- The Threat

Discussion: Does Hell Exist? If so, in what form? What do people think today? What do these conceptions tell us about different views of human nature?

Compare Pew Foundation Research on Belief in Hell (pp. 11-12) with Noelle Knox, “Religion takes a back seat in Western Europe.”

Reading:

• Winfrid Herbst: “Don’t go to Hell!”
• Jeffery Sheler: “Hell hath no fury,” U.S. News & World Report
• John Paul II rejects literal Hell: General Audience, Wednesday 28 July 1999
• Charles Honey: "Belief in hell dips, but some say they've already been there, " The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
• Pew Foundation Research on Belief in Hell, pp. 11-12
• Noelle Knox, “Religion takes a back seat in Western Europe,” USA Today, 8/10/2005.

Video:

• Bishop John Henry Spong, “Hell is an invention of the church”

Discussion: What is Human Nature and why should it matter for our understanding of moral behavior?

Reading:

• An excerpt from Fyodr Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov: Ivan Karamazov’s sobering thoughts on “Rebellion”

Note: No self-respecting Notre Dame student should graduate without reading The Brothers Karamazov in its entirety. The book will change the way you look at life.

Assignment:

• Essay 2

Film and Discussion: Stanley Milgram, “Obedience”

Reading:

• Milgram Experiment

Audio:

• The Milgram “Obedience Song”

Discussion: What is the connection between Hell and moral behavior? Do we need to believe in Hell to maintain a civilized society?

• Jerry Walls: “Can we be Good without Hell?”
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: “Fear of Hell might fire up economy”
• Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize Speech: "Hope, Despair and Memory"
• Richard Dawkins, “Religion’s Real Child Abuse”
• David Brooks, “The End of Philosophy”
• Our Values Survey: An assessment of your findings

Music from Hell

Photo by Wikimedia Commons user KurtCobain4ever.
Some rights reserved.

• Compare John Lennon‘s lyrics in “Imagine” with Nirvana‘s Kurt Cobain in ”Lake of Fire“

Video:

• “Imagine”
• “Lake of Fire“