HUM 345 - Humanism and Mysticism
Welcome to the course.
This syllabus defines course objectives, learning activities, requirements, and grading policies. If anything is still unclear, come see me in the office—my hours are conveniently located right after class, and my office is in HUM 530.
Here are my Teaching Policies and Mark Policies.
Student Survey
To begin, all students are to complete an assessment survey of their preparation and their needs. You aren't expected to have read or seen many of these works, so although the survey looks long, it's quick to complete. Instructions are on it. Click here for the survey
DEADLINE: one week from our next class.
My IT expert set it up so that there's a record of everybody who submitted the survey, although your name is not paired with your answer. Otherwise I wouldn't know who didn't bother to do it.
Course Objectives
In college we don’t give you an education. We teach you how to keep educating yourself for the rest of your life. That’s why college graduates earn nearly three times as much as people who haven’t had this kind of training. College grads know how to keep up with the world, how to keep learning, evolving and adapting. Each course should equip you to keep educating yourself in a specific subject. By the end of the course, you won’t know everything, but you should know enough to keep learning about it on your own.
This course’s objective is to teach you enough, in one semester, to enable you to keep learning about Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Zen Buddhism, Western Art from Humanism to Mysticism and Ecology, Confucianism and Taoism the rest of your life. Each of the course’s extremely varied learning activities (lectures, meditation exercises, museum visits, Biblical Archeology magazine subscription, vocabulary tests on technical terms necessary to read news articles and to interpret them to others) have been selected because they were keys that would make it possible for you to open the greatest number of doors later. In the 29 years I’ve taught this course, many students have also used it as an opportunity for personal growth, a chance to select from different traditions and create something spiritual they could believe in without sacrificing their intelligence.
Course organization
The course is organized to follow the unfolding of the dominant religious traditions in the West and then in the East, in roughly chronological order. Chronology helps because newer religions are often built on top of older ones, or rise in reaction to them. Though I can not specify exactly which day we will study a topic until I have read your Surveys and your personal biographies (each new group of students has different interests) and I reserve the right to cut topics or even books. We have such a small flexible class this year that I plan to follow your interests, cutting back and forth among the topics. They are: Zen Buddhism and mysticism. Meditation using John Cage’s 4’33”. Chinese Confucianism and Taoism.
The oldest strata of Western religion: the J text of the Old Testament and its Canaanite roots. How was the Old Testament performed? (Joseph, David and Absalom) Christianity: the Marcan Gospel. What did Jesus really say? Why are there 4 gospels are how do they disagree? The fall of the Roman Empire leads to the rise of Islam. Islam, basics for understanding news stories about it. Islam vs. Islamism.
Course Methods: "Creating experiences which further learning"
You’ll notice that SFSU’s course evaluations very intelligently do not say, “were there interesting lectures,” but “did the professor create experiences which furthered your learning.” This course uses every means of creating experiences—trips, slides, films, the works. We even use cuisine to explore and understand religious culture. Do you know what kosher is, or what the phrase “Lox and Bagel Jews” refers to? If you are in Beijing, should you eat the jian dofu?
HOW HAS THIS PROFESSOR BEEN EVALUATED BY STUDENTS?
During the past twenty-nine years over 5,300 students have, after Prof. Leonard's classes, filled out anonymous computer evaluations administered by SFSU, given to the professor only after the marks have been mailed. They are kept on departmental file. In answer to ten specific questions like "Was his grading fair?" "Was he available at stated office hours?" "Did he know his subject?" and so on, replies have averaged, with amazing consistency, about 80% "excellents", 17 percent "very goods," with 1 percent "good," 1 percent "poor" 1 percent "no opinion."
Students also add anonymous written comments. Here are the comments, exactly as written, compiled and kept on file by Dept. Secretary Annette Speed. Negative comments have NOT been excluded. Though they span 20 years, they’re remarkably consistent, including the complaint that the course could use a more structured syllabus. That’s the price I pay for flexibility and for molding the course to each class’s interests. But I hope this year’s syllabus is clearer? I just got last semester’s evaluations and will print them out and share them with you, but I have not asked my IT professional to insert them this year. They’re unchanged.
pre-2001
/Prof. Leonard is a dynamic professor. This particular course was interesting in that all my preconceived ideas of mysticism were shattered. This course is a keeper!
/I think that this class stands out in my mind as one of the best and most beneficial courses I have taken at SFSU. It is extremely refreshing to take a course that encourages students to think rather than memorize key terms. I have pulled many things from this course. I feel that I will walk away from it with more knowledge and insight than any class I have taken this semester. My first experiences in the Humanities department were negative and I almost didn't take the class based on that, but following this class, I am encouraged to continue taking classes in this department.
/In all honesty, this is the single most enlightening and personally educational class I have ever had. We have a loosely organized structure geared towards the progress of our learning, not structured for the sake of satisfying concrete organization we have grown up with in our schooling system. This class became more of a spiritual experience in the form of a very diverse educational tradition. Professor Leonard is a very inspiring individual who is always willing to listen and help wherever required. His method of teaching is by far the most effective I have personally experienced. I am not lying at all. This is a very important class.
2001
/I found this course to be inspiring and it made me more aware of the cultural diversities in believes and values in others, religions, and perspectives. I feel that this enlightenment has given me a deeper appreciation for others and has opened new understandings of the world and my own human experience. I hope there will be further opportunity to explore the insights of other cultures and the origins of their foundations, as has been so skillfully integrated in this course, with so many of our worlds influential thinkers and leaders presented for our interest. Thank you for this opportunity.
/This was the best class that I have attended at San Francisco State University. Every book covered was on my personal reading list since childhood, and indeed should be required curriculum for any man or woman claiming to be educated. Professor Leonard was a fantastically engaging orator, and never failed to allow a new idea to take life. I wish that there were a continuation for this class, a sequel of sorts, you can be sure I would be first to enroll. The salvage project was a communion with another self-loss in the haze of childhood. It was an incredible experience. On the basis of this class I intend on requesting professor Leonard as my advisor.
/This course and the instructor were incredible. I learned a great deal from Prof. Leonard's firsthand knowledge of a diverse amount of religions and history. I especially liked the museum project we had where we went to the Palace of the Legion of Honor to study mysticism. Also our salvage project reinvigorated my own spirituality, which is something I have desperately needed. I loved this class!
/This class was phenomenal. For years not I have searched the class schedule for this fusion of the sacred and the profane. Finally, a professor who can explain the great mysteries of the major world religions in such a fashion that we all understand and enjoy it!
/I enjoyed the class; very insightful to opening doors about myself that hadn't been opened. Loved the trips to the museum.
/The museum project was one of the best projects, papers I have been assigned since attending this school. My special project paper helped me to understand the many gaps in life stemming from my childhood experiences with religion and the many choices I had. I will highly recommend this class to anyone interested.
/This class has taught me valuable lessons with the way I live my life. Now I look at my surroundings with a new and a more rounded perspective. A class such as this is vital to the creation of a person.
/Course was very valuable. Walked away with useful and tangible tools for furthering my education and life perspective.
/This has been an amazing course. Dr. Leonard taught the different concepts of mysticism in a non-judgmental, jargon-free manner. Additionally, his writing assignments exercised and improved my writing much more than other similar courses here. Dr. Leonard's personally prepared class materials were priceless. They supported his lectures wonderfully!
/This course has been instrumental in answering a lot of questions I had about Christianity and the bible. It has been enlightening as well as enriching. I truly enjoyed the Confucian part of the lecture. It has been very inspirational. More classes such as these should be offered. It offers a lot of food for thought. It was a great help and has helped me redefine what spirituality means for me.
2003
/This is the 2nd course I've taken with Dr. Leonard and I wish I could take a 3rd. His range of knowledge from the west to the east is deep, and he makes fantastic comparisons that bring the subject to light. The material he covers is daunting and I believe that it takes a professor to clearly convey such profound and complicated concepts. During the semester there was a trip on a weekend to the CA Palace of the Legion of Honor. Dr. Leonard gave a tour of the museum. I enjoyed the tour, not only because he lectured about art, but because the visit visually illustrated much of what we discussed in class.
/There was a period when I abhorred this course. I thought Dr. Leonard was the target of my hatred, or the course material itself. Soon I realized that it was not in fact hatred, but fear. Fear of learning more than I wanted and having my mind grow in uncomfortable directions. Any course that can affect a person in this way, and any professor truly capable of teaching that course is clearly one worth taking. Amazingly, I conquered that fear and gained two things nearly unheard of in college: knowledge and personal fulfillment.
/There are many benefits in a class such as this one as it allows students to get a closer more intimate analysis of religion and the development of faith. The museum visit creates more of a community environment useful to the exploration of ideas in the classroom. Also, it gives students an opportunity and excuse to see the beauty of art.
/Great course because of the following reasons: full-time professor is the adequate professor for teaching Hum 375. George Leonard's knowledge of the subjects are enormous. The field trip to the museum was very useful in explaining the subject.
/The class took a different approach, I liked that. There were some really great, engaging lectures. The course work and material could have been more organized.
/I feel that the course was beneficial and kept in accordance with my academic expectations. It challenged the way in which people think in the west in comparison with the east. The professor also offered new concepts that enabled all to live more harmoniously in a pluralistic multicultural society. The museum trip enabled a more expansive approach to the course.
/I think that full professors should be on staff at this university. The museum visit greatly contributed to my educational experience and afforded me to see some sites in this city that I may not have otherwise visited. It would be a pity to confine students to sites only on campus considering the limitation of space.
/This course should be a university requirement for all students. The thought-provoking material and depth of knowledge brought by Dr. Leonard has been unparalleled in any of my other courses at SFSU. The museum trip in particular provided an experience unlike any other a students at SFSU is likely to have. Of all the field trips I've been on, this was the richest. Again, not only should this be offered every term, it should be required.
/This is a good course to keep because students not only earn about western religion but also practice their critical thinking skills. The museum visit was good to have because it made me understand the material better.
/Professor Leonard was very intimidating at first which prevented me from asking him for help. As soon as I was forced to, I got over it. He is an incredibly understanding professor who really wants you to learn. This course should continue.
/I thought that the museum trip was very helpful in understanding the course material and in helping to create new ways to interpret ideas. This class has been very helpful in stimulating thoughts and ideas that were never thought of before.
Spring 2007
/Dr. Leonard has, hands down, been the most effective professor that I've had thus far at SFSU. His passion and knowledge for the subject is more than tangible, and his class has persuaded me to pursue a humanities major.
/It has been beneficial to have had a full professor as an instructor, his vast experiences teaching comes through clearly and I can observe fellow students excitement of having been exposed to, and taught about entirely new subject matter/ideas.
/This is my second course with Dr. Leonard, after my first Humanities course with him I decided I wanted to study humanities. His courses are stimulating and extremely thought provoking. I am convinced he has given me the tools to further educate myself after college as well as given me the confidence to complete a humanities and French major. His courses give any person of any major the classic professor/student relationship you seek in a college environment, he truly cares about his students and has an intense way in which he gives lectures. I would recommend Professor Leonard to anyone looking to be inspired.
/The more experienced teachers should always teach the newer students in college. They need the guidance because they might still need the attention.
/Excellent teacher... great for advanced but new students... really gets you into the subject.
/Please, let the instructor Dr. Leonard teach the course to any student!
/I recommend this class and professor to everyone I know. Regardless of they're major or background. Not only does the subject cover many things that everyone should know and learn, but the professor fosters his students and class in a way that makes this a life changing experience rather than a simple 3 units taken to fill a schedule.
/The fact that you show such mastery of the subject along with such a passion for the subject. It makes me want to come to class and dread the times it is cancelled for the day.
/Dr. Leonard is a large contribution to my education. I feel that as a segment III course professor he really helps non-humanities majors. I, being a science major, have greatly appreciated his vast knowledge.
/Wonderful course. Only negative was the lack of a syllabus. I am happy that I will be able to apply what I have learned in this class to real life. Very comfortable classroom feeling. Will definitely be recommending the course and professor to my friends.
/George Leonard: thank you for this course although I am not a humanities major this course has widen my horizons on, well, everything. You should continue to teach this course with the syllabus guidelines and encourage people to dominate the discussion in the workplace, I dominated somewhere at a pool hall and Portland. Thank you.
/Dr. Leonard is brilliant. I am glad to have taken this class. I hope it continues in the future and that he continues to teach it.
/By having an experienced professor, such as Dr. Leonard, teaching this course it is ensured that both Humanities majors and non-Humanities majors will be introduced to a new area of knowledge. Nurturing of these will be assured with Dr. Leonard, not with a grad student.
/Having an experienced teacher helped my learning. Undergraduate courses usually are pretty bland and boring. Not so here, I would wish my graduate teachers would be as fun but based off experience so far, I'd think not. The experience and knowledge Dr. Leonard brings entices me to learn more.
/Course was unstructured, but in such a way that stimulated my learning. Prof. Leonard is able to instruct in a way that is many levels above what I am used to. He is able to illustrate ideas using pre-existing materials, he can convey a great amount of material this way.
/This class has been an invaluable addition to my learning. It gives you a strong basis for learning on your own. It has taught me things that will shape my life far after I am out of school. This class should be mandatory for every SFSU student. A brilliant teacher and an indispensable class.
Fall 2012
/This class was very eye opening and the instructor made it much more productive and exciting.
/This is the best course I have ever taken, it makes me excited and proud to be a college student. Grad students don’t need George, undergrads need him to excite them about learning.
/This was a fantastic class that covered many interesting and even controversial topics in a historical, intelligent manner. I will recommend this class and take any others with Leonard that I can.
/Great course. Interesting material. The museum assignment was a highlight, the directions about what sort of work that we were to pick could have been more clear because I know some people had to go back to the museum on their own time to finish the assignment. Overall, I really enjoyed the class. The professor was able to present controversial material in a humorous and memorable way.
/Professor Leonard has taught me to look at things in a different way. He is one of the reasons I transferred to SF State.
/Once again Prof. Leonard has outdone himself. Hum 345 was a one of a kind course, providing a new look (for most of us) at the myriad of religions/ spiritualities. He’s the best professor I’ve had in 6 years of undergrad (CSUMB and SFSU) and my undergraduate education would have been severely lacking without him.
/A bit disorganized but highly intelligent and influential. I learned an immense amount which a TA could not have transmitted. Needs a clearer syllabus with specific dates.
/Prof. Leonard created a very unique environment, strange, but unique, that could not have been accomplished by any TA. I felt that this 3 hour period was a comfortable and intellectual time that I don’t get in other classes.
/Group discussion are very helpful, learning other views on the subject.
What is this professor like?
I'm a working author and have to have a professional website. You can browse through my books here on my website and decide if my interests are similar to yours.
An old, but accurate, interview which shows how the professor's interests fit together: David Carrier Interview
Dated, but accurate -- lists books about Prof. Leonard's work, including ones critical of him. Note: 2015 was Prof. Leonard's 43th anniversary as a college professor. About Dr. Leonard
A very personal statement, of interest only to students taking HUM 345, Humanism and Mysticism: Dream of the Ice Age
Museum Fieldwork Assignment
ASIAN ART Museum Assignment: ZEN, POP, CONCEPT ART
DOING JOHN CAGE'S 4'33" WITH GEORGE LEONARD: THE DIRECT TRANSMISSION OF THE DHARMA FROM CAGE AND ALLAN KAPROW TO YOU
This year we'll go to the Asian Art Museum. Here's the museum's location. Download these pages and bring to museum, if you don't have them on an iPhone or other device that you can bring. You'll need them there. Bring From Humanism to Mysticism (or Into the Light of Things, if you already bought it) and a pen.
Family and friends welcome. If you buy a membership, you can take a person in free with you and you get a bonus on your paper. Get there fifteen minutes early in case you're stuck on line for tickets. There's a free coat check as you enter. You can't bring backpacks up, they knock into stuff. There's a fine inexpensive snack bar so the best bet is come early and eat lunch there.
For godssake, so you don't wander around in a daze, do yourself a favor and read at least the section labeled The Blissful Hour: 4'33" in Part IV, Chapter C of From Humanism to Mysticism (or Into the Light of Things, if you already bought it) before we do 4'33". Okay? Good. See you.
Prof L.
THE WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT, DUE TWO WEEKS FROM OUR NEXT CLASS:
Part 1: Go through the permanent collection in the rooms that I said would work with our assignment—and only those rooms. Describe in minute detail ONE artwork or object which reminded you of Cage, Kaprow, and what I said about Zen. Check with me to make sure. Take a photo of it, no flash, unless a guard forbids. Make notes in the museum. Number that, Part 1. One page, maximum! Weight: ONLY 10 points. For a bonus: write the whole page without using the word “is” or “was”!
Part 2: Part 2: Sit, contemplating the piece you chose, for at least four minutes and thirty three seconds. Once one of my students contemplated a Robert Ryman for nearly two hours, but he had been a Zen monk. Expect it to be hard work. There will be alternating periods of boredom and interest. You've practiced.
Back at home, in From Humanism to Mysticism (or Into the Light of Things, if you already bought it), re-read Part I, Chapter A. Arthur Danto and “the End of Art,” and Part I, Chapter C, from the section titled, “Emerson, Whitman, and Concept Art,” through the section titled, “Emerson, Whitman: ‘I cannot go back to toys,’” to learn about this kind of art's goal: the “transfiguration of the commonplace,” the mystical wonder of ordinary things. Does it relate to your experience with the painting? Explain how. Quote the book, be specific. Title this Part 2. Minimum, three pages. I'm only looking for your new command of the technical terms and concepts relating to this topic! I MARK ON THE PROSE. THIS IS JUST A WRITING ASSIGNMENT, AS FAR AS THE MARK IS CONCERNED. You don't have to reach nirvana or satori! Weight: Eighty points! Spend time here. Write according to the hints in Break Writer's Block. Change passive to active, cut “is” and “was” every chance you can and substitute just the right word. Use simple active verbs.
Part 3, one page only. OPTIONAL. Tell me if you had any visual or auditory experiences after contemplation that struck you as novel or unusual. (Avoid telling me you found faces, skulls, etc. hidden in the painting. People can find them even in clouds, if they look long enough.) The experiences usually will happen within 72 hours after you left the museum. You may not realize they happened until well after they did. If you had none, just report that, in good prose. Amazingly, most people will have one. That's why we value this kind of art: it works. Weight for Question 3: 10 points IF YOU CHOOSE TO DO IT. (for the prose, not for the experience or lack of it.) NO DEDUCTION FOR SKIPPING THIS QUESTION.
REQUIRED READING
FIRST ASSIGNMENTS
AND UPDATES TO THE READING LIST.
Download a Kindle version of From Humanism to Mysticism by Leonard. It will be used with the museum visit. It's a reader for our course.
Get the Kindle version of Break Your Writer's Block, a writer's guide prepared for SFSU by Prof. Leonard. Do not get the older print version. The Kindle version is cheaper, anyway, and I've updated it. To read a Kindle book, you don't need an actual Kindle device from Amazon. You can read it on a physical device, like your iPad, your smartphone, or your Mac or PC at home. You can even use any computer on campus or elsewhere if you use Amazon's Cloud Reader. You just need an Amazon customer account.
In class, though, we use only print editions, no eBooks. They’re on the shelf together in the bookstore, and listed on the University’s page for this course, as well as mentioned below.
The Old Testament
Buy the Oxford Study Bible and bring to class.
Print out for yourself the full outline of the OLD TESTAMENT TIMELINE lecture.You will be responsible for the sections which are starred, but listen in class for more exact assignments.
The New Testament:
Buy and bring to class, together with your Bible:
The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say?
Islam vs. Islam.
This needs a longer introduction.
Our authors, Nafisi and Hirsi, will be asking us to look at not only Islam, but "Islamism," which they argue specifically targets women. I'll try to help us distinguish between "Islam" and a fundamentalist backlash against modernism which has appeared in many religions for a century and a half. When modernism bursts into a traditional culture, many men that held power lose it, get "left behind," lose their status, become "declasse." Newly poor, passe, dethroned in their own greatly changed communities -- finally the only power these fallen men still have is their traditional power over a woman or two. When modern feminism starts to strip them even of that, they rebel. Nafisi and Hirsi ask us to see such movements as the Iranian Revolutionaries and the Taliban as primarily a battle to keep control of women. It's all they've got left.
Here are a few stories based on United Nations findings which illustrate the scope of the problem. Notice, the "child bride" phenomenon exists outside Islam as well, among the patriarchal rural Hindus and tribal Africans.
Millions of Young Girls Forced Into Marriage
United Nations Population Fund's "Marrying too Young," executive summary
(The above is not a hint to donate! Just a good summary of facts from a respected organization.)
Reading "Lolita" in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Reading this sophisticated Persian Islamic woman's account of Islamists taking over her Iran, and hillbillies persecuting those modern people who had followed the spiritualized Islam of the capital, will show us very quickly the many different religions and ethnicities within "Islam" a term that covers as many diverse religions as the word "Christianity" does and includes as many kinds. Just as the Romance languages are a family of languages which grew out of Latin, so Islam we might better think of as a family of very different religions which grew out of the traditions connected with Mohammed.
*Ch 8, 26-30 Islamism takes over. The marriage age is lowered to 9, "morality police" patrol the streets to arrest and beat unveiled women. The university is segregated, and the new morality replaces learning. Notice that she underscores one thing. Islam-ism isn't just anti woman in passing, as a kind of side effect. Islamism exists to combat Western feminism, and keep it from entering society. I've come to understand the truth of what she means and we'll talk about it in class.
**70-74 Part 1 Ch 21 The women hide at Azar's and read great Western literature together, to feel like themselves again. Terrifying, nauseating story of an arrest by the morality police, forced examinations for virginity, and official canings.
88-106 How the Romantic leftist students (a la Les Miserables) joined forces with the Islamists to oust the Shah, lost control of the revolution and were purged. It will remind you of the French Revolution and of Animal Farm. Scenes of wild violence like 1984's "Two Minute Hate."
111-113 Part 2 section 12 Azar begins to realize it is a war against modern women.
117-119 Empathy. The humanizing genre. What Azar Nafisi has done for the Persians. Read with 224-225 The novel as empathy itself. Great and insightful.
132-137 A great explanation of why literature, and the novel in particular, matters.
**167-169 Part 3 section 5 Azar Nafisi and the hillbilly morality policewoman -- you can sense the class envy masquerading as morality when she tries to rub the makeup off Azar's face. Note: Azar Nafisi became a superstar with this book, but it's a shame the way fame has reduced this brilliant work to its politics and sociology. It is a poetic new way of writing literary criticism and a convincing defense of why literature matters.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, The Caged Virgin (optional this year)
Read Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Wiki entry.
A book from an amazing, and deserved famous, public intellectual woman. Her scary life story captivated the West. She may yet be assassinated, and she travels with guards. After Theo Van Gogh, the great Vincent's grand nephew, filmed her script about women in Islam, he was murdered and she was threatened. She eventually fled to America, where she and her husband, Niall Ferguson, now both teach at Harvard and routinely appear on Time's list of the "100 Most Influential People in the world." What can you say? They're both brave, brilliant, fiercely independent, and back in their thirties they looked like a couple of movie stars. An influential couple indeed.
Submission: Part 1 - by Theo van Gogh/Ayaan Hirsi Ali - YouTube
Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Islam - YouTube
A typically blunt and sometimes humorous speech on what it was like growing up Moslem in the Arab world: a education in bigotry.
*Xvii-xviii Her amazement at the way the American feminist movement shies away from Islamism's women victims. Written in 2004. The new interest in Child Brides since then has a lot to do with Nafisi and Hirsi Ali's efforts.
Chapters One and Three, are about growing up female in a traditionalist Islamic society.
**Chapter Twelve, on Female Genital Mutilation
Chapter Sixteen, what is to be done?
The End of Faith, by Sam Harris
11-13 "Guess" Certainty and tolerance
17-19 "Moderate?" Or are we just "ignoring" what we don't like?
26-27 Though Harvard's Samuel Huntington is not mentioned, this is the ultra-famous "Clash of Civilizations" hypothesis, and particularly, "Islam's Bloody borders." At this point, go to Wikipedia and look up Clash of Civilizations. At the bottom there will be a link to the full version, which you need only to scan. Huntington: "In Eurasia the great historic fault lines between civilizations are once more aflame. This is particularly true along the boundaries of the crescent-shaped Islamic bloc of nations from the bulge of Africa to central Asia. Violence also occurs between Muslims, on the one hand, and Orthodox Serbs in the Balkans, Jews in Israel, Hindus in India, Buddhists in Burma and Catholics in the Philippines. Islam has bloody borders."
**117-123 Is Islam "the religion of peace?" Harris simply prints the Koranic verses preaching war or violence. Six full pages. Read it together with a sample of this debate:
Debate ft. Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Full), Is Islam a Religion of Peace? - YouTube
There is a moving opening statement by a young American Muslim woman whose life story is a healthy contrast with Islamism. At 13:00 Hirsi Ali takes the stand and talks about the very different branch of Islam that killed Van Gogh and would kill her if it ever got a chance. "Jihad is central to Islam."
Harris: 123-127 the percent of the Islamic world that has "certainty."
232-234 Islam and violence, the issues.
Other issues:
64-65 What is "faith?"
78-79 Harris manages to find "faith" exceptionally deadly only by calling atheistic Communism a "political religion." Too convenient.
92-93, 97-100 faith and anti-Semitism.
158-162 Against the "sin" of taking drugs like marijuana.
202 Pacifism as abdication of responsibility.
205-221 In praise of spirituality and mysticism plus a full psychological explanation of how mysticism works.
The "Turn East"
Read and download for class The Confucian Family essay. I’ll lecture from it, so having it in front of you when I talk will help with some of the unfamiliar names and terms.
Buy Waley translation, The Analects. Concentrate on these parts.
As we read Confucius, to help us understand one topic, the "transvaluation of the values," please download Kurt Vonnegut's short story, Harrison Bergeron.
The Tao te Ching: Asian Mysticism
(Waley's English translation: "The Way and its Power")
(the whole short book is required but concentrate on these)
Chapter 1 Page 141
Chapter 10 Page 153
Chapter 11 Page 155
Chapter 12 Page 156
Chapter 25 Page 174
Chapter 27 Page 178
Chapter 32 Page 183
Chapter 34 Page 185
Chapter 42 Page 195
Chapter 45 Page 197
Chapter 55 Page 223
Chapter 57 Page 225