Theology Senior Seminar: The New Atheism

The Senior Seminar is Now Off-line

Brian Robinette — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:32:21 +0000

The blog for the 2009 senior seminar is now closed.

Final Thoughts

nuismera — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:53:08 +0000

I want to thank every single one of you for every thought, idea, frustration, etc that you’ve shared over the course of the year. Most majors don’t know everyone graduating with them and I think we can safely say that we’ve come to know each other, grow alongside one another, challenge one another’s thinking and become friends. I choose this major in the beginning because I had a personal interest and it seemed like a good idea at the time, I could not have imagined a better decision nor a different course here at SLU. Theology has opened up doors to some of my favorite classes: senior seminar of course, social justice, spirituality of Asia, War and Ethics to name a few. Also, the Puleo scholarship that Ryan, Heyse and I were lucky enough to experience was life changing and wouldn’t have been possible any other way.

We all have great dreams and big futures ahead of us but just as big are the problems we face. I have hope that we will meet the challenges of our lives head on and solve the pressing problems that plague our generation but I also hope we will never forget our Jesuit education and the mission of being men and women for others. This is beginning to sound like a graduation speech so I think I’ll switch gears. I feel so grateful for the education we have all received these past four years: knowledge does indeed give us immense power and I pray we use that power to give back and to change the world for the better. I find myself wishing that we could all start all over again or at least stay in undergrad studying what we love for another four years but alas on Saturday we mark a new chapter in our lives.

I have learned so much about theology, God, and myself these past four years and I don’ t think any of this comes to an end with the end of college, rather we continue on this journey until the day we die. I know that this still sounds like some sort of speech but I really have come to love and appreciate each of you and I wish you the best and that you fulfill all your dreams and God’s purpose for your lives. Paz companer@s, it’s been a wonderful journey thus far!

The End of the Beginning…

amharmon — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:44:25 +0000

I hope that this semester and four years as theology majors has been as life-changing and beneficial for everyone in our class as it has for me. Going back, though I had have to deal with many hardships (and probably should have taken a semester off), I would not change anything. I am one of those followers of old-fashioned wisdom who believes that everything happens for a reason. (I hope that this it true). Perhaps my questioning of my faith will lead me to becoming an even stronger follower and person. I hope no matter what everyone does with their futures that they retain the fundamental things that we have been taught at SLU. For me, these are the acceptance of each human person regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and religion. I hope to become an agent of the US goverment in Foreign Service and will use this idea of acceptance of all human persons throughout my career and hopefully life. That seems to me to be the only way that situations of peace will prevail in this world that is increasingly conflicted. I have attached a song by Lily Allen (called ‘Kabul Sh**) that I have been listening to throughout this semester. Regardless of ones political views (she seems to be speaking out against the actions of Tony Blair and Bush), this song could have some meaning to hopefully everyone in our class. The first lyrics in the song, “There’s a hole in our logic…” seem to define the entire song. People will continue living for themselves and lacking understanding of others who are different as long as this mentality is allowed to continue. So if it takes someone like Lily Allen to write a song, or people like us to take this sense of understanding and acceptance into whatever path this life takes us on, things can and hopefully will change. Thanks to everyone for a great and insightful semester and good luck with wherever life takes you! Kabul Sh** by Lily Allen

Final Presentations

stumpffk — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:13:03 +0000

I usually don’t like giving presentations much and presenting my work to peers but for some reason this semester it was different. Putting together a condensed version of my paper led me to rediscover what all of my research led to and the theologies I was able to synthesize. Finally presenting this semester long work was really important to me as I was able to share my research and my views on integrating already present, Christian ideas of God with Darwin’s theory of evolution. I felt like I was able to give this knowledge to other people who might be struggle and wrestling with questions about God and evolution and I hope it helped them along their journey.

I also really enjoyed listening to everyone else’s presentations and what they were working on. It was great to hear some other projects and the conclusions they reached, whether working on science and faith or otherwise. Not to single anybody out or leave anyone out but for me the panel on personal experiences of God was maybe one of my favorites because it was less of combating Dawkins or someone directly and more of a way that a personal relationship with God is important in having faith and that is something the New Atheists maybe just haven’t experienced yet. All the other presentations were great as well and I have taken a step back and realized that this semester I didn’t do my learning on my own but did it through the help of everyone in class bringing their own opinions and view points to the table. I enjoyed getting to know all of you a lot better this semester and I am greatly going to miss this subject with these people. Just wondering if anyone else had an strong opinions or feelings about the final presentations.

Looking Back on Last Semester

zaubizs — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:34:43 +0000

In thinking about the past two semesters as a whole, I began to think of some of the ideas that I thoroughly enjoyed discussing and working with in the seminar. I also tried to think of some of the topics that we covered in the fall semester that we came back to discuss this semester. I actually can think of very few things from the fall semester that seemed to have an immediate impact on what we covered in the second semester or were involved to a great degree in the discussion of the New Atheism. One of the most interesting aspects of religion is the importance of community. For the Christian religion, I think that community is something that is not fully appreciated or even embraced by many of the believers. In the fall semester, we participated in numerous discussions about the importance that community can play in developing in true relationship with God. This was especially highlighted when looking at LaCugna. The idea of community was something that I was hoping that we would be able to discuss in greater depth this semester. With the topic of New Atheism for this semester, discussing became a more difficult topic to discuss than had been the previous semester. Now looking back on this semester, I would like to further address community and see what possible roles that community can offer in the New Atheism debate. I don’t really remember anyone touching greatly upon this idea within their presentations and would be interested to see if community and the powerful role that it can provide for a Christian life would resolve any issues in the New Atheism debate.

What most surprised you about your research?

zaubizs — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:21:30 +0000

In doing the research for my research paper, I was struck by a number of things that I was not used to dealing with when writing a research paper of this kind. For me the research that was involved in this paper was unlike any other research that I had ever done. In hindsight most of the difficulty that I experienced came from the topic that I chose to cover in the paper. In most research papers that I have written, the material that I want to look at and cover can be found pretty easily by using the index and table of contents in the sources being used. In trying to look at the language and words that are used within the New Atheism debate there was no one particular section that one could focus on within a source in order to pull information. What I was looking at was how the language and words of the different participants in the New Atheism debate came together to form the argument for that person? In order to do this one had to look at the work of the author as a whole and not pull from a single segment. This was an aspect of the research that I had not expected and proved to be not only time consuming but rather difficult as one had to figure out how all of the pieces of the writings came together to form the argument of the author. One aspect that did prove to be a little easier was when I focused on specific words such as “faith” and “religion”. The uses of these words were still scattered throughout the sources but it was a little easier to make the connections with these specific words.

What has being a major in theological studies meant to you?

zaubizs — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:20:52 +0000

I became a theology major in what I consider to be somewhat of a roundabout way. I had previously been a Christian raised in the Baptist tradition. I had attended public school for all of my schooling up to college. I had originally had no plan to take anymore classes besides the required three theology classes. I did not plan on being involved in any of the Catholic services and activities on campus. I was actually very excited to find some of the other Christian organizations on campus. Both of these views changed pretty quickly after participating in my first theology class. I greatly enjoyed the introductory theology course and looked forward to taking the other two required classes. After taking the next two classes, I decided to continue to take more theology courses and did so until at in the middle of my junior year I finally declared theology as my major. While I had a pretty big change in my plan for taking theology courses, I am incredibly glad that I did do so. In taking these theology courses, I have gained a new respect on what it means to study theology. My original thought was that the theology courses would be incredibly dry and have nothing to offer in terms of growing my relationship with God. I have found the complete opposite and have grown in ways that I would have never thought possible through the theological studies that I have done. While I by no means have anywhere near a marginal grasp of any of the concepts that I have studied, I am pleased with the wide variety of theology classes that I have taken which has offered differing perspectives.

What have you learned about the relationship of faith and doubt?

zaubizs — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:20:28 +0000

For a long time I thought that doubt was something that was completely incompatible with faith. Doubt was something that came into ones life and once that happened the end result would always be the loss of ones faith. Once one began to doubt they were beginning to lose their faith in a process that would be continued with more doubt. I have changed my mind about how doubt affects faith. Now I believe that doubt can actually be one of the most beneficial things for faith. Doubting begins a process with questioning of the beliefs of the faith that one holds. Certain aspects of ones faith can be called into question. It is often that doubt arises when these questions that are asked go unanswered or are not answered in a manner that seems to be in accordance with the answers that the person that begins to doubt. The questioning causes one to analyze what is going on and thinks deeper about one’s faith or at least certain aspects of ones faith. Often these questions forces one to question what they believe in their faith however one of the most important things that the questions cause is one to why they believe certain aspects of their faith. In addressing these issues, one has the ability to strengthen one’s faith by questioning and doubting. This importance of questioning in order for one’s faith to grow fosters the idea that faith is not something that is stagnant but it is something that is constantly changing and growing for the individual believer.

Interesting Use of New Atheism to Get to Education

zaubizs — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:19:52 +0000

As we began to look at the New Atheism I was not incredibly excited as I suspected a large focus to be put on the sciences. I became even less at the prospect of having to sit through a parade of presentations on science and the New Atheism during our final senior panels. After hearing about the papers and seeing the presentations of everyone in the class, I was greatly surprised and pleased to see such a wide variety of topics that dealt with the New Atheism that were not completely science based. Two of the most interesting presentation and paper topics dealt with the educational system and how the New Atheism presented a point to start from or even highlighted the issue of education. The education systems that are particularly interesting to look at are the ones that have a religious affiliation. I really enjoyed hearing the different ideas that Andrea had to offer in regard to working toward a multi-religious or inter-religious educational system. I found it very interesting how she took something from Dawkins’ writings that seemed to be such a small point and went with it in order to tie in something that she was thoroughly interested in. I found the concepts of multi-religious and inter-religious education to be incredibly fascinating. I would agree that both would seem to be very difficult to incorporate into the school system. Even if we don’t get to the levels that these models call for I would like to see more variation in the religions that are even mentioned in a positive light in the education system. I would be very interested to see how the models of such different types of religious education will work out in the schools where they are being tried in Europe.

Condoms and Catholicism

JLLH — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:50:44 +0000

I’m sure everyone has heard about the Pope’s provocative comments regarding what he believes is the best solution to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. This new story broke a few months ago and it’s such a controversial topic that I just figured that someone else had posted about it. But that doesn’t seem to be the case, so I’ll give my two cents. I find it presumptuous at best that the Pope thinks he has the answer to a problem that has stumped doctors, sociologists, anthropologists and the significant portion of the public health community for at least two decades. The problem is multidimensional, community-specific and has its origins in deeply entrenched systemic problems both in the United States and abroad. I’ve been to South Africa on a trip that looked at the role of public health nursing in the HIV/AIDS crisis and I’m currently working on a CDC-funded research project that assesses the behavior that puts people at high risk for HIV infection. I also work at an HIV/AIDS clinic. And I’ve learned that a) the problem is humblingly complex, involving the social, economic, political, historical, cultural and personal aspects of the individual and b) the population at the highest risk for infection are generally those marginalized in society whose gender, childhood and socioeconomic status impede their ability to make autonomous, rational, emotionally attuned and well-informed decisions (most of which are required to maintain a position such as abstinence, especially in Africa). In making the blanket statement that abstinence is the answer the Pope is grossly belittling the idiosyncratic nature of the problem. You cannot assert solutions to a problem to which you remain predominantly ignorant. Until you live in a community and understand the needs of its people – how they think, what they value, what they struggle with, etc… – you should not even flirt with the idea that you know how to solve that community’s problems.