PHI 222: Midterm Exam, Spring 2008

Instructions

Write well-developed, clearly organized answers to all the questions.  Each question counts for 4 points.

This is an exam that you complete outside of class. In completing the exam, you are free to refer to the readings and your notes, or to talk with other students about your answers. In fact, work together with other students on this exam can be a good thing from which everyone learns. But whatever you finally turn in MUST be your OWN writing, IN YOUR OWN WORDS, expressing YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING at the time you wrote it.

Please limit yourself to 3000 words all together (Did you know that word processing software generally can count the words for you?).  Submit answers printed on paper, not hand-written.  Please don't single space -- use at least 1.2 line spacing (1.5, or double spacing is fine).  No fancy stuff like plastic covers, binders, elaborate cover sheets, money stuffed between pages, etc!

bulletDO NOT QUOTE OR CLOSELY PARAPHRASE ANYTHING WITHOUT FULLY CITING YOUR SOURCE. (Not even the textbook, or course materials.)
bulletDO NOT INCLUDE MORE THAN A FEW very BRIEF QUOTATIONS OF ANYTHING IN YOUR ENTIRE SET OF ANSWERS.  Quotes are not required, and often just take up valuable space.
bulletTHE ONLY ALLOWABLE REASON FOR QUOTING ANYTHING IS TO PROVIDE EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT A POINT YOU HAVE STATED IN YOUR OWN WORDS. THE PENALTY FOR ILLEGITIMATE or excessive QUOTING IS "DEATH".  Your ability to find relevant quotes is not what this test is about.  You need to demonstrate that you understand the ideas well enough to express them in your own words.

If you work with another student in preparing your answers, don't draft your actual answers together, and don't agree on exactly what examples you will use, or how you will express a particular point.  When you work with someone, talk over the issues and share ideas, but don't do any outlining or writing together.  Don't show your completed answer to someone else in order to help them; there are too many cases in which the helper ends up helping too much and then we have troubles deciding who knows what.

Advice

bulletThe biggest problem with this kind of exam has been that students write answers that are too incomplete or sketchy.  Don't assume that the reader will "just know" what you're getting at; instead, assume the reader is ignorant about this particular subject matter. Do not assume that the reader has been in the class or has done the reading.
bulletThese questions can all be answered quite well simply by drawing ideas from our class discussions and the assigned readings.  You are not expected to go out and find more sources.  You are not prohibited from finding more sources, but it you decide to use more sources, leave enough time to write your own answers in your own words, and don't get sucked into just paraphrasing something someone else wrote that you don't really understand.  The latter can be a cause of real trouble; you are much better off saying what you really think and understand than trying to sound profound by half-copying from something you don't really "get".
bulletYour answers are graded on how well they answer the question that is asked.  Don't shoot yourself in the foot by going off on a tangent.  Instead, focus on giving an accurate answer to the question.  Your space and time is limited.  So, be direct, precise, clear.  You have a lot to squeeze into these answers.

Questions

  1. What does Pojman mean by "perspectivism"?  How is that notion related to his idea of being rational while maintaining a Christian faith?  Include a discussion of whether perspectivism allows for the possibility that a believer's core beliefs might have to be dropped, and how this is related to Flew's claim that core Christian beliefs (like the belief in a loving God) are meaningless.
  2. What does Machina claim Christian faith is?  Explain why he thinks it is almost always incorrect to represent such faith as lacking any rational support.  Does Machina's account of Christian faith imply that Migliore is right when he says that the Christian must be always raising questions about his own faith in order for the faith to stay strong? 
  3. What conception of God as creator/sustainer emerges from St. Thomas' 2nd "Way"?  What reasons does St. Thomas provide for thinking there really is such a God?  What are some reasoned objections to St. Thomas' claims?  How does all this relate to the common Christian notion of God as personal?  Compare St. Thomas' notion of God as found in his 2nd "Way" to Paul Tillich's notion of God.
  4. a.  Dawkins agrees with the common Christian claim that living organisms have features that appear to have been designed, but he rejects the claim that these features provide good evidence for the reality of an intelligent designer (such as the Christian God).  Explain his reasoning as found in the reading.  Include his discussion of "chance" and explain why that discussion is relevant.
    b.  Broom intends to defend the common Christian claim against arguments such as those presented by Dawkins.  How does Broom go about this?
    (Note that this question is not about who is right, or whether either one of these authors is right.)
  5. Outline the main Christian theological reasons for claiming that the Bible rules out the truth of current scientific theories about the origins of the universe and of living organisms (from class discussion).  How are ideas such as those found in Markham and Borg (and class discussion) used to argue for the opposite view?  Include an explanation of how the concept of mythology is relevant.