PHI 224  Essay #3

Write about five or six (double-spaced) pages' worth of well-organized analysis and argument on the following topic (about 2200 words).  It is not expected that you will need to do any research for this essay outside of the course readings and class discussions.

Submit your essay in printed hard copy.  Put your name in an upper corner of each page, and keep a digital copy in case something goes wrong.

Topic to write on

Here are a few of the many possible positions one might take regarding the reasonability of maintaining a religious worldview in today's world of scientific explanations for natural processes:

1. The progress of science, especially in the evolutionary explanations of human life, has rendered religious outlooks on life obsolete.
2. Religious worldviews have nothing to do with scientific explanations of the natural world or of human life, and so the existence of scientific explanations for natural processes, including the evolution of humans, are irrelevant to the question of whether religious worldviews make sense.
3. Some religious approaches to understanding the human condition are much deeper, more satisfying, and more certain than the "mechanical" explanations found in the sciences -- so much so that the legitimacy of the sciences in dealing with the issue of human origins can be questioned, on religious grounds.

If you agree with one of these positions, say so, and show why your position is more reasonable than the alternatives.  If you disagree with these, show why some alternative position is better.

How this fits into the overall course design

The idea behind this topic is to engage you in one aspect of the overall evaluation of the relative strengths of religious versus naturalistic worldviews.