1) Judaism Children of the Cool, There are a couple of topics worth discussing with regard to Judaism. The first is testimonial. Do you know people who are anti-Semitic? Is it a "thing" in your own family or other circles? Maybe your church has a specific view of the role of the Jews in the end-times; maybe you've heard conspiracy theories. Or maybe not. Second, reflect if you will on the concept of there being a "chosen people." Does this seem reasonable or likely to you, as a way God (if there is a god) would go about things? (The philosopher Bertrand Russell once said "How odd / of God / to choose / the Jews." He was an atheist. Third, Jews have long had what many of us have only acquired in the past few decades: an absolute obsession with figuring out our identity. Put your own identity in dialogue with the debates Jews have about it: is your identity religious? political? ethnic or racial? cultural? Who or what do you identify as? That is, distinguish what happens to be true of you, from what makes you be you. You *are* a Muslim; you happen to be from Alabama. You *are* pro-life, you happen to be African-American. You get the i dea. Dr. Curtis-Thames 2) Hinduism All I never know how much wind-shear it will be for students to first encounter Hinduism. The "Californication" of south and east Asian religions, whereby they all get the juicy bits picked over and Vitamixed together into a New Age spirituality, makes it hard to understand what these religions are in themselves, apart from our Western appropriation of them. Let's talk about a couple of things. x) Every religion seems to have morally-awkward things about especially its history, yet religions have been and arguably still are the major channels for teaching morals and for bringing them up in public, especially in political contexts. So Muhammad fought, Christianity persecuted heretics and Jews violently; Yahweh seems to endorse ethnic cleansing in the oldest parts of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament. Hinduism says you deserve the horrors of your life: poverty, abuse, discrimination, etc. Given all of this--and I'm not saying atheism raises fewer problems, I'm just setting it aside for the moment--how do you think about Hinduism's understanding of karma? If we *don't* get everything we deserve, how can the universe be just? If it's not, what's the point of being moral? On the other hand, if we do, how would it make you feel, thinking about the circumstances of your own life, to realize that your own past actions set you up for the life you have had so far? x) Americans can't stay on a diet for two weeks. Is there a positive message about communal discipline and self-discipline that Hinduism could direct towards American society? What stands out to you? 3) Buddhism Buddhism is both the most intellectually-challenging of the major world religions, and one with a strongly-appealing spiritual practice. x) Both Shankara's jnana-marga Hindu idea that I am a part of G.

1. 1)
Judaism
Children of the Cool,
There are a couple of topics worth discussing with regard to
Judaism.
The first is testimonial. Do you know people who are anti-
Semitic? Is it a "thing" in your own family or other circles?
Maybe your church has a specific view of the role of the Jews in
the end-times; maybe you've heard conspiracy theories. Or
maybe not.
Second, reflect if you will on the concept of there being a
"chosen people." Does this seem reasonable or likely to you, as
a way God (if there is a god) would go about things? (The
philosopher Bertrand Russell once said "How odd / of God / to
choose / the Jews." He was an atheist.
Third, Jews have long had what many of us have only acquired
in the past few decades: an absolute obsession with figuring out
our identity. Put your own identity in dialogue with the debates
Jews have about it: is
your
identity religious? political? ethnic or racial? cultural? Who or
what do you identify as? That is, distinguish what happens to be
true of you, from what makes you be you. You *are* a Muslim;
you happen to be from Alabama. You *are* pro-life, you happen
to be African-American. You get the i dea.
Dr. Curtis-Thames

2. 2)
Hinduism
All
I never know how much wind-shear it will be for students to
first encounter Hinduism. The "Californication" of south and
east Asian religions, whereby they all get the juicy bits picked
over and Vitamixed together into a New Age spirituality, makes
it hard to understand what these religions are in themselves,
apart from our Western appropriation of them.
Let's talk about a couple of things.
x) Every religion seems to have morally-awkward things about
especially its history, yet religions have been and arguably still
are the major channels for teaching morals and for bringing
them up in public, especially in political contexts. So
Muhammad fought, Christianity persecuted heretics and Jews
violently; Yahweh seems to endorse ethnic cleansing in the
oldest parts of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament. Hinduism
says you deserve the horrors of your life: poverty, abuse,
discrimination, etc. Given all of this--and I'm not saying
atheism raises fewer problems, I'm just setting it aside for the
moment--how do you think about Hinduism's understanding of
karma? If we *don't* get everything we deserve, how can the
universe be just? If it's not, what's the point of being moral? On
the other hand, if we do, how would it make you feel, thinking
about the circumstances of your own life, to realize that your
own past actions set you up for the life you have had so far?
x) Americans can't stay on a diet for two weeks. Is there a
positive message about communal discipline and self-discipline
that Hinduism could direct towards American society? What
stands out to you?

3. 3)
Buddhism
Buddhism is both the most intellectually-challenging of the
major world religions, and one with a strongly-appealing
spiritual practice.
x) Both Shankara's jnana-marga Hindu idea that I am a part of
God--that there is only one Self in the universe--and the
Buddha's idea that I am an ephemeral event in the course of
karmic history--that there are no selves in the universe--are
quite different approaches to individuality and its connection to
the whole than the Middle Eastern idea that there is exactly one
me, but untold numbers of other "I"s which are more (other
humans) or less (gods, aliens, animals, ghosts) like me. Does
your experience of American individualism feel more like
freedom or like loneliness? How might that feeling be impacted
if you took first jnana-marga monism and then Buddhist
emptiness on board?
x) What do you think about the Buddhist emphasis on
contentment rather than success? That is, the Buddha says that
the outcome you should be trying to achieve is peace--mostly
within yourself, but also with everyone and everything else. He
in fact says that attempting to achieve success is guaranteed to
fail in one important way or another, and so is a quest doomed
to suffering. Given our country's current emphasis on success
even in education, where does that leave you in terms of how
you see it?
Dr. Curtis-Thames

4. 4)
Confucianism
Gentlepersons,
Our forum concerns Confucianism.
1) As a recipe for social order and harmony, some Westerners,
and the current mainland Chinese government (if I understand
their position correctly) see it as a system of ethics, but not a
religion. What do you think? It seems that it can serve the
functions of a religion, but is anything gained by calling it a
religion, or lost by not calling it one? Buddhism is non-theistic
because it is "non-self-ic" (I'm totally making up that word),
and so some do not think of it as a religion. How do
Confucianism and Buddhism affect the idea you had, coming
into the course, about what a religion is?
2) Confucianism is portrayed as, and historically has functioned
as, both a conservative and a radical force in (Chinese and
Korean) society. In the West we seem to be exploring how far
we can go in not having order and still have harmony. In your
view, should we follow a more traditional or definite structure
to society and relationships than the place we are in now? What
about the revolutionary potential of telling someone they're
"doing it wrong"? Is that more a hopeful thing--"we can escape
this horrid person over us"--or a threatening one--"good grief,
anyone with a real or imagined axe to grind can throw anyone
around them doing something they don't like under the bus!"?
Dr. Curtis-Thames