Imagine that five years from now, you belong to a fellowship of Christian nurses. Some of its members have shared with the group that some non-Christian nurses have criticized the fellowship. These critics have two objections: (1) the Christian worldview doesn’t have a rational foundation, and even if it did, (2) a nurse’s Christian perspective would not make a significant difference to his or her nursing practice.
Since the members of the fellowship know that you took a “Nursing and Human Flourishing” class that addressed these issues, they have asked you to give a talk to them at the group’s next meeting in which you provide a reasoned reply to these two objections. In the paper you prepare for your talk (which should be at least 1000 words), be sure to provide arguments for the rationality and significance (for nursing practice) of Christian beliefs about a perfect God, human nature, and human dignity. Doing so will require you to draw on resources in the text and class discussions concerning arguments for and against the existence of God, the debate between the dualist and physicalist concerning the mind-body problem, and the debate between the libertarian and compatibilist about the problem of freedom and determinism.
Given the scope of these issues, you will not be able to go into depth in discussing them. You should focus instead on providing a general case for the claim that what Christians believe about God’s existence, human nature, and human dignity is rational and that their having these beliefs can make a significant difference in their practice as nurses.
