CIE100: Common Intellectual Experience - Genesis Writing Prompt (10 Points)

Assignment Goals

The goals of this assignment are:

1. To reflect upon the course texts in preparation for thoughtful discussion
2. To organize thoughts into a concise and cohesive response to a targeted question
3. To consider multiple viewpoints about ideas

The Assignment

Please read the questions below and answer them in a short dialogue between yourself and a figure from, or behind, the text. Aim for about as much substance as a 1-2 paragraph response; script formatting usually runs a little longer on the page, and that is fine. Quote the text at least once within the exchange, and give the other voice a real counterargument, supported by a quote of its own. Submit your dialogue through Canvas before the start of class.

The dialogue is the default form for this reading. Any of the other four genres will do instead (analytic, letter, dialogue, marginalia+aphorism, or the Four A’s), as long as your response still includes a quote and a counterargument.

Alter’s footnotes make this a two-voice text, and How to Read Hard Texts in CIE has a roadmap for reading it.

Writing Prompt

1. Compare the creation account of Genesis 1 with that of Genesis 2 and 3. What differs in how humans are made, how they relate to God, and how they relate to the rest of creation? Use Alter’s translation and notes to support your reading, and consider why the text might preserve both accounts side by side.

2. Adam is given the power to name the animals, and at Babel a single language is scattered. Who holds the power of naming today, from the categories on a form to the labels assigned to data that trains AI systems? Do modern projects of universal communication, such as machine translation and global platforms, echo the tower of Babel, and should we read that story as a warning, an explanation, or something else?

Submission

Please submit a word processed or PDF document.

Please refer to the Style Guide for code quality examples and guidelines.