant understanding of spirituality appealing because Wilber’s view of integral theory rejects the Cartesian mind/body distinction. So rather than seeing things in terms of mind vs. body, Wilber believes there are four quadrants to our existence and, rather than them being at odds with one another, they are seen as parts of an inter-connected whole. This allows Wilber to take a holistic approach to spirituality rather than a reductionistic one.
The Left quadrants represent the interior perspective. The Right quadrants represent the exterior perspective. The Upper quadrants represent the individual perspective. The Lower quadrants represent the collective perspective. Each of these is then divided into four quadrants.
Wilber believes the four quadrants are as follows. The Upper-Left quadrant has an interior-individual perspective that would fit into Freud’s concept of psychoanalysis. The Upper-Right quadrant has an exterior-individual perspective that would fit into B.F. Skinner’s behaviorism. The Lower-Left quadrant has an interior-collective perspective that would fit into hermeneutics. The Lower-Right quadrant has an exterior-collective perspective that would fit into Marx’s theory of deterministic social forces.
14. How would Edward O. Wilson critique Ken Wilber's transpersonal
psychology?
The problem with transpersonal psychology, from Edward Wilson’s perspective, is that it is not scientifically rigorous for his taste. Wilson would prefer techniques that used the scientific method. On the other hand, Wilber is more interested in non-scientific considerations such as spirituality.
Wilson’s own “consilience” technique for finding the truth would start off by using formal logic and mathematics. If math and logic isn’t sufficient then Wilson would move onto the hard sciences. Once Wilson got to the point where social sciences are necessary, such as psychology, he would most likely be more concerned with naturalistic phenomenon; rather then the supernatural phenomena that is found in transpersonal psychology. After all of those steps are taken then we should discuss spirituality.
Wilson believes in taking complex claims and reducing them down to simpler explanations. For example, if someone had an out of body experience Wilson would try to figure out a more rational explanation for the phenomenon as opposed to the mystical explanation that many others tend to give. Wilson would probably look for such things like a neurological issue that may be involved that would induce someone to think that the way they do regarding their out of body experience.
15. How would a Wilberian purview critique the actions of Osama Bin
Laden? Be sure to substantiate your answer.
I think Wilber would see Bin Laden as committing the Pre/Trans Fallacy. To be more specific, Wilber would say Bin Laden makes a mistake called the elevationist fallacy, where pre-rational material is mistaken for being spiritual. The problem with Bin Laden, or any fundamentalist, is that they take a pre-rational concept, like tribalism, and accept it as if it were absolutely divine.
Wilber would not approve of Bin Laden and would instead support religious pluralism. Wilber would not reject that there are genuine mystical experiences, but one has to move through personal levels of development to achieve the transpersonal. Fundamentalists don’t move through those stages. Instead, they force their own, narrower concept of the divine on others.
According to Wilber, a fundamentalist exists at the lower end of the “holarchy”, meaning they rank on a lower level on the spiritual continuum. This means that fundamentalists are indeed part of the whole, but are simply a lesser part than the more meaningful parts of the spiritual whole. Wilber, when describing the KKK and the Nazis, refers to those on this lower end of the spiritual continuum as having “a twisted case of arrested development”. (Wilber, One Taste, p.229)
16. How does the genealogical history of morality contribute to
religious diversity?
I believe that the root cause of religious diversity can be found in hermeneutics. What happens is that once a religion is founded the followers are trying to interpret morality from their holy book. The problem is that not everyone comes to the same conclusions. The disagreements lead to schisms within the religion and can even lead to the creation of new religions.
The best example I can think of would be Martin Luther and Protestantism. Martin Luther disagreed with the Catholic Church on the issue of indulgences, which were payments for the redemption of sins. This process was believed by Luther to be a corrupt practice. In response, Luther expressed his grievances through his pamphlets eventually leading to the Protestant Reformation.
So, Luther’s interpretation was different than the Catholic Church’s version of what it believed to be moral. So in response a schism occurred and new sect formed. There are a virtually infinite number of times that this can occur. Today, you can still find these splits occurring within Christianity in new religions such as Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
17. Given America's religious melting pot, what do YOU think is the
best way to approach American religious diversity? Explain your
reasoning.
Honestly, I think the best approach to religious diversity is Peter Berger’s “inductive option.” When I first heard of this I found it appealing instantly. The inductive option is a great idea because it allows people to be tolerant and open-minded, but not uncritical of religion.
The inductive option allows for the best of both worlds. We can be tolerant, but not to the point where we approve of such things as female circumcision. Also, we can be critical of religion, but not to the point where we dismiss all spiritual claims as per se nonsense. What this gives us is religious pluralism, where we are respectful toward those who differ from us yet, at the same time, we are not abandoning the whole project of religion altogether.
I think this approach is good from, both, a deontological and utilitarian perspective. From a deontological perspective, the inductive option gives people a large degree of autonomy over their own views and actions. Also, one can be critical of another without using force to change the beliefs of those that have differing views. From a utilitarian perspective, people benefit from worshipping as they see fit. If their beliefs are mistaken, then those who hold mistaken beliefs will have to fight it out in the market place of ideas. The inductive option is positive sum, as opposed to zero-sum, because no one is forcing their own views on others.
18. Explain why religion will not disappear, even as we become more
scientifically oriented?
Living in a scientific age, it’s very tempting to take an eliminative materialist view and say that religion is just superstitious nonsense and that everything can or will be explained by purely naturalistic phenomenon. Yet, I do not believe that most people hold this view. For instance, I don’t think people will ever let go of their belief in an afterlife even though there is no verifiable evidence that such a place exists. Why? I think there’s a psychological reason for this.
People feel comforted in believing in an afterlife because we have evolved in such a way that we fear death to the point where we are uncomfortable with the notion of nonexistence. Hence, people believe in an afterlife so that they can convince themselves that they will never really die.
Also, belief in the mystical is nearly universal among various cultures. Not all cultures, such as Buddhists, believe in deities, but nearly all cultures believe in something that “transcends” our current existence. Since this belief is so wide spread, it may very well be an integral component to humanity as a whole. Indeed, there is a field called the Evolutionary psychology of religion where psychologists, such as Steven Pinker, believe that religion may be a by-product of the human mind.
19. How would Ken Wilber argue against Wilson's inter-theoretic
reductionism?
Wilber would not like Wilson’s reductionism. Instead Wilber would prefer a holistic approach to an understanding of the world. So, Wilber uses what’s called integral theory, where the worlds of the physical and metaphysical are integrated. Wilber would say that reductionism can’t explain all aspects of existence because it would leave out abstract objects such as metaphysics, consciousness, and religion.
Since abstract objects can not be reducible to natural phenomena that would mean that abstract objects have no place in scientific inquiry. So, Wilber devised a non-reductionistic approach to account for abstract objects. By putting things, such as consciousness, into quadrants one can get a more holistic understanding rather than attempting to find it through purely reductionistic means.
Wilber would likely dismiss extreme reductionism as a form of scientism, where science is the only means of finding truth. Since the merits of scientism can’t be judged by science, science would then be insufficient as way of finding all known values. So, some values must exist outside of mere scientific values.
20. What was the most valuable thing you learned this semester?
I think the concept of the “biological imperative” that was described in class is useful. Evolutionary psychology is interesting, but I could never quite figure out how to incorporate it into predicting the behavior of other people before I came to class. With the concept of the biological imperative it’s extremely useful in predicting human behavior because if no one reproduced than no one would be here.
The biological imperative is an amazingly simple explanation that can achieve so much. Since the very reason why we exist is from reproduction and given that the process of reproduction as occurred over the whole of our collective existence, then this means that our will to reproduce is amazingly powerful. So people will then act to achieve reproductive success.
So, if you understand the concept you know that everyone’s highest goal, in the biological sense, is to achieve reproduction and people will go out of their way to achieve that end. The biological imperative explains, for example, why men cheat. They do so to maximize the amount of women they can reproduce with.
21. According to Stephen Jay Gould, why is it so difficult to know
the evolutionary "function" of religious belief? Hint: think
of "spandrels" (or unintended secondary effects).
It’s difficult to decipher the function of religion because the religious nature of human beings may have arisen as a result of the unintended consequences of our evolution. Human beings have larger and more complex brains than most species. Presumably, these large brains help our survival. We can use these large brains to solve problems encountered in nature such as devising tools that can aid in obtaining food.
As our brains get more complex, mankind’s capacity for abstract thought increases. One of the unintended consequences of this expansion of brain capacity is that we now have the ability to reflect on our existence. Since primitive man does not yet have the tools required to explain such things as the sun rising. Gods had to be devised to explain such seemingly miraculous events.
As I previously mentioned, evolutionary psychologists such as Steven Pinker believe that religion is a by-product of our mind and has no adaptive purpose. If religion arose in the human psyche as a mere accident than there may very well be no decipherable function to religious belief.
Joseph Kemmerly; Fri 11:00AM
2. YOUR USERNAME.
joekemmerly
3. List your attendance (how many classes missed? how many classes
were you late to?).
I was always on time and I never missed class. I sat in the middle of class and close to the front.
4. List the titles to each of the two movies, along with a synopsis
of their themes. I also want you to list the "format" that you used
for your two films.
My first digital film is entitled Outer Space by Joseph Kemmerly. This film had a number of images of space, stars, galaxies, etc. I presented my film on October 7. I created my film using Pinnacle. I saved it onto a CD-RW as a MPEG. I also have my video streaming off the CSULB server. You can see it here:
http://www.csulb.edu/~jkemmerl/Movie1.wmv
My second digital film is entitled Social Evolution by Joseph Kemmerly. This film was about social evolution. Specifically, it presents theories about social evolution as to whether society evolves in a predetermined way or in a spontaneous way. I presented this film on December 2. I used Pinnacle again. Again, I saved it on a CD-RW as a MPEG. You gave me a B to B+. The video is streaming off the CSULB server. You can see it here:
http://www.csulb.edu/~jkemmerl/socialevolution3.wmv
5. Did you read all 5 books? (fully? skip-read? looked at the cover?
we had to read books?)
Yes, I read all five books. The first three took me approximately two weeks per book. The latter two were easier to read and took me about one week per book.
6. Give me a link to your field trip so I can access it for
reference.
http://metaphysicaldiversity.blogspot.com/2005/12/field-trips.html
Pass +
7. Also give me a link to your autobiography so I can cross-
reference items if I need to.
http://metaphysicaldiversity.blogspot.com/2005/11/autobiography.html
8. What grade did you finally receive on the midterm?
Here are your words from the email you sent me:
VERY GOOD WORK.
Solid B/B+ which puts you squarely in the "A" bracket.
nice.
8. What grade do you deserve in this class? Substantiate your answer.
I believe I deserve an A in the class. I had perfect attendance and was never late. I turned in all of the assignments on time and my assignments have consistently been high in quality. Also, I read all of the books that were assigned. I also posted on the message board regularly.
9. List any extra credit or other circumstances that may help your
overall grade.
I had perfect attendance and did very well on all of my assignments.
---------------------
Here's the "meat" (or, in my case, "tofu") of the test:
10. Explain Malcolm X's vision of Islam and why he was inspired to
convert to it.
Malcolm X believes in a form of Islam that would be considered foreign to most traditional Muslims. While he was in prison, Malcolm X joined a radical, militant group known as the Nation of Islam (NOI). The NOI believes that, before African-Americans arrived to the USA as slaves, Africans were Muslim and, therefore, should convert back to Islam as a way of retrieving their lost heritage.
Malcolm X was probably inspired to convert to his brand of Islam because of a combination of his own socio-economic conditions as well as the changing intellectual climate that would be a precursor to the 1950’s to 60’s civil rights movement. Malcolm X was appalled by what he saw around him and he thought that African-Americans have not progressed much since slave times and that they had to “liberate” themselves from the white man.
11. What are the three most significant factors motivating Malcolm X's
understanding of race relations (between blacks and whites).
Substantiate your answers.
I believe one of the first things that motivated, as I mentioned in the previous question, Malcolm X was his own economic conditions while growing up. While he was living in Harlem he experienced the dark side of life. He was involved in drug-dealing, pimping, and robbery as well as other things that would likely have a significant effect on one’s own world view, most likely making him pessimistic and cynical.
Malcolm X’s own experience growing up didn’t exist in a bubble, though. He saw his fellow African-Americans experiencing political discrimination and economic hardship as well. Seeing this phenomenon gave Malcolm X a sort of racial collectivist view where he thought that African-Americans should rise up and liberate themselves. This is where he developed an overtly antagonistic view toward those outside of his race, particularly towards Whites and Jews.
Another motivating factor is Malcolm X’s own distorted view of history. He subscribes to something similar to noble savage theory, that everything was going fine for Africans until the evil white man showed up and ruined everything. This line of thinking is found throughout his writing. He blames whites for all of the problems in the world including colonialism and imperialism; making him a sort of Noam Chomksy of his time.
12. Are there different versions of Islam? Detail your answers.
The two major schools of Islam are Sunni and Shia. The split began shortly after the death of Muhammad. The problem was that he didn’t appoint a successor so there was a lot of confusion regarding who lead be the leader of Islam. This debate led to a civil war within the Muslim world called the Fitna.
Sunnis follow a tradition that began with Abu Bakr, who was Muhammad’s father-in-law. Bakr, according to Sunnis, was the first Caliph or successor. They believe that Bakr along with Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan, and Ali ibn Abi Talib were the Four Righteously Guided Caliphs or those that Sunnis believe followed in the traditions of Muhammad. Modernly, Sunnis are the largest group within Islam.
Shia, on the other hand, disregard the first three Caliphs, but favor Ali ibn Abi Talib and believe that he was chosen by Muhammad. Within Shia Islam, the largest school of thought is known as the Twelvers. Twelvers are those who believe that the succession of Imams, similar to the Sunni Caliph, should go as follows:
1. Ali ibn Abu Talib (600 - 661)
2. Hasan ibn Ali (625 - 669)
3. Husayn ibn Ali (626 - 680)
4. Ali ibn Husayn (658 - 713)
5. Muhammad al-Baqir (676 - 743)
6. Jafar as-Sadiq (703 - 765)
7. Musa al-Kazim (745 - 799)
8. Ali ar-Rida (765 - 818)
9. Muhammad at-Taqi (810 - 835)
10. Ali al-Hadi (827 - 868)
11. Hasan al-Askari (846 - 874)
12. Muhammad al-Mahdi (868 - ?)
Modernly, the Shia school is significantly smaller than the Sunni school. Shia can be found mostly in Iran though they also have a significant presence in Iraq.
There are also a number of tiny schools of Islam. Many of them are quite militant such as Wahhabism and Salafism. Islam has also inspired or influenced a number of related faiths such as Yazidis and the Druze.
13. Why does Ken Wilber argue for a holistic or QUADRANT
understanding of religion and spiritual life?
Wilber finds the idea of a quadrant understanding of spirituality appealing because Wilber’s view of integral theory rejects the Cartesian mind/body distinction. So rather than seeing things in terms of mind vs. body, Wilber believes there are four quadrants to our existence and, rather than them being at odds with one another, they are seen as parts of an inter-connected whole. This allows Wilber to take a holistic approach to spirituality rather than a reductionistic one.
The Left quadrants represent the interior perspective. The Right quadrants represent the exterior perspective. The Upper quadrants represent the individual perspective. The Lower quadrants represent the collective perspective. Each of these is then divided into four quadrants.
Wilber believes the four quadrants are as follows. The Upper-Left quadrant has an interior-individual perspective that would fit into Freud’s concept of psychoanalysis. The Upper-Right quadrant has an exterior-individual perspective that would fit into B.F. Skinner’s behaviorism. The Lower-Left quadrant has an interior-collective perspective that would fit into hermeneutics. The Lower-Right quadrant has an exterior-collective perspective that would fit into Marx’s theory of deterministic social forces.
14. How would Edward O. Wilson critique Ken Wilber's transpersonal
psychology?
The problem with transpersonal psychology, from Edward Wilson’s perspective, is that it is not scientifically rigorous for his taste. Wilson would prefer techniques that used the scientific method. On the other hand, Wilber is more interested in non-scientific considerations such as spirituality.
Wilson’s own “consilience” technique for finding the truth would start off by using formal logic and mathematics. If math and logic isn’t sufficient then Wilson would move onto the hard sciences. Once Wilson got to the point where social sciences are necessary, such as psychology, he would most likely be more concerned with naturalistic phenomenon; rather then the supernatural phenomena that is found in transpersonal psychology. After all of those steps are taken then we should discuss spirituality.
Wilson believes in taking complex claims and reducing them down to simpler explanations. For example, if someone had an out of body experience Wilson would try to figure out a more rational explanation for the phenomenon as opposed to the mystical explanation that many others tend to give. Wilson would probably look for such things like a neurological issue that may be involved that would induce someone to think that the way they do regarding their out of body experience.
15. How would a Wilberian purview critique the actions of Osama Bin
Laden? Be sure to substantiate your answer.
I think Wilber would see Bin Laden as committing the Pre/Trans Fallacy. To be more specific, Wilber would say Bin Laden makes a mistake called the elevationist fallacy, where pre-rational material is mistaken for being spiritual. The problem with Bin Laden, or any fundamentalist, is that they take a pre-rational concept, like tribalism, and accept it as if it were absolutely divine.
Wilber would not approve of Bin Laden and would instead support religious pluralism. Wilber would not reject that there are genuine mystical experiences, but one has to move through personal levels of development to achieve the transpersonal. Fundamentalists don’t move through those stages. Instead, they force their own, narrower concept of the divine on others.
According to Wilber, a fundamentalist exists at the lower end of the “holarchy”, meaning they rank on a lower level on the spiritual continuum. This means that fundamentalists are indeed part of the whole, but are simply a lesser part than the more meaningful parts of the spiritual whole. Wilber, when describing the KKK and the Nazis, refers to those on this lower end of the spiritual continuum as having “a twisted case of arrested development”. (Wilber, One Taste, p.229)
16. How does the genealogical history of morality contribute to
religious diversity?
I believe that the root cause of religious diversity can be found in hermeneutics. What happens is that once a religion is founded the followers are trying to interpret morality from their holy book. The problem is that not everyone comes to the same conclusions. The disagreements lead to schisms within the religion and can even lead to the creation of new religions.
The best example I can think of would be Martin Luther and Protestantism. Martin Luther disagreed with the Catholic Church on the issue of indulgences, which were payments for the redemption of sins. This process was believed by Luther to be a corrupt practice. In response, Luther expressed his grievances through his pamphlets eventually leading to the Protestant Reformation.
So, Luther’s interpretation was different than the Catholic Church’s version of what it believed to be moral. So in response a schism occurred and new sect formed. There are a virtually infinite number of times that this can occur. Today, you can still find these splits occurring within Christianity in new religions such as Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
17. Given America's religious melting pot, what do YOU think is the
best way to approach American religious diversity? Explain your
reasoning.
Honestly, I think the best approach to religious diversity is Peter Berger’s “inductive option.” When I first heard of this I found it appealing instantly. The inductive option is a great idea because it allows people to be tolerant and open-minded, but not uncritical of religion.
The inductive option allows for the best of both worlds. We can be tolerant, but not to the point where we approve of such things as female circumcision. Also, we can be critical of religion, but not to the point where we dismiss all spiritual claims as per se nonsense. What this gives us is religious pluralism, where we are respectful toward those who differ from us yet, at the same time, we are not abandoning the whole project of religion altogether.
I think this approach is good from, both, a deontological and utilitarian perspective. From a deontological perspective, the inductive option gives people a large degree of autonomy over their own views and actions. Also, one can be critical of another without using force to change the beliefs of those that have differing views. From a utilitarian perspective, people benefit from worshipping as they see fit. If their beliefs are mistaken, then those who hold mistaken beliefs will have to fight it out in the market place of ideas. The inductive option is positive sum, as opposed to zero-sum, because no one is forcing their own views on others.
18. Explain why religion will not disappear, even as we become more
scientifically oriented?
Living in a scientific age, it’s very tempting to take an eliminative materialist view and say that religion is just superstitious nonsense and that everything can or will be explained by purely naturalistic phenomenon. Yet, I do not believe that most people hold this view. For instance, I don’t think people will ever let go of their belief in an afterlife even though there is no verifiable evidence that such a place exists. Why? I think there’s a psychological reason for this.
People feel comforted in believing in an afterlife because we have evolved in such a way that we fear death to the point where we are uncomfortable with the notion of nonexistence. Hence, people believe in an afterlife so that they can convince themselves that they will never really die.
Also, belief in the mystical is nearly universal among various cultures. Not all cultures, such as Buddhists, believe in deities, but nearly all cultures believe in something that “transcends” our current existence. Since this belief is so wide spread, it may very well be an integral component to humanity as a whole. Indeed, there is a field called the Evolutionary psychology of religion where psychologists, such as Steven Pinker, believe that religion may be a by-product of the human mind.
19. How would Ken Wilber argue against Wilson's inter-theoretic
reductionism?
Wilber would not like Wilson’s reductionism. Instead Wilber would prefer a holistic approach to an understanding of the world. So, Wilber uses what’s called integral theory, where the worlds of the physical and metaphysical are integrated. Wilber would say that reductionism can’t explain all aspects of existence because it would leave out abstract objects such as metaphysics, consciousness, and religion.
Since abstract objects can not be reducible to natural phenomena that would mean that abstract objects have no place in scientific inquiry. So, Wilber devised a non-reductionistic approach to account for abstract objects. By putting things, such as consciousness, into quadrants one can get a more holistic understanding rather than attempting to find it through purely reductionistic means.
Wilber would likely dismiss extreme reductionism as a form of scientism, where science is the only means of finding truth. Since the merits of scientism can’t be judged by science, science would then be insufficient as way of finding all known values. So, some values must exist outside of mere scientific values.
20. What was the most valuable thing you learned this semester?
I think the concept of the “biological imperative” that was described in class is useful. Evolutionary psychology is interesting, but I could never quite figure out how to incorporate it into predicting the behavior of other people before I came to class. With the concept of the biological imperative it’s extremely useful in predicting human behavior because if no one reproduced than no one would be here.
The biological imperative is an amazingly simple explanation that can achieve so much. Since the very reason why we exist is from reproduction and given that the process of reproduction as occurred over the whole of our collective existence, then this means that our will to reproduce is amazingly powerful. So people will then act to achieve reproductive success.
So, if you understand the concept you know that everyone’s highest goal, in the biological sense, is to achieve reproduction and people will go out of their way to achieve that end. The biological imperative explains, for example, why men cheat. They do so to maximize the amount of women they can reproduce with.
21. According to Stephen Jay Gould, why is it so difficult to know
the evolutionary "function" of religious belief? Hint: think
of "spandrels" (or unintended secondary effects).
It’s difficult to decipher the function of religion because the religious nature of human beings may have arisen as a result of the unintended consequences of our evolution. Human beings have larger and more complex brains than most species. Presumably, these large brains help our survival. We can use these large brains to solve problems encountered in nature such as devising tools that can aid in obtaining food.
As our brains get more complex, mankind’s capacity for abstract thought increases. One of the unintended consequences of this expansion of brain capacity is that we now have the ability to reflect on our existence. Since primitive man does not yet have the tools required to explain such things as the sun rising. Gods had to be devised to explain such seemingly miraculous events.
As I previously mentioned, evolutionary psychologists such as Steven Pinker believe that religion is a by-product of our mind and has no adaptive purpose. If religion arose in the human psyche as a mere accident than there may very well be no decipherable function to religious belief.
posted by Joseph at 12:08 PM
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