Category: Religious studies

Write a 5 paragraph essay on the: Relationship between religion and altered states of consciousness (ASCs), (which could entail deep prayer/meditation, entheogen ingestion, or both).
Some key terms from class that may be helpful:
Entheogens (vs terms “psychedelics,” “hallucinogens,” and “drugs”
Johns Hopkins Study on psilocybin, meditation, journaling and spiritual practices
Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs) – In altered states of consciousness (ASCs), the patterns of conscious experience are different from usual, and the contents of consciousness do not reliably reflect the immediately surrounding world.

Reflect on the future of religion as it relates to you, society, and the future of the world in light of Max Weber’s “iron cage” passage and thesis on capitalism. (5 Paragraphs answering the following questions)
1) How does Weber understand the interplay between religious thought (especially Protestant theology) and social development? How does this overlap and contrast with Marx? What role did he argue this particular religion played in the formation of capitalism as a global-economic system (i.e. the “iron cage”). 2) In what ways does Weber understand the religious dimensions of humanity as the only two possible paths to break out from the cage? What is the alternative third possibility and what are its ramifications? 3) Explain how this relates to your own life, both now in your approach towards college and also in the decades to come? (I am a 18 year old college student, who was raised Catholic.)

Accomplish Week 3
You must respond to the following questions. You are expected to use your textbooks and any other scholarly resources you might find helpful in order to participate in the conversation.
Be sure to copy and paste the entire question into your thread. Remember to write a minimum of 200 words for each answer before 11:59 PM Sunday.
This paper must be submitted in a Word.doc!
Make proper citations in your answers as well as bibliography for scholarly resources as well. If you use any source beside the textbook, be sure to post a bibliographical reference too
.
From the reading on page 2587-2589 on the “Reliability of the New Testament Manuscriipts,” asserts we have certainty that our New Testament translations are translated from trustworthy manuscriipts. Most all of the textual variants can be divided in 4 catagories, List them and explain how they may be resolved. The article says, “In the final analysis…” What? Be specific with your responses and refer to our reading assignment and video content.

Hi there you just need to indicate my professors comments to this paper. I’ve uploaded some pages from the class text book.
Professor’s comments: This is a good start. You should also present an introduction to the specific Buddhist work that you’re looking at, namely the Lotus Sutra. Additionally, it would be valuable for you to show what an Islamic interpretation of Buddhist scriipture looks like. How do they read a specific “verse”. Now you can add quotes from the class primary book.
Paper prompt: describe some basic features
of this work, b) quote, discuss, and interpret a brief, exemplary passage
from it; c) explain how this work relates to other texts in the tradition, d)
describe what role this religious text plays in the life of the religious
community.
The length of the essay should be approximately 7-8 double-spaced pages,
12-point font. The essay should be based on at least three (3) peer-reviewed
texts, apart from the primary scriiptural source.

Accomplish Week 3
You must respond to the following questions. You are expected to use your textbooks and any other scholarly resources you might find helpful in order to participate in the conversation.
Be sure to copy and paste the entire question into your thread. Remember to write a minimum of 200 words for each answer before 11:59 PM Sunday.
This paper must be submitted in a Word.doc!
Make proper citations in your answers as well as bibliography for scholarly resources as well. If you use any source beside the textbook, be sure to post a bibliographical reference too
.
From the reading on page 2587-2589 on the “Reliability of the New Testament Manuscriipts,” asserts we have certainty that our New Testament translations are translated from trustworthy manuscriipts. Most all of the textual variants can be divided in 4 catagories, List them and explain how they may be resolved. The article says, “In the final analysis…” What? Be specific with your responses and refer to our reading assignment and video content.

Hi there you just need to indicate my professors comments to this paper. I’ve uploaded some pages from the class text book.
Professor’s comments: This is a good start. You should also present an introduction to the specific Buddhist work that you’re looking at, namely the Lotus Sutra. Additionally, it would be valuable for you to show what an Islamic interpretation of Buddhist scriipture looks like. How do they read a specific “verse”. Now you can add quotes from the class primary book.
Paper prompt: describe some basic features
of this work, b) quote, discuss, and interpret a brief, exemplary passage
from it; c) explain how this work relates to other texts in the tradition, d)
describe what role this religious text plays in the life of the religious
community.
The length of the essay should be approximately 7-8 double-spaced pages,
12-point font. The essay should be based on at least three (3) peer-reviewed
texts, apart from the primary scriiptural source.

ILR260: Final Paper
Overview
Due: Saturday, 11:59 p.m. PST, the Final Day of Class
Length Requirement: 1000 word minimum
Points: 500
Purpose
The most common assignment in college classes is the research paper. Research papers tend to fall into two categories—the argumentative and the informational. In this class, we will practice putting together a research paper that is more informational in nature. Its main goal is to practice assembling sources in a way that adequately explores a research question from various sides but does not (necessarily) take a strong stance on the “correct” answer. The paper can lean in certain directions if that is where the scholarly conversation leans, but it is not necessarily trying to persuade the audience of one specific point of view. The point of the paper is to assemble a scholarly conversation around a research question and then synthesize possible answers to the research question.
The ILR course itself takes you through the necessary steps to create this final paper.
In summary, the steps you will have gone through are as follows:
Identify and narrow a research question.
Find and evaluate sources.
Summarize sources in an annotated bibliography.
Write a rough draft.
Revise a rough draft and proofread.
Task
Compose a 1000-word essay in APA citation style (you may use MLA if you are an English major) that presents and then attempts to answer your research question.
You must use a minimum of five cited sources. Three must be from peer-reviewed academic journals. Popular sources, including magazine articles, newspapers, secondary scholarly summaries of topics, or government or institutional literature may be allowed if deemed appropriate as per the lessons on source evaluation and rhetorical needs of the paper.
Cite your sources on a standard format APA reference page. If you are an English major, MLA will be allowed with permission from instructor.
Submit your essay as a Word document, .pdf file, or a .rtf only. Please do not use Pages or any type of image file.
Topic
You will have the freedom to choose your own topic for this research essay. There are, however, some topics that are not allowed.
Any of the topics from ENG102. To remind you, the current topics from ENG102 are Bail Reform, Homework, Communication in Relationships, Ocean Pollution, The War in Ukraine, Homework (is it necessary), Nursing Burnout, and Self-Driving Cars. Under no circumstances may you choose one of these subjects.
Whatever subject you wrote on for ENG240.
Any paper you wrote for another class at NU or another university.
See a pattern? We want a new paper. It is important to note that the papers you wrote in ENG102 and ENG240 are argumentative in nature, so they would not fit this assignment anyway.
Important Note
Do not use generative AI programs (Chat GPT, Bard, Bing, Blenderbot, etc.) to write this paper. It will be considered academic dishonesty and the paper will receive a failing grade. We have software to detect use of AI programs to generate papers.
Criteria for Success
The paper will be scored according to the following rubric. (Uploaded)
PLEASE USE THE SOURCES AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ATTACHED

USE PLAIN AND SIMPLE ENGLISH!!
Do not use overly fancy language
CHOOSE A TOPIC
For our essay, choose a chapter or passage that we read for class from the Hebrew Bible, Dhammapada, New Testament, or Essential Koran to analyze.
Please don’t choose your chapter or passage randomly. Consider whether the chapter interests and inspires you. Is it inspiring based on your reading of the chapter, commentary you have read or looked up anew
this will be a four-paragraph academic essay
draft of a thesis statement (see below in REQUIREMENTS AND STRUCTURE)
an outline of the main points of your essay, which should map to the essay’s body paragraphs. Include a quotation you would use to prove each of your points.
list sources you may use as if listed on a Works Cited page
Your essay will be at least four paragraphs long (an intro paragraph, two body paragraphs, and an outro paragraph). This should be about two and a half pages in MLA Format (see CCSF Library and MLA Citation Resources) but in any case must be at least two full pages in length. Most of the value of the essay comes from the body paragraphs’ content and evidence, so long intros and outros with skimpy body paragraphs is not the way.
Include a thesis statement at the end of your intro paragraph and develop your thesis in unified body paragraphs.
The thesis should be specific and focus on the chapter you are choosing, not general points about the religion or even the whole work we are reading. It should map to the points in the body paragraphs. You may make some reference to other chapters of the work you chose, but the main point of each body paragraph (and thus the thesis) should be about your chapter or passage.
See SENSE OF AUDIENCE below for guidance on the introductory paragraph.
The subjects of your body paragraphs should form the main sub points in your Prewriting, which is due before the essay. They can, of course, change after you do your prewriting since it is meant to be a work in progress.
Each body paragraph should make a specific point in its topic sentence, which should generally be the first sentence of the body paragraph.
To develop your body paragraphs, use the guiding principles that we have been using for Discussions.
Your essay doesn’t need to discuss every point made in the chapter.
An effective thesis statement mapping to the two body paragraphs’ points might read something like this: “Chapter X focuses on practical advice for rulership and shows a distinct criticism of Confucian thought.” Remember that thesis statements make specific claims up front to then be proven later by the body paragraphs. They should not say something vague like “Chapter X has two interesting points as we will see below”.
All body paragraphs should have direct quotes in quotation marks to support the topic sentence’s point. Use in-text citations with the translator or author last name and the page number (if available) or chapter number should be used. Anything from the Hebrew Bible, Dhammapada, New Testament, or Essential Koran should be cited by chapter and verse. There’s no need to note which translation (like NIV or NKJ for New International Version or New King James version) because the translation you used will be listed on your Works Cited page.
ESSAY SOURCES and WORKS CITED PAGE
You must quote from at least one commentary (also known as a secondary source).
These are often already provided for you as part of the course’s reading, so you shouldn’t have to go looking for them. However, if you want to use another source, you may if it is a legitimate, academic source that make specific commentary on your chapter.
Light research sources which are legitimate such as Wikipedia or Britannica may be used to provide evidence of general points but do not count towards this requirement.
Avoid sources that offer ready-made essays or whose academic credentials are too low (eCheat, About.com, and BookRags are only a few examples).
Avoid opinionated or religiously inappropriate sources (such as Christian-based commentary about Jewish Biblical subjects).
If you’re writing about Islam, remember that certain websites pose as unbiased sources of information but are actually Islamophobic front for spreading anti-Islam propaganda, including The Religion of PeaceLinks to an external site. and WikiIslamLinks to an external site.. Take a look with your critical thinking hat on if you like, but avoid them completely in writing your essay.
For review of formatting the essay and how to do citations, see CCSF Library and MLA Citation Resources
APPROACH and SENSE OF AUDIENCE
Heed the maxim that “writing is rewriting”
Sense of audience is important in writing, especially in the intro paragraph.
Write for a general audience who needs you to give context to your writing, so introduce the and the chapter before your thesis statement. Imagine someone outside of this class is reading your essay. If you assume your instructor is your reader, you may be thinking, “Oh, he’s the teacher, he already knows all this” then your essay will be missing internal consistency.
Avoid “I” and “you” statements. Material that reads something like “Oh, I was considering writing about Chapter 3, but then I read some more and settled on Chapter 10” is fine for prewriting, but should be edited out in the revision process. State your positions as facts rather than using phrases like “I am not sure, but I think…” or “As you can see…”
avoid plagiarism and Artificial Intelligence tools. Penalties for either kind of academic honesty will stick — the instructor will not accept resubmissions of such work.

Please see attachment that is provided. The quiz is what i used for my discussion that is also provided. Please see classmate discussion and reply to it.

Please see attachment that is provided. The quiz is what I used for my reply to my discussion. Please use my discussion provided to reply to the classmate discussion that has also been provided in the paper.