Science and Religion

Assignment for Sep-14


The assignment

The interviews with Collins and Dawkins have each interviewee making a number of claims with limited time to justify each. However, some questions are examined in greater depth, providing the interviewee some opportunity to explain his position. Some of these explanations were more persuasive than others.

Your assignment: Choose a particular statement made by one of the interviewees, along with its justification/explanation, with which you disagree. Explain why the argument presented is not persuasive. Imagine that you are debating this individual, and that you are seeking to rebut the claim or some part of its justification. Note that you cannot choose just any statement with which to disagree -- it must be one where the interviewee had some opportunity to provide an explanation, and yet still left you unpersuaded.

Your paper should be 1 to 2 pages in length, but not more than 2 pages. It must be double-spaced, with at least a 1-inch margins in either side, and use a 12-point font size. If you find that you can present your argument in 1.5 pages, then that is the length that your paper should be -- do not add extra material just to fill 2 pages.


Submitting your work

All papers will be submitted electronically. Specifically...

  1. You must save/print your paper as a PDF file. If you don't know how to generate a PDF file, visit the Computer Center and ask for help. Don't wait for the last minute to figure out how to do this step.

  2. You must upload the PDF version of your paper using this assignment's submission web page. You will need to login using your Amherst College username and password to submit your work.


Getting your graded work

Once I have evaluated your work, you can download your graded paper.


This assignment is due on Wednesday, Sep-14, at 11:59 pm

Scott F. H. Kaplan
Last modified: Sun Sep 28 15:21:06 EDT 2008