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READ THE SYLLABUS, DO NOT JUST SKIM IT. IF THERE ARE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT IT SAYS ASK THE INSTRUCTOR AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE EXPECTED TO DO, WAITING TO INQUIRE UNTIL LATER IN THE SEMESTER PUTS YOU SERIOUSLY BEHIND.
PHL 127, 9446 (online mode): FALL, 2005
Thinking About Religion [with Huston Smith]
The reason you are taking this course is to ultimately hone your mastery of the greatest tool that humans have: your mind.
ATo the degree that he masters his tools, he can invest the world with his meaning; to the extent that he has been mastered by his tools, the shape of the tool determines his own self-image.@ Ivan Illich, Tools for Conviviality, Marion Boyars, London, 1990: pg. 21.
Thus, if you let your Acommon sense@ or your beliefs or the computer or the television set or the books or the ideas you simply assume to be true master you rather than you mastering them, you have become a function of the tool rather than making those lesser tools a function of your mind.
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THREE ADVISORIES:
1) This is a course which requires you to manage your time well. You need to schedule doing the lessons and replying to the weekly questions with the same rigor as you would for an on-campus course. You will save commuting time, but it is likely that the on-line course will take more time than a face-to-face course would. It also seems to work best if you schedule the same time every week for doing your work in the course.
2) The college must report those who are not Ain class@ to state and federal funding agencies. In this course, not being Ain class@ means that you have not turned in the work that had been due by the reporting date (usually four to five weeks into the semester), so do not procrastinate on those first lessons. If you have not done the work required in those early weeks, you will be dropped from the class and assigned a AQ@ grade. The AQ@ does not impact on your grade point average, but it does remove you from the class and may then impact on your enrollment status.
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3) As an electronically delivered course, there is always a danger that a computer virus could infect your machine. Be sure that your virus protection is up to date (I know that both McAfee and Norton update their virus protection files every week) and turned on. It also helps to be sure that Word=s AMacro Virus Protection@ is turned on (checked) - go to ATools, 0ptions, General@. If my virus checker rejects (refuses to open) a file from you because of a virus I cannot read your answer, and as a result I cannot give you a grade for that work.
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This is a completely on-line course. You are never required to come to campus after the initial orientation. Any tests or quizzes will be on-line, and all of your essays will be sent to me on-line. You are welcome to come to my office for face-to-face discussions or consultations.
To get credit, you must complete all of the work on time (please read this syllabus carefully for additional conditions on submitting your work).
To succeed in it you will need at least average college reading, comprehension, writing, and file management skills. If you are taking developmental writing or reading, this course will prove to be a major headache for you and you would be advised to wait until you have successfully completed several college level reading and writing courses . If you are taking an introductory course in computer literacy, or just starting to get familiar with your computer and software, you may find it easier to wait until your feel comfortable using a computer and the internet before trying this class.
You will need access to a computer, full scale word-processing software (WordPerfect or Microsoft Word: any version). [Microsoft Works isnotacceptable - its files are often corrupted in the Blackboard system.] and an ISP with a standard browser (AOL does not work very well with its supplied browser. If you are using AOL, sign on but then open Microsoft=s Internet Explorer rather than go with AOL=s default).
All of the lessons will be posted at Note: there is no Awww@ in the URL, and trying to get to the course from Ablackboard.com@ by itself may give you a course taught by me some years ago, but it is not the one that we are using now. You will be given access to the site on or about August 24th, I strongly recommended that you take some time exploring the site.
INSTRUCTOR
Clyde Ebenreck
Office: Malboro 3023
(Campus Mail Box: Malboro 3072)
Distance learning office hours will be posted on the course web site, or set up an appointment for a face-to-face or on-line consultation.
Phone: (office)301-322-0947 (on-campus office hours are announced on the phone, and I am often on-campus at other times, but try my home number also)
301-855-1064 (home, no calls before 8 am or after 8 pm, has answering machine)
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The best way to reach me is by e-mail:
On an e-mail message, clearly indicate PHL 127 in the subjector topicarea, otherwise I may not recognize your name and delete the message unread and unanswered. I usually check my mail daily during the week and once on the weekend, so you can expect a reply within 24 to 48 hours. Leaving the Asubject@ blank guarantees that I will not see your message (my filters trash any ANo Subject@ message).
NO FAX
Mailing address: Clyde Ebenreck
Philosophy Department
Prince George's Community College
301 Largo Road
Largo, MD 20774-2199
But since all of your assignments will be sent to me through the Blackboard site, you would use regular mail only in extreme cases when you have no access to the internet. If you send me something through the postal service I will be mailing back to you the same way (I will not scan it into an electronic versions to send it back to you via Blackboard). This means that you might have up to a week=s delay in receiving feedback from me.
A) objectives for the college=s course (including this section) in Thinking about Religion
AUpon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to
1) distinguish between faith and reason
2) identify three central concepts in the major world religions
3) compare the different concepts of God in three different religions (at least one Asian and one Western)
4) relate the teachings of a religion to the culture in which those teachings originated.
5) demonstrate the ability to think critically@
B) additional objectives of this section:
1) to examine highlights of the major world religions not as theological claims based on faith, but to see what philosophical claims are being made and to what extent the truth of these claims can be established.
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Philosophy is not opposed to religion, but it approaches religious topics from the standpoint of reason and not faith. Theology is also a rational approach, but the bottom line for theology is the faith commitment of the believing community. A good theologian must be a good philosopher, but a good philosopher need not have any theological stand, and a good preacher need not be either a good theologian or a good philosopher (although he or she cannot really be a good preacher or pastor if the theology and philosophy that guides them is bad). And if the philosopher takes an anti-theological stance, that stance has to be rationally defended. For example, a philosopher can reasonably argue that a sacred text is not historically true but that philosopher has to show where the text departs from history and truth.
2) to engage in a dialogue with the absent speaker, Huston Smith, professor emeritus of philosophy and religion at the University of California, Berkeley. His Ph.D. is from the University of Chicago and he has also taught at MIT and Syracuse. Dr. Smith was featured in the 1996 PBS-TV series moderated by Bill Moyers: The Wisdom of Faithand you can frequently find the tapes and/or DVD=s for that series in places like Blockbusters.
3) to clarify some of your own questions about religion and to work out how to think about them
4) to stimulate additional questions about religion, philosophy and life
C) Some means to those goals:
C.1) Required books and audio tapes (available in the College Bookstore: 301-322-0912):
1) Huston Smith, Religions of the World, Audio Cassettes, 1995, Sounds True Audio, 735 Walnut Street. Boulder CO, 1-56455-350-7 I have placed my copies of these tapes on reserve in the college library, they can be used there, but they cannot be taken out.
2) Huston Smith, The World's Religions, 2nd edition, 1991, Harper Collins, 0-06-250811-3
3) Anthony Weston, A Rulebook for Arguments (third edition), Hackett, 2000, 0-87220-552-5
This is a brief introduction to rational arguments and how to build them. If it is not with the PHL 127 books look elsewhere in the philosophy section: I use the book in all of my classes: on-line and on campus.
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C.2) Required web access. You will not need to have your own computer to do this - you can use any computer with web access to access the Blackboard site, just remember to bring your own disks to download the lessons and to upload your responses. Access to college and library labs may not be available at all times (especially when the College is closed for a holiday), thus it is a lot more convenient if you have regular access to a computer and the WEB at home or work.
If you are using multiple computers (home, work, school, friends) one of the easiest ways to keep your work with you is to store (upload) it on the Blackboard web site in your ADigital Drop Box@ Only you have access to that location, and you can put the files you are working on there, download them to the computer you happen to be using to continue the work, and upload them back to the drop box. The files do not move out of your control and your drop box until you send the file to me.
C.3) Recommended book and sources:
1) Huston Smith, Forgotten Truth, Harper Collins, 1992, Harper SF, 0_06_250787_7 This book gives an overview of Smith=s philosophy of religion without going into the details of the individual religions that will be covered this semester. Students who have a reasonable background in science have found his chapters on the dialogue between religion and science to be particularly helpful.
2) access to (the indicated web locations are only suggestions, you may well find sites more to your taste by doing a web search using any standard search engine):
The Torah (Old Testament, The First TestamentThe Hebrew Scriptures) (
The New Testament, The Second TestamentThe Christian Scriptures(
The Koran (Qur'an) (
The Gita (
The Upanishads (
The Pali Canon (
Zen Koans ( )
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The primary purpose here is to be able to read the texts that Smith mentions in their larger context. However, it is tremendously valuable if you can set aside time each day during the semester to read at least a section from one or more of these traditional Sacred Texts. I would suggest for those of you raised in a Western religion that you will find a great deal of profit in spending time with the sacred texts of one of the other Western religions: A Christian will find much to admire in the Qur=an and the Torah; a Muslim will see many of Islam=s themes of justice and service to the poor contained in the Gospels and the Torah; and a Jew will hear echoes of the Torah in both the Gospels and the Qur=an.
D) An overview of the semester:
1) Lessons (study guides on-line) will follow the order of the chapters in Smith's book, The World's Religions, plus a final study guide to guide you through your final paper (you may want to download this [ALesson 11"] at the start of the semester).
2) Each lesson's STUDY GUIDE is posted on the Blackboard site as a Word document. Normally you will have access to three lessons at a time (the current lesson, and the lessons immediately prior to and following it).
1.1)The work I expect from you this semester is that for each lesson you will
+ first answer the ten preliminary questions for yourself - they are thought starters for the lesson.
I will not collect these answers, but in any consultation with you I may ask how you answered one or the other of them. Accordingly, keep a reliable notebook (electronic or physical) in which your answers and questions are kept in an accessible order
+ then read the study guide,
+ read the corresponding chapter in Smith's book,
+ take notes on any issues in the reading that seem unclear to you,
+ listen to the audio-tape (also noting any unclear areas for yourself).
+ if there are unclear items, go on-line to the Blackboard site, ask me, your fellow students, or your knowledgeable friends about those areas (post your questions on the class discussion board under the AQuestions about the course@ topic - private e-mails to me about the content of the course will be returned to you and you will be requested to re-post to the public forum where it will be answered).
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+ Once the material feels clear enough to you, write out an answer to the lesson's STUDY QUESTION (always at the end of the STUDY GUIDE for that lesson): these answers would not normally need to be longer than three pages, but I do not object to longer essays as long as they are focused on the question itself.
+ do not use the word processor=s footnote/endnote function (those are macro driven and thus do not show up on my screen since I disable macros to block the more common Microsoft viruses): make any such notations within the text itself.
+ on your disk, store the file as a Word document * (using the following file naming convention: ARxxxx-127yy@ where Axxxx@ is your user ID on Blackboard, and Ayy@ is the lesson number - 01,02 etc. )
*The Blackboard site almost always messes up Works files. If you are using Works, be sure to always chose the ASave as@ option and select the A.doc@ or AWord for Windows@ file type. It makes great academic sense to invest in a full scale word processor instead of sticking with the cheaper AWorks@ that may have been bundled with your computer.
+ then send it to me using the site=s ADigital Drop Box@. I will grade and respond to your answer and send it back to your Drop Box (usually within 24 hours), changing the first letter of the file name from an AR@ to a AC@. Do not encode your files, if I can=t open your file, I cannot grade it or count it as turned in.
In the rare case when you somehow cannot get access to the Digital Drop Box, but can still send e-mails, I would accept an e-mail attachment in place of the Drop Box. (Use the same file naming conventions)
3.2) There are on-line assignments (discussions and collaborative work) that are integral to the course. If the class is large I will set up smaller groups to facilitate such discussions and collaboration. These discussions and collaborations need to be done within the scheduled days for the assignment (usually at least a week): trying to get credit for them by entering your contribution after the deadline will not work.
3.3) The deadlines for each assignment are in the Calendar on the last pages of this syllabus. Your work is due within the structure of this schedule: some of the work involves interaction with your fellow students and cannot be either anticipated or caught up with. Set your schedule so that you work both steadily and diligently through the semester (the lessons are posted and then removed according to this set of dates)
4) Grading:
4.1) Each lesson is worth up to ten points. I will be looking for several things:
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-all parts of the question are answered;
-accuracy in understanding Huston Smith;
-clarity in your own formulation of your answer;
-details with which you support your claims in the answer.
I would suggest that you write out your answer, let it sit overnight, re-read to be sure it covers all the issues contained in the question and that you are satisfied with your answer, and revise if necessary before sending it on to me.
4.2) each instructor-posted on-line discussion will run about three weeks.
You will receive 5 points for each of two substantive (something more than AI agree@) contributions to a posted discussion topic which would include your reasoned reaction/response to the topic or to a fellow student=s reaction/response, up to a total of 10 points. You would need to spread these responses out over the time of the discussion: no points would be awarded for responding twice in the same day.