World Religions What Does it Mean to Be Human? What Does It Mean to Be Human? Over the course of the past several weeks we have explored a variety of competing ways of being human. Where do you stand in this debate? Why? Your answer should: Take a clear, well defined answer to the question, Demonstrate an understanding of the history and current state of the question. Defend your position and answer counter-arguments. What kind of arguments are relevant? Hermeneutic arguments based on the interpretation of texts and other cultural artifacts which you find authoritative, provided you use historical critical method. Narrative arguments which show that the story you prefer is large enough to contain and contextualize competing stories. Social scientific arguments which assess the historic impact of the traditions in question. Philosophical elements which make credible assumptions and use logical inference. Theological arguments which use philosophical methods to explain and render credible the results of historical critical interpretation of texts and other artifacts which you find acceptable. What is not acceptable? Arguments from authority (e.g. “This is what the Bible/ Quran/Bhagavadgita/ Sutra x says; This is what I was brought up to believe. Purely affective arguments (e.g. “This is what fees right.) Unsupported assertions. Primal Ways Thesis: The phenomenal world is an organized meaningful cosmos of which humanity is an integral part As human society develops horticulture this harmony is understood as increasingly dynamic in character and humanity is increasingly understood a participant in the creative process. Arguments: No formal arguments at this stage; mostly images and stories such as the Keres origin myth. Sacral Monarchic Ways Thesis: The universe comes into being through sacrifice (think Tezcatlipoca or Purusha) and is sustained by warfare and sacrifice. Humans become divine by means of conquest and by conducting sacrifices such as the rajasuya which deify them. Arguments: No formal arguments at this point, mostly images and stories, though there are modern and postmodern variants of this worldview (e.g. Nietzsche, traditionalism) which argue that the universe is essentially a war of all against all which we inevitable lose, a claim which can be evaluated based on empirical evidence and logical argument. The Way of Wisdom Thesis: The phenomenal world is largely an illusion. What is really real is Being, the Good, Brahman, or the web of Interdependent Origination. By cultivating wisdom through dialectics and or contemplative practice we become detached from impermanent phenomena and become (by way of just action) connatural with the creative power behind the universe (Being/Brahman) or (by way of compassion) with the web of interdependent origination. Dialectical arguments such as those advanced by Plato, Aristotle, Vedanta, many Buddhist sutras; conte.

1. World Religions
What Does it Mean to Be Human?
What Does It Mean to Be Human?
Over the course of the past several weeks we have explored
a variety of competing ways of being human. Where do
you stand in this debate? Why? Your answer should:
Take a clear, well defined answer to the question,
Demonstrate an understanding of the history and
current state of the question.
Defend your position and answer counter-arguments.
What kind of arguments are
relevant?
Hermeneutic arguments based on the interpretation of texts and
other cultural
artifacts which you find authoritative, provided you use
historical critical method.
Narrative arguments which show that the story you prefer is
large enough to
contain and contextualize competing stories.

2. Social scientific arguments which assess the historic impact of
the traditions in
question.
Philosophical elements which make credible assumptions and
use logical inference.
Theological arguments which use philosophical methods to
explain and render
credible the results of historical critical interpretation of texts
and other artifacts
which you find acceptable.
What is not acceptable?
Arguments from authority (e.g. “This is what the Bible/
Quran/Bhagavadgita/ Sutra x says; This is what I was
brought up to believe.
Purely affective arguments (e.g. “This is what fees right.)
Unsupported assertions.
Primal Ways
Thesis: The phenomenal world is an organized
meaningful cosmos of which humanity is an integral part
As human society develops horticulture this harmony is
understood as increasingly dynamic in character and
humanity is increasingly understood a participant in the
creative process.

3. Arguments: No formal arguments at this stage; mostly
images and stories such as the Keres origin myth.
Sacral Monarchic Ways
Thesis: The universe comes into being through sacrifice (think
Tezcatlipoca or Purusha) and is sustained by warfare and
sacrifice.
Humans become divine by means of conquest and by conducting
sacrifices such as the rajasuya which deify them.
Arguments: No formal arguments at this point, mostly images
and
stories, though there are modern and postmodern variants of this
worldview (e.g. Nietzsche, traditionalism) which argue that the
universe is essentially a war of all against all which we
inevitable lose,
a claim which can be evaluated based on empirical evidence and
logical
argument.
The Way of Wisdom
Thesis: The phenomenal world is largely an illusion. What is
really real
is Being, the Good, Brahman, or the web of Interdependent
Origination. By cultivating wisdom through dialectics and or
contemplative practice we become detached from impermanent
phenomena and become (by way of just action) connatural with
the
creative power behind the universe (Being/Brahman) or (by way
of

4. compassion) with the web of interdependent origination.
Dialectical arguments such as those advanced by Plato,
Aristotle,
Vedanta, many Buddhist sutras; contemplative practice leading
to
direct, experiential, nonconceptual knowledge.
The Way of Harmony
Thesis: The universe is naturally harmonious, but has fallen into
discord. Humanity is called to restore that harmony and ripen
being. We do this through force and law (Legalism), universal
love (Mohism), study, ritual, and contemplation (Confucianism)
or yielding to the Tao (Taoism), or by some combination of
these.
Arguments: Most Chinese sages made informal arguments based
on examples of how their teaching encouraged health, inner
peace, and more harmonious social relationships.
The Way of Justice
Thesis: The fundamental problem of human life is oppression
and injustice. We
know God first and foremost in the just act.
Jewish variant: Knowing God through deliberation around what
the Law
means in constantly changing social contexts.
Christian variant: Knowing God by persevering in the struggle

5. for justice
through and beyond death; loving with God's own love.
Muslim variant: Commanding right and forbidding wrong
Arguments: The stories of Israel, Jesus, the Muslim Liberation
supplemented
by philosophical reflection.
Protestantism
Thesis: Here the story of Jesus is told not so that we will
emulate him and be
transformed but rather as evidence that God has paid the price
for our sins and
offers us salvation as a free give, provided we join ourselves to
Christ in faith. We
are then called to live out our faith in the world. As Max Weber
pointed out,
especially in the case of Calvinism, which taught that God
predestined some to
salvation and others to damnation without respect to any
foreknowledge of merit,
this became a powerful catalyst to capitalist development and
industrialization, as
people looked for evidence of their election in their degree of
usefulness to society.
Argument: While there are arguments to be made for the
Calvinist reading of the
scriptures, a great deal of the power of Calvinism historically
came from its
association with emerging capitalism and the industrial
revolution.

6. Technocratic Secularism
Technocratic secularism carries this trend further. As the
scientific revolution progressed
humanity became less and less convinced that God was
"necessary" to explain the universe
and more and more confident of its own ability to push back the
limits of finitude. The
result is a range of perspectives from the relatively sober and
even pessmistic New Atheists
who see humanity as a (temporary) island of meaning in an
ordered by ultimately
meaningless universe to advocates of the Omega Point Theory
who believe that humanity
will eventually be capable of re-engineering the universe and
"building God."
Here, of course, the arguments in question are scientific. But
just as it is important to avoid
naive literalism in interpreting religious texts, we also need to
avoid naive scientism. We
may not need the idea of God to explain the emergence of
complex organization, life, and
intelligence, but science, strictly speaking, does not even try to
explain why there is
something rather than nothing.
Humanistic Secularism
Humanistic secularism, finally, aims to push back the limits of
contingency by creating a political subject which can make

7. humanity the master of its own destiny. For liberalism the
property
owning or rationally autonomous individual is this subject. For
democracy it is the people as body of citizens and for populism
the
people as ethnos or nation. For communism, finally, it is the
working
class.
Here the relevant arguments are philosophical and social
scientific.
Postmodernism/Deconstruction
It has recently become fashionable to regard all of these
"grand narratives" as merely attempts by one or another
social groups to advance its interests.
"Postmoderism" dedicates itself to deconstructing these
grand narratives. But then it does so in the name of an
idea --Justice-- which cannot itself be deconstructed.
Your Mission
This is a complex field with many players and many
arguments. I don't expect you to decide now once and for all
where you stand, or to come with fully developed and
polished arguments. But surely you have some leanings, and
surely this course has helped you understand better where
you fit in the debate. Give it at try.

8. The Way of Justice and Liberation:
Judaism