Discussion on notes-on-blood-rites-foreword-ch-1

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This semester, essay 2 asks students to research a Congressional bill.
In different semesters, students conduct different kinds of research,
and we briefly discussed in class conducting a poll and analyzing the
resulting data. The following link (http://www.snorko.org/charts)
leads to the results of a class activity conducted a few semesters
ago. Students compared their own answers and those of people they
polled to a poll conducted nationally by Time magazine on people views
of God and politics. If useful for this semester, we can discuss that
poll, how it was conducted, and how the different charts display data.

The following questions were briefly described in class but not the
hypothesis behind their design. As students can imagine, the wording
of poll questions can greatly influence answers. If you like, we can
poll ourselves and a few others then compare our answers to
Ehrenreich’s ideas.

1) Do you think more wars are caused by…
a) political reasons such as land, resources, power, wealth
b) a violent, predatory, or carnivorous instinct amongst humans
c) another cause, such as…

2) Whatever explanation is given above, do you believe that, rightly
or wrongly, at least to some extent, religion influences war, and war
influences religious practice?
a) yes
b) no

3) Sociologists and psychologists could list many aspects of religious
practice, but between these two options, which do you think is more
common? Religious practices are more often conducted by…
a) winners, celebrating or giving thanks for success, or
b) potential losers, seeking hope in their fear

4) Who do you think would have the best explanation for war?
a) a political scientist or historian
b) a sociologist, psychologist, doctor, or criminologist who studies
violent human behavior
c) a general who enlisted as a private and has a variety of war
experiences at different ranks
d) a politician with no military experience but much experience voting
on military spending bills
e) an anti-war, feminist journalist
f) another kind of person, such as…