Overview: In lecture I introduced key social scientific theories of religion and discussed their relevance to the comparative study of death. While early social scientific theories of religion were wrong about the disappearance of religion in an age of science and enlightenment, their contention that humans project themselves physically, socially, and psychologically onto the unknown has more effectively stood the test of time. This observation, however, is not unique to the social sciences but played a key theological role in a variety of religious traditions much older than science itself. This activity permits students to put the idea that we might construct the unknown in our own image to a test using contemporary images of gods, death, ghosts, deceased, etc.

• Each student is responsible for finding a contemporary image of gods, death, ghosts, or the dead and bringing it to the team meeting. The team meetings need to occur prior to class on Monday, June 25.
• At the meeting the team members should discuss whether or not the makers of these images appear to be projecting themselves, reversed, partial, or idealized images of themselves onto the unknown.
• Students should bring one or more selected images to class on Monday, June 25. Each student will get an opportunity to share the image with the class as a whole.