PHIL 3600-001 -- Philosophy of Religion
Spring 2014
MWF 10:00-10:50
HLMS 211

Professor
Chris Heathwood
heathwood@colorado.edu
Office: HLMS 192
Hours: Wed 3:00-5:00, and by appointment

TA/Grader
James Hall
james.hall@colorado.edu
Office: HLMS 15 (in the basement of Hellems)
Hours: Mon, Fri 11:00-12:00, and by appointment

Course Description
In Western philosophy of religion, we attempt to answer fundamental questions concerning the important doctrines of the major Western religions, especially the doctrines concerning God.  We attempt to answer questions about

• The Nature of God.  Assuming that God exists, what is God like?  What are the divine attributes?
• Puzzles about Omnipotence.  God is supposed to be omnipotent, or all-powerful, but what does this mean?  Is the notion of omnipotence even coherent?
• God and Morality.  What is the relationship between God and morality?  Do moral truths depend upon God? Does rejecting God mean rejecting morality? Can we show that God exists on the grounds that moral facts exist?
• The Dilemma of Freedom and Foreknowledge.  God is supposed to be omniscient, but is this compatible with human freedom, which is another important tenet of major Western religions?
• Faith.  What is faith?  Can it be of any help in trying to determine whether God exists?
• The Ontological Argument.  Can we prove the existence of God from the very concept of God?
• The Cosmological Argument.  Does the fact that the universe, or anything at all, exists give us reason to think God exists?
• The Teleological Argument.  Some features of the natural world appear designed.  Does this give us reason to think God exists?
• Religious Experience.  Is religious experience good evidence for the existence of God?
• The Problem of Evil.  Does the amount of evil in the world give us reason to think that God does not exist?
• Divine Hiddenness.  If God exists and created us, one would expect that he would make his existence easily knowable to all of us. Does the fact that he hasn't give us reason to think that he doesn't exist?
• Immortality.  What would human beings have to be like for life after death to be possible?  Is there any reason to think that we are that way?
• The Meaning of Life.  If there is no God, is everything pointless?  If there is no afterlife, is everything pointless?

Unfortunately, we will have time to cover only some of these topics.  We will approach them by way of the writings of some important philosophers, classic and contemporary.  Our goals will be to understand and evaluate some of the important theses and arguments on these topics.

This is a course in the philosophy of religion.  It is not a course in comparative religion, the history of religion, or the psychology of religion.  Though these are important questions, we will not be asking what the religious beliefs of some group are, or how they differ from the beliefs of some other group, or what cultural circumstances might have led them to adopt their religious views.  We will be trying to figure out the correct answers to questions like the questions above.

This is a challenging course, especially for non-majors.  Much of the reading is difficult and must be read slowly and more than once.  Many of the ideas and arguments presented in lecture and in the readings are unfamiliar, difficult, and technical.  You will be expected to know the material thoroughly, to think deeply, and write very clearly and precisely about the issues.  You must have taken at least two courses in philosophy at the university level to be eligible to take this course.  But more experience than that is recommended.  Talk to me about it if you are unsure.

Course Website
The course website, which you should check regularly, can be found here:

     http://spot.colorado.edu/~heathwoo/phil3600/.

There you will find:

• this syllabus
• course readings
• what we did each day (check this first if you miss a class)
• handouts
  
• study guides for exams
• paper guidelines and topics.

Readings
No book is required. We will supply the readings via the course website. Some of these will require a password, which I will give you in class.

Class Mates
So that you will have someone from whom to get the notes (and any other pertinent info) should you miss class, introduce yourself to two classmates and get their email addresses and phone numbers.

Course Requirements
1. Technology.  You must have an email account and regular access to the internet, and you must check your colorado.edu email address and the course website frequently. Text messaging during class is strictly prohibited.  First-time offenders will be asked to leave their phones on my desk for the remainder of class; repeat offenders will be excused from class.  When you get to class, turn your cell phone OFF. If you use a laptop in class, you may use it only for taking notes. No web-surfing, emailing, facebooking, etc.  If you use a laptop, disable the wifi.

2. Quizzes and/or Homework (20%).  To do well in this class, you must attend class regularly, arrive on time, complete each reading assignment on time, take notes on readings and in class, ask questions when you have them, and contribute to class discussions.  There will be pop quizzes designed to test whether you have done the assigned reading and have been coming to class (and are coming to class on time – pop quizzes occur at the start of class).  If you keep up with the readings, come to class, and take notes on both, the quizzes should be easy.  If you don't do these things, they will be difficult. There may also be occasional homework assignments. You can drop your lowest quiz score.

For many of the readings, I supply reading questions. Have them with you as you are doing each reading. Write down what you take the answers to be. If there is a pop quiz on the reading, it is likely -- though not guaranteed -- that the questions on the quiz will be take from the questions below. Reading quizzes are open-note, but not open-reading, so if you do this, you're very likely to do well on the reading quizzes.

3. Two Papers (40%).  You are required to write two papers (see below for tentative due dates).  I'll say more about the papers later.  Late papers will be penalized unless you have a legitimate, documented excuse.

4. Two Exams (40%). There will be two exams during the semester: a midterm exam and a cumulative final exam. These will be in-class, short-answer, bluebook exams.  To help you prepare, and to give you an idea about the sorts of questions you can expect, a study guide will be made available before each exam.  Furthermore, the class meeting before the exam will be devoted to reviewing the study guide.  But you must come prepared for this review session by having written out answers to questions on the study guide.

The midterm will take place over two consecutive class periods. The final exam will take place during our scheduled final exam time slot. See below for dates.

If you miss an exam, you will be permitted to take a makeup exam only if you have a legitimate, documented excuse (e.g., non-trivial illness, religious obligation, nuclear war.). If you must miss an exam, you need to let us know in advance.

Grading
Your final grade for the course is determined according to the following scheme: