World Religion Discussion 3

Discussion Instructions

The purpose of the Discussion assignments is to allow for interaction and to provide an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the reading assignments. The Discussion Group is NOT an opportunity to express personal opinions or beliefs without providing some justification for them.

• You must answer bothof the discussion questions in each set of questions [for example, you need to post an answer to the question concerning Genesis and the one concerning the Vedas].
• Your answer to each question should be a short essay of no less than 200 words[use your Word Count function], written in proper academic style with correct grammar. Extremely short responses will be marked down.
• In addition, you are required to post a ‘critical response’ to one other student’s posted answer[you may respond to any student.] Your critical response should be no less than 150 words. [Simply stating that you ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ with so-and-so, without validly stated reasons, does not qualify as a ‘critical response.’] Please address the person you are responding to by their first name; and please remember that although you are critically responding to their post, you should do so in a respectful, academic manner.

Ground Rules

Normal rules of respect and courtesy apply. This is a formal academic setting where people from different backgrounds and viewpoints are brought together for a specific educational purpose. Respect for differing viewpoints and cultural backgrounds is expected and demanded. In our diverse society, there are many different religious perspectives that are represented in a typical class. Disrespecting or making fun of someone’s religious tradition is not acceptable. Therefore, statements such as ‘We all know that…’ and ‘I don’t know how anyone could think that…’ are to be avoided. Try to be humble and speak only for yourself: ‘I believe…’ or ‘I think…’, and then the coherently stated reasons for such beliefs or thoughts. Try to avoid overly generalized statements such as ‘Christians believe…’ or ‘Muslims think…’ Do not attempt to speak on behalf of hundreds of millions of people. Speak for yourself: ‘As a Buddhist, I think that…’ etc.

Be mindful of the reason you are in this class and try be sensitive to your fellow students.

Some helpful tips for obtaining the highest possible grade:

Be sure you actually answer the question as it is posed. Some students talk around the topic but do not specifically answer the question. For example, if the question is about Buddhism, don’t talk about Christianity or Islam for 90% of your answer. It is OK to critically assess a belief system different from your own as long as you demonstrate that you have adequately grasped the particular belief system upon which the Discussion question is based.

Make frequent reference to the views and arguments in the reading material and do not simply rely on your own personal views and/or experience.

Do not express a personal belief without some justifying explanation as to why anyone should take your point of view seriously. You also need to demonstrate how your point of view might relate to the Discussion question. Saying that you ‘believe x strongly’ does not provide any reasonable grounds for another person to believe that your claim is credible. There is no credit given for simply saying ‘I agree’ or ‘I disagree’ without providing some justification and argument. It will be helpful for you to read over your answers before posting them.

Plagiarism [copying in an answer from a website or from another student’s post] will not be tolerated.