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KQs for The Theme Knowledge and Religion, Making connections to the core…
KQs for The Theme
Knowledge and Religion
Scope
• Do we have an ethical responsibility to gain knowledge of different religions to help us better understand the world and those around us?
• Does religion provide a way to systematize concepts of right and wrong?
• Do religious knowledge claims carry any particular obligation or responsibility for the knower?
• What role do religious leaders and authority figures play in influencing ethical debates?
• If religion is intimately connected with ethics, should we expect those with religious knowledge to act more ethically than those without it?
Methods and tools
• Can there be religious knowledge that is independent of the culture that produces it?
• How has our understanding and perception of religious knowledge changed over time?
• Are those outside a specific religious tradition really able to understand its key ideas?
• What impact has forced religious conversion had on traditional knowledge and cultural diversity? To what extent is it legitimate for a non-believer to criticize the content of a religious belief?
• To what extent do you agree that there is just as much diversity of perspectives within individual religions than there is across different religions?
Ethics
• If knowledge is a map, what is the territory that religion represents?
• What is the value of thinking about questions to which there are no definite answers?
• Does religion try to resolve problems that other areas can’t resolve?
• Is the point of knowledge to produce meaning and purpose in our lives?
• Is certainty any more or less attainable in religion than it is in the arts or human sciences?
• To what extent do scientific developments have the power to influence thinking about religion? Is faith a prerequisite for religious knowledge?
Perspective
• Are religious beliefs rational?
• Can theistic beliefs be considered knowledge because they are produced by a special cognitive faculty or “divine sense”?
• What is the role of analogy and metaphor in the acquisition of religious knowledge?
• Do ritual and habit play a special role in the formation of religious knowledge?
• What difficulties are presented by using human language to discuss religious claims?
• What role do authority and testimony play in the pursuit of knowledge?
• How have language developments (such as the shift from Latin to the vernacular) had an impact on access to religious knowledge?
• Are faith and reason interdependent?
Making connections to the core theme
• What kinds of knowledge can be gained through introspection? (scope)
• How does our own theism, atheism or agnosticism have an impact on our perspective? (perspectives)
• Do you agree with Carl Sagan’s claim that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”? (methods and tools)
• To what extent does religion influence social norms and values? (ethics)
Knowledge and Religion