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Status Reports
Status: Philosophy of Religion (2015 - September)
(Text as at 07/10/2015 00:27:22)
*** THIS IS NOT THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS NOTE ***
(For the live version and other versions of this Note, see the tables at the end)
Rationale for this Project
- See my Christian page and onward links from there for an explanation of how I got in to and out of evangelical Christianity. This is still a live issue for me, and the reason I originally undertook formal philosophical training.
- The connection to my current philosophical researches arises from the standard religious hope that resurrection – or some other form of post-mortem survival – is possible. This is a cornerstone of religious claims and expectations, at least in the Abrahamic religions, from those of suicide bombers to those of more pacific persons. I wish to go back to the considerations that originally motivated Locke and research the metaphysical possibility of resurrection for beings such as us. My current opinion is that resurrection for human beings is metaphysically impossible1, given that substance dualism is false.
- In late September 2010 I took the Philosophy of Religion2 Module of a 2-year part time MA in Philosophy and Religion at Heythrop College (Heythrop College London (Defunct)), University of London. Follow the links for my Personal Statement3, Interview4 Write-up, and Course Outline5. I decided not to proceed with the MA, though I may return6 to Heythrop at some time in the future. I do, however, intend to follow up on the many issues raised.
Summary of Progress during July - September 2015
- As previously reported, I’ve decided formally to scale down my planned activities on this project for the time being, despite its intrinsic importance. There’s just no time for it if I want to make progress on my Thesis. I’m keeping planned effort at 4 hours / week, though I did nothing like that amount of work this quarter.
- Consequently, I spent only 11 hours in 3Q15 (116 hours YTD, where for “YTD” – Year to Date – I mean the academic year commenced in October 2014) on this project. That’s only 20% of the planned effort (59% YTD). Overall, 2% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 5% YTD) – as against 8% planned (8% YTD).
- Further details of activity in the last quarter are given below:-
Religion (Total Hours = 5)
- Religion - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 1.5)
- Religion - Seminars (Total Hours = 3.5)
Religion Background (Total Hours = 5.75)
- Religion Background - Admin
- Religion Background - Discussions (Total Hours = 5.25)
- "Interaction - Discussion with Mike" (0.75 hours)
- Interaction - Religion - Investigations into "ISIS beheading Christian children" (1.5 hours)
- Interaction - Religion - Julie / Tim / Becky (1 hour)
- Interaction - Religion - Mike on Popper (0.5 hours)
- Interaction - Religion - OBT (1 hour)
- Interaction - Religion - Paul Carr (0.5 hours)
... See "Interaction - Religion - Discussions"
Plans for the Near Future
Because of the need to focus on my philosophical research, I’ve decided to remove all the non-philosophical aspects of this project, for the time being, other than those related to the topic of Resurrection.
- Philosophy of Religion:
- Resurrection: Continue with "Wright (N.T.) - The Resurrection of the Son of God".
- Background: Read:-
Summary of Progress to Date
I’ve hived off the history to a separate document7, which still requires a major update.
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 1: Footnote 6: Maybe not likely. However, a return is at least possible now I’ve paid the £1,700-worth of unpaid fees for the modules I didn’t attend.
Live Version of this Archived Note
Table of 12 Earlier Versions of this Note (of 57)
Table of 12 Later Versions of this Note (of 40)
| This version updated |
Reference for this Topic |
Parent Topic |
| 07/10/2015 00:27:22 |
519 (Status: Philosophy of Religion (2015 - September)) |
Status: Summary (2025 - December) |
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- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026