Seen today @ CNN:

Full story (+ quiz)

op-ed piece on teaching religion in schools

Try the quiz. How did you do?

Section A

	Agree	Disagree
Before Debate	12	3
After Debate	13	2

the debate changed 2 people from Disagree to Agree and 1 person from Agree to Disagree.

I am surprised that the group had such a "pro-teach" bias - I expected more controversy.

So what did you think of our Pascal/Kreeft text?

Wait until you are done with this material to address this question.

It is useful to separate your thinking into two parts: whether you agree with their presentation of the "problems" man faces and how you feel about their "solution". Even if you don't go for the latter, the former might still have value to you.

For Discussion:

The main critique I have of your presentations is that many of you presented Pascal & Kreeft's ideas as "facts" and gave no analysis as to whether I should agree with them or not. Please pick one of their ideas and provide an analysis here. (Give a page reference so we can all find the idea you are talking about easily.)

What do you think of Pascal's reasoning methods? How do they differ from a scientist's?

Was reading this book helpful? Should I use it again?

Good job on all the presentations so far. I know working in a group can be painful!

Debate

Here is a description of the debate format for friday (and future debates. The schedule on p. 7 assumes an hour long debate; I will prorate it to 50 minutes to fit within class time.

this should be a movie...

click to read.

Without knowing all the facts, does this sound like commentary and parody... or like a crime?

One of your classmates (Angelo Blade) is working on an article for the school's paper, The Beacon. He asked if I could pass these along to you, and so I am making them the FOR DISCUSSION questions this week. Please answer some or all of them as you wish, but remember what you say is being posted on the internet and may appear in print - so only give answers you are comfortable making public.

1. What is your name, major, housing(i.e. resident, commuting, etc.)?
2. What do you like about Wilkes University in general?
3. What do you think about Wilkes-Barre?
4. If a resident, what dorm hall are you in? What do you like about it?
5. What made you choose Wilkes University?
6. Where are you from?
7. What is Wilkes-Barre like compared to where you are from?
8. How are you adjusting to college life?
9. How do you spend your free time?
10. What is the biggest difference between Highschool and College? Academically? Socially?
11. What did you expect when coming to Wilkes? Does it meet those expectations?

There are so many questions here you may wish to only answer a few. That will probably still be helpful for him.

Next Week you speak!

You should work in groups by "Part" to organize/divide your class presentation time. Present the most interesting ideas in your parts; bring in outside material if you need to.

You may wish to contact students doing the same chapters in the other FYF section to share ideas.

key: FYF101 A | FYF101 B

Class Monday Sept 20th
Pensees Presentations

Part I: Introduction (10 minutes)
ch 1 Michael Bowersox | Olivia Andersen
ch 2 Zachary Burns | Alex Benne

Part II: The Problem (25 minutes)
ch 3 & 4 Orane Churchill | Angelo Blades
ch 5 Jaclyn Di Carlo | Matthew Buono
ch 6 Caitlin Farless | Kristen Craven
ch 7 Jeffrey Frail | Calvin Depaiva
ch 8 Ryan Habib | Jonathan Eroh
ch 9 Tyler Holland | (combine with ch 8)
ch 10 Michael Jayne| Matthew Hayes
ch 11 & 12 Patrick Killian | Cheyanne Henrickson

Part III: Two Psuedo-Solutions (10 minutes)
ch 13 Rachel Kuprionas | Cynthia Kiesling
ch 14 Colton Miller | Amber Konopka

Class Wednesday September 22
Pensees Presentations

Part IV: How to Find the Truth (15 minutes)
ch 15 Richard Miller | Haleigh Levitsky
ch 16 Jenna Murphy | Dominic Manzione
ch 17 Kyle Regensburg | Jordyn Miller
ch 18 Mark Rostock | Laura Nulton

Part V: Six Clues (12 minutes)
ch 19 & 20 Marina Skevofilax | Nikita Patel
ch 21 Natalie Smirne | Philip Racciato
ch 22 & 23 & 24 Nina Sorbelli | Amanda Rossi

Part VI: The Turning Point (8 minutes)
ch 25 Joshua Tausendfreundt | Luke Stine
ch 25 Michael Turner | Sam Tellip

Part VII: The Point of it All (10 minutes)
ch 26 & ch 27 Tyler Young | Daniel Van Mater
ch 28 Brian Zingaretti | Amanda Yanek

Class Friday September 24
DEBATE

debate format to appear in a future post.

Side I - Yes, Intelligent design should be taught in school.

Alex George | Amy Davies
Theresa Roman | Brandon Dudeck
Mitchell Yamrus | Erika Green
(none) | Seneca Tucker

Side II - No, Intelligent design should not be taught in school.

Mark Attilio | Brandon Kohler
Emily Christian | Nick Patricia
Kelly Pleva | Donald Searfoss
Kathryn Solomon | Matthew Shaver

History

UPDATE: link fixed!

Here are the slides from today's lecture.

Asteroids are coming...

Some people think the world will be end due to an asteroid collision... click on the image to read today's news.

Logic

Here are the slides from today's lecture.

Steven Hawking says...

Seen on CNN (click image to read story):

...notice he likes M-theory. More on that later in the course!

and... CNN carried a religious rebuttal.

Reading 9/10

Please read before class Friday Sept 10th: Kohlberg's Moral Stages.

For Discussion:

Which of the criticisms of Kohlberg's stages do you find most compelling? Why?