You will be answering all of these questions. Consider both Eastern and Western perspectives (if
you can) for any or all of the items. For the purpose of this discussion, the term religion refers to
institutionalized, recognized forms of religion, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism,
Christianity, Islam, etc. Im looking for your thoughts on these topics, no need for extra research
unless you want to, but cut and paste URLs if you do. You will type in your responses in a word
doc, upload it to Canvas and TII for 15 points and then enter into the class discussion on some of
these topics. The paper should be at least 2 pages long if you leave the prompts and double-space
your answers.
1. What does religion tell people about death and the afterlife? What might be the reason/
purpose for telling them these specific things?
2. What does religion present as or expect to be the role/position of women?
3. How does religion get used by politics to legitimize war, national conflicts, and/or
government (manifest destiny or legitimizing power/status)?
4. Whats the difference between being spiritual versus being religious? What is the
attraction to individualized/personal religion or faith (versus: what does that say about
institutionalized religion, the power, status, and bureaucracy of religion)?
5. How does religion present the idea of evil, temptation, free will, or sin/morality? Whats
immoral and who gets to say it is?
6. What is institutionalized religions attitude toward heterosexuality v homosexuality, birth
control, masturbation? Why?
7. How would you describe religions tolerance of other religions?
