Philosophy? Religion?

Philosophy of Religion was definitely an interesting class. I took it partly because I wanted to see if there was any substance to the issues I seemed to endlessly debate with both friend and foe (okay, so I don't think I have any foes), partly because it would force me to read some books that I 'should' have read but hadn't, and partly for other reasons I simply can't recollect. In any case, I enjoyed the class and thought the professor, Dr. Ronna Burger was both quite good at stimulating and facilitating discussion and learned on the subject matter.

What's relevant? Or, more to the point, what do I want to share. Well, I'll tell you what I read and present links to what I wrote. Sound fair?

Euthyphro, by Plato

This was the first piece we read and also the first Plato I had read. Reading such material was part of my motivation for taking the class and I was not dissappointed. Plato makes cogent arguments about the nature of gods (and perhaps a God?). I was fascinated by the depth of some of the arguments. It's puts things into perspective to realize that such ideas were floating around several thousand years ago.

Genesis, by Anonymous.

Allegedly dictated to Moses by God, the Torah, and particulary this first book, contain a vast amount of information that is ripe for phsycological, philisophical, and historical analysis. We focused on the creation story/stories and Chapter 11.

The Decisive Treatise Determining the Nature of the Connection Between Religion and Philosophy, by Averroes.

An interesting article by a Muslim philosopher and part of a much larger body of work. We compared the opionions Averroes was 'allowed' to voice with those mentioned in the Guide to The Perplexed, by Maimonodes, or Rambam. We also took note of similarities in the way both Plato and Averroes tried to avoid being heretics.

1. The first essay was a response to Plato's Euthyphro. The work itself is quite interesting, even if my article may not be. Available as HTML.
2. Next came a brief article on a section of Chapter 11 of Genesis. For those not in the know, this is the tower of Babel story. Available as HTML
3. Averroes was the subject of my final essay, which is perhaps a bit more pedantic than the first two (both the original work and my response). Available as HTML.