Picking Apart Piazza: A Culture & Belief 23 Case Study

You heard it in kindergarten, in high school, and even here at college: there’s no such thing as a dumb question.

But if you don’t buy that and still shy from voicing your every query in public, fear no more. The spread of online learning platform Piazza to the Harvard College classroom has brought with it the chance for students to anonymously share their concerns and confusion with entire lecture halls via the online interface. So if you have a genuine question, or you just want to know if other people are as puzzled as you are about your prof's comb over, Piazza can help.

We took a look at Culture and Belief 23 (commonly known as “the Hebrew Bible”), a class that Piazza has taken by storm this semester. Piazza questions posed to the class’s students, teaching fellows, and professor range from philosophical, to practical, to just plain bizarre. In fact, some are so strange that we can’t help but wonder whether they’re sincere. We’ve put together a mix of real and fake CB23 Piazza posts below so you can start wondering too.

1.Crusades
What Bible chapter has the Crusades?

2. Paul
Who is Paul and why is he an important figure?

3. Moses
Was Moses a saint?

4. Jesus
What’s his deal?

5. Protestant vs. Catholic?
What’s the difference?

6. Israel and Jews
What is the distinction between Israel and Jews?

7. Exogesis [sic]
What does this mean? [sic]

8. Abandonment
Why did God stop talking to the Jews?

9. God
Does He exist?

Answer Key: 1=real, 2=real, 3=fake, 4=fake, 5=real, 6=real, 7=real, 8=fake, 9=fake