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Essay Instructions: God in different books or passages of the old Testament is poetrayed with different emphasis: a God of war; a forgiving God; a parental figure; a God of justice; a jealous God; etc. Select no more than two books of the Old Testament and discuss the particular characteristics of God that are empasized or worth noting.

1,000-1,500 words.
Use: The Holy Bible, King James Version

Essay Instructions: God, creation and evil

I need an essay according to the criteria in the bottom abut only ONE of these movies

Oh God! (1978)
Director: Carl Reiner
This film is helpful for understanding the divine attributes and, to lesser extent, the problem of evil.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Director: William Shatner
This movie is useful in grasping the concept on Omnicompetence of possible contrast its message with that of Solaris.

The Rapture (1991)
Director: Michael Tolkin
This film uniquely expresses issues pertinent to faith, religious pluralism, and problem of evil.

Dogma (1999)
Director Kevin Smith.
This film raises issues pertaining to faith and, to a lesser extent, the divine nature.

Solaris (2002)
Director: Steven Soderbergh
This film raises a number of issues including ineffability, the divine nature and afterlife.

How to develop your essay

Once you’ve formulated the issue on which you wish to focus and briefly described how it arises in the film, you should review some of the alternative ‘answers’ that have been given to your major issue. For example, consider the differences among how a skeptic, a realist, and a Buddhist might interpret the issue presented in the film. Generally, you’ll probably find that the film itself adopts or suggests a particular approach to the issue. Identify what that is if you can, and then consider the limitations of that approach in light of other possible ones. You might even ask yourself in what ways the film might have been different had it adopted other possible viewpoints on the issue. (Feel free, for instance, to suggest ‘alternative endings’ that more agree with your own viewpoint.)

How to organize your essay

Formulate a philosophical issue that it raises, noted the perspective on the issue adopted by the film, and then considered some alternatives to that perspective. To organize your essay, you’ll need to formulate an argument like this:

1) Introduction: A brief account of the manner in which the philosophical issue you want to explore presents itself in the film together with a presentation of the issue in more general terms. (For instance, “In Indecent Proposal, a young married couple receives an offer from a wealthy and attractive man that the wife spend one night with him for a million dollars. The ethical issue is whether a sufficient sum of money (and the benefits for them it can buy) can justify their breaking of their marriage promises. At the most general level, the issue is whether moral commitments like promises can be justifiably broken if the consequences of doing so are sufficiently beneficial.)

2) A statement about the position adopted by the film. (For instance, this film seems to suggest that accepting the ‘proposal’ was morally justifiable so long as their relationship was strong enough to survive the ‘infidelity’ – although I admit that someone else might read this a different way.)

3) Reasons why you agree or disagree with the viewpoint presented by the film. For this, you can refer to some of the readings and class materials.

4) Conclusion.

Please consider the following concepts:

• We can’t ‘rationally believe’ a contradiction.
• We can’t ‘rationally believe’ something the sole justification for which is based on authority (like religious scriptures), even though
• Authority may still count among the justifications.

The belief in God, that is, a ‘divine (infinite, perfect, etc.) being’ is the cornerstone of most religious faith in the Western tradition. Philosophers note two closely interrelated questions on this issue:
(1) Are there any rational grounds upon which to believe that ‘God exists’? i.e. Are there any sound arguments for God’s existence?
(2) What is the ‘nature’ of God? (On this score, they ask whether the very ‘concept’ of God is contradiction-free or not?)

The Ontological Argument
The Cosmological Argument
The Argument from ‘Intelligent Design'
The Classical Argument of God and Evil:

(1) God is all knowing and all good but lacked the power to create a perfect world (He’s a great guy but limited in ‘his’ abilities)
(2) God is all powerful and all good but not all knowing (He did his best and intended well but could not foresee the consequences of his plans)
(3) God is all powerful and all knowing but deliberately created things to exist in an imperfect state. (He’s able and knowledgeable but is playing games with us.)

(The point is that if we acknowledge the world to be less than perfect, then, at best, God can only possess two of the three major attributes; hence the very concept of God in most religious traditions is confused if not contradictory.)


• The concept of the Ineffability of God.

Essay Instructions: Pick one of the following topics:

1). In Genesis the figure of God seems to have somewhat different characteristics in different portions of the text. For example, sometimes he is presented as more anthropomorphic and sometimes less; sometimes he speaks directly to humans and sometimes through messengers and dreams; the extent and detail of his interventions into human life seems to vary; and he seems to have different feelings about humanity in different passages. Compare the portrayal of God in two different stories or scenes within Genesis. How do these stories reflect different beliefs and assumptions about the characteristics of God and his relationship to humans?

2). In his prefatory note to the story of Tamar (Genesis 38), Robert Alter asserts a thematic correspondence between the apparently digressive story and the events surrounding it. "Many readers," he tells us, "have sensed this tale of Judah and Tamar as an 'interruption' of the Joseph story," but there is in fact "an intricate network of connections with what precedes and what follows" the tale (217, n1). Write a paper exploring one correspondence between Tamar's story and the primary narrative. What problem in the story of Joseph do the events of book 38 seem to highlight or redress?

3). Reflect on the role of mother/daughter relationships in the first two plays of the Oresteia. Consider especially Clytemnestra's claims about her love for Iphigeneia (Agamemnon 1415-20, 1524-27) and her treatment of Electra as depicted in the The Libation Bearers. How does Aeschylus represent those two relationships? How does that representation engage with the major themes of the Oresteia?

4). In The Libation Bearers, a slave named Cilissa enters at line 734 (p. 98). She has been dispatched by Clytemnestra, she tells the chorus, to summon Aegisthus to the palace; before she exits, the chorus persuades her to alter Clytemnestra?s message to Aegisthus in one crucial respect. Cilissa?s function as messenger could be filled by some other, anonymous slave hostile to Clytemnestra or be dispensed with altogether (characters in tragedy often appear without having been explicitly summoned). Granted that she is not necessary to the plot, what does Cilissa bring to the play?

Please use specific examples from the text. An acceptable paper will acknowledge, describe, and respond to a counterargument, that is, to the best argument someone who disagreed with your thesis could put forward against it.

Essay Instructions: THE GENERAL SUBJECT IS NOT ABORIGINAL STUDIES?.I CANNOT GET THAT INFORMATION TO CHANGE!!!!!!

I need a book review on the Question of God, C. S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love and Sex and The Meaning of Life

The book review should be more analytical and evaluative?it should constitute a debate not simply summarization of the contents of the book.

begin review with proper heading as such:
Author's full name
Full Book Title underlined or in italics but not both
Complete publishing information (place, publisher, date of publication)

The main purpose is to reflect upon and react to the author and book. Consider matters such as strengths and weaknesses, emphases and viewpoints contributions to understanding, clarity and organization, credibility and evidence offered. Does the author present new finding or utilize new sources? How does the perspective and/or interpretation differ from the work of earlier scholars on this topic? In order to respond to the latter question, please consult other reviews of the book and if you find it helpful to use the insights from these reviews (quoted or paraphrased), please use a footnote or endnote citation to credit that reviewer and the review source.

Double spaced and 12 pt font

tell why the book is worth reading

tell the author's main purpose-not what type of book or coverage of the subject you would have written

comment on methodology

tell whether book was truly outstanding based on your reaction and back up your opinion

if you think the book is poorly organized or interesting or helpful that is ok but whatever you decide please use examples to back it up

"i enjoyed the book" or the "book is good" offers little substance, instead, tell about the contributions the author makes with specific examples

maintain fairness and avoid intemperate personal comments

Critical book reviews often include a discussion of bias and if you beleive the author has demonstrated a biased position, its ok to indicate that