Do freshman philosophy classes nowadays debate updated versions of the age-old questions? Like, how could a merciful God allow AIDS, childhood cancers, tsunamis and Dick Cheney?
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
From my undergraduate days, I've always been interested in the major philosophical questions that don't seem to have an answer that everyone agrees on.
Most of the debates I've participated in have been on Christian college campuses or on secular campuses; so, largely before a student audience.
Philosophers are adults who persist in asking childish questions.
Religion and morality are critical to how students think about politics and form opinions on political issues.
School prayer, abortion, and school busing are indeed controversial issues. I doubt that there ever will be complete agreement on the public-policy questions they raise.
I feel that education needs an overhaul - courses are obsolete and grades are on the way out.
I discovered that the study of past philosophers is of little use unless our own reality enters into it. Our reality alone allows the thinker's questions to become comprehensible.
Unfortunately, most college kids these days aren't coming from any place-they seem to ask the same kind of questions over and over again.
Somehow, talking to young students brings you back to reality - it should, anyway.
Change will come slowly, across generations, because old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false.
No opposing quotes found.