Our spring semester starts next week, and I have two courses being offered.  The first is one that I teach most years, biomedical ethics; it’s being taught online.  This one is a lot of fun, and the enrollment is strong, so I’m looking forward to it.  The second course is a senior seminar, and I really wondered what to focus on.  All our majors have to take this course, which is only offered once per year.  It’s hard to think of something that would appeal to a broad range of interests, but I picked “New Atheism”; it seems to me this integrates various themes from philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.  In other words, there should be something for everyone.  And, furthermore, I just wanted to read these books–  Harris, Hitchens, Dawkins, and Dennett–which have received so much attention.  It bears emphasis that the course is not a defense of any of these positions, but rather is meant to be an evaluation thereof.  Should be fun!