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Henry Imler August 31st, 2006

Discussion Outline - Week 2 Intro to Religion

Preliminaries

Re-introductions with something about them – I am to write something down next to their name.
Talk briefly about the Writing Lab
1st person to go to for questions about anything relating to the course is your discussion leader

Questions

Two types of subject object distinctions
1. Communication definition: Subject of the communication vs Object of the communication
2. Epistemological definition: Subjective: no set definition, varies from person to person, group to group with no distinction of ultimate truth, is only descriptive of perceptions vs. Objective: the description of the way things really are. Descriptive of reality and prescriptive of what one needs to think in order to be correct
Cultural vs. Theological perspectives
First vs. Secondhand religion
1. Firsthand: Authority due to experience they personally had
2. Secondhand: Authority from outside with no grounding in personal experience
Revelation vs. Awakening
1. Revelation: We are limited in knowledge to the world of our senses, as such, we cannot reach out an perceive the reality behind what we sense, therefore, in order for us to have that knowledge, something from behind the senses must come to us and reveal to us what things are really like behind the curtain Western View
2. Awakening: Reality is an illusion and we need to wake from the illusion and perceive reality as it really is. Eastern View
Conservative vs. Liberal Theological views
The idea that the place we look from significantly influences our outlook.
- Western idea that everything must logically fit together
Idea of “other”
- Main idea of postmodernism, that we need to really treat the other as an equal and not as we have in the past, as something that is flawed, evil, or ignorant.
- Four views
  1. Ignorant and need of enlightenment
  2. Evil and dangerous
  3. Insignificant and need to be ignored
  4. Simply an-other.