1. One paragraph summary of the key idea summarizing the major idea of the section. The major ideas of this section are the challenges to faith from both atheims and scientism. Faith and theism are challenged by atheism, which is the belief that their is no God. There are two kinds of atheism, practical and positive. Practical atheism is people who claim to follow a certain Religion, but present atheistic beliefs, and positive atheists are people who make a conscious decision that there is not a God. The course presented ideas on the basis of the challenge of Atheism, such as the belief that there is no way to be certain, and that natural history has shown natural selection. The two atheists we studied, Nietzscche and Hobbes, presented the ideas of atheism, but Nietzsche was a positive atheist while Hobbes was practical. The other main idea of the section was that challenge that science appears to make to faith. The reading book presents the ideas that science made its biggest challenges from the 1500s to the 1900s, but now science and faith have a more peaceful relationship.
2. List and explain three of the most important ideas you want to remember from this week. 1. The first idea I want to remember is the idea about commercialism that Father John Kavanaugh presents, the idea that the capitalist society we live in and the ideas that it presents forms who we are, what our views are, and forms other things like our prejudices. I think that this is especially true in the society that we live in today. We are subject to hundreds of advertisements each day that tell us how to think, what makes us good, and how to become better. I really admire the way Kavanaugh said these ideas, and I want to remember the exact ideas he presented as a way to critique and improve my own ideas on the subject.
2.The second idea that I want to remember is the ideas presented in the "Merchants of Cool." I was shocked at the extent that merchants in our society will go to just to exploit the teenage base. I also was shocked at some of the ideas of "cool hunting" where grown adults interview teens to find out what is in at the time, and attempt to gain an edge on the competition on marketing strategies. The main reason I want to remember this is so that I do not grow too comfortable in the society I live in, but instead question where the newest trends come from and how the companies that make the items came up with it.
3. The third idea I want to remember is the way the reading book classifies the stages of the relationship between science and faith. I really like the way that they put the second stage, reflective disunity, and although I do not agree with them that this stage is over, I do agree with them that we are getting closer to the reflective unity which is the final stage. Another thing I like about this view is the optimistic view, which I think is true, that science and religion are beginning to be able to coexist peacefully, instead of arguing like they did during the Age of Enlightenment.
4. The Biggest Challenges to Faith in my life.
I think that the biggest challenges to Faith in my life right now come from how busy I am and science. A lot of the time, I think that I am too busy to pray or go to mass, so I just do not go, and my faith is usually the thing that takes a back seat when I have too much going on. I also find that alot of the time, the time I want to take a break is on Sunday mornings, and I find it hard to work up the will power to go to mass. The second main thing that challenges my faith is science. I find it hard to reconcile with myself that scientific theory and Faith can go together, so I ususally puyt my trust in science. I think I need to be able to deal with these challenges to my faith more adeptly.
