Listening to young nonbelievers and Catholics. Italian focus group on spirituality and faith in God

Faith in God also enables individuals to make sense of their lives in the midst of chaos and to find meaning and purpose in life�s challenges, a sense of peace and security, especially during difficult times, It can provide hope for a brighter future and a sense of assurance that no matter what life throws our way, God is always with us, knowing that God will never leave them and that He has a plan for their lives. The debate on creation versus evolution is an ongoing, heated debate that has been going on for many years. The debate is between those who believe that God created the universe and those who believe that evolution is the process by which the universe was created. Creationists believe that the Bible is literal and that God created the world in six days. Evolutionists believe that the universe developed over billions of years through natural processes. The debate is ongoing because there is no clear answer to the question of how the universe was created. The evidence for both sides is inconclusive, with no one side able to definitively prove their point of view. The issue of faith and unbelief in God in 21st century society is a complex one. It is important to remember that everyone has the right to make their own decisions when it comes to their beliefs and that there is no one right answer, the important thing is to respect the beliefs of others, no matter what they may be. Alternative sources of spiritual guidance, such as meditation, mindfulness and yoga can take the place of a higher, omniscient and omnipresent Being to whom are attributed all the positive traits that he imprints on people in the form of moral and ethical values, without denying the positive aspects that they have on the human mind and on physical well-being? Therewith, the internet has provided access to a variety of religious perspectives, so more people are exposed to different beliefs and the idea of religious diversity. There is also a growing sense of skepticism about faith among many people. With the rise of science and the prevalence of �fake news�, people are increasingly questioning the validity of religious claims. In the last 10 years, with the emergence of several types of manifestations, several surveys have been conducted in many countries of the world regarding belief in God, the weight of religion in everyday life and people's attitude toward faith. The results were surprising because it could be observed that more and more people perceive the relation to faith and to the Divinity in a completely different way than in the previous centuries. Given the above, it is necessary to try to find answers to some questions that may give us a better understanding of the human-Divinity relationship in the society of the 21st century. Does today's society still believe in God and the moral laws promoted by the church? When and why did people begin to give up belief in God? Why is there a growing sense of skepticism about faith? Are people now more likely to question the traditional beliefs? Do people belive in God in 21st century society or this is the century of unbelif and theism? 21st century society - a society of faith in God, a society of unbelif or a society of atheism? Faith in God remains a powerful force in the world today?

The human personality relationship with a belief in God is a bifurcated one. On the one hand we find most people who rely on their faith in God as a truth and not as assumption, and on the other hand there are those who rely only on what they consider tangible reality without any belief in a supernatural existence of God whatsoever. Of course there are many in-between shades of faith and/or belief in God, but for all intents and purposes we will consider these two.KeywordsHuman PersonalityTransitional ObjectTangible RealityObsessional NeurosisObject ForceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

The article presents results of the study of the ‘sub-sense’ concept in the logotherapy of grief and torment of conscience. To overcome the frustration of the grief of loss (death) and torment of conscience caused by the irretrievably lost opportunity to manifest sincere love for the deceased, the subject can accept the ‘sub-sense’ – faith in God, which gives hope of the existence of the possibility of meeting the dear deceased ‘there’. This applies to both agnostics and atheists. Faith itself protects sincere believers from such frustration. If an agnostic, overwhelmed by such frustration, mistrusts priests, then a psychotherapist can and must draw him to the Super-Meaning, just like an atheist. He should offer such a person rationally balanced arguments regarding the quite possible existence of the Supernatural World, whose personified subjects (God, angels, saints) ‘patronize’ our earthly world from the positions of love for it and care for it, which gives a high meaning to the existence of humanity and of every person, and thus gives optimistic hope for a happy end to earthly suffering, including a meeting ‘there’ with the dead. These arguments are based on those facts, the latest scientific discoveries, which testify in favour of the possibility of the existence of such a supernatural world. The frustration of the grief of loss and torment of conscience are conducive to the subject’s acceptance of such arguments because they correspond to his urgent need to relieve his oppressive burden. Frustration of torment of conscience, similar to frustration of grief of loss, is due to irreversible loss – there is no hope of nullifying the evil for which the subject is tormented by his conscience, because it was committed in the past, and the past cannot be returned or changed. However, sincere remorse, which is the main content and meaning of these torments, psychologically separates the subject from their cause – the evil he committed – through his authentic personal identification with high spiritual and moral values (goodness) in the process of correlating them with the evil caused, which at the same time is the development of his morality. Reborn in this way, the subject’s soul seeks to effectively atone for the evil he committed – to create the good. Therefore, a psychotherapist should help a person who is tormented by conscience to choose not self-punishment by self-destruction, but sincere atonement for the evil he caused by charity, first and foremost, directly or indirectly, in relation to those persons who suffered from this evil. The key event in the psychological dynamics of such a choice is the repulsion of altruistic love and care, and thus, the filling of the subject’s soul with the bright energy of affection with the power of responsibility, care, and sacrifice. If this happens at the same time as a sincere agreement with a rational argumentation of the possibility of the existence of the Transcendent, in which meetings with deceased dear people are possible, the frustration of the grief of loss and torment of conscience are significantly weakened. That is, the motivational-dynamic complex of faith-hope-love, based on an authentically personal acceptance of ‘sub-sense’, causes a tangible and permanent psychotherapeutic effect here and now. Belief in ‘sub-sense’ is extremely valuable in terms of psycho-hygiene, psycho-correction, psychotherapy, because it sets up optimistic hope and true love that heals the human psyche. And this is a guarantee of the effectiveness of its application in logotherapy of all manifestations of ‘existential despair’. Faith in God acquires enormous spiritual power if its subject has experienced the grace of conversion, the superpowerful peak of which is religious ecstasy. Unfortunately, it is impossible to acquire such a grace by mental and wilful efforts. But even the so-called rational, ‘only by reason’ belief in God can be a reliable basis for subjective self-defence against the frustrations of hopelessness, hopelessness, grief at losses, torment of conscience, etc.

TREND IN THE BELIEF IN GOD AMONG OUR SCHOLARS AND IN OUR SCHOOLS Fr . F elix M. K irsch, O. F. M. Ca p. Some twenty years ago Chesterton uttered the prophetic statement which we see fulfilled today: The agelong struggle of the Church against heresy in the technical sense of the word is over. She has won through. Christ has always fulfilled His promise. The gates of hell shall not prevail against that Church, founded on the rock of Peter. But another great struggle is approaching. I may not live to see it. Hell’s next attack will be on that doctrine on which all religion and all morality are based — the existence of a personal, infinite, and eternal God. That attack will be accompanied by a mighty effort to sweep away the standards of Christian purity. We have evidence on all sides of the attack made directly on God and on purity as well. We must concede that hell has gained great victories so much so that a modern writer declares: "The most important event of our times is the death of God.” This writer believes that hell has triumphed by taking the belief in God out of the hearts of men. Whereas in a former age only the fool said in his heart there is no God, atheism is now taught widely in our schools. For the past forty years our most prominent educational leaders have been formulating and propagating such doctrines as must inevitably under­ mine American institutions and prepare the advent in the United States of atheistic totalitarianism. The why is not far to seek. America was founded on faith in God. The American founding fathers were men who possessed a great faith in God and in His inspired Word. In 1893 the United States Supreme Court de­ clared: "This is a Christian nation.” When Daniel Webster pleaded a famous case before our highest tribunal, the Supreme Court went on record as affirming that "Christianity is the common law of the land.” Our whole system of jurisprudence is based on the Ten Commandments. We observe the first day of the week as a day of rest and prayer. A day of thanksgiving to God each year is a national festival. Even our coins tell us: "In God we trust.” Alexis de Tocqueville interpreted the spirit of America aright when he wrote after his visit to the United States in 1831: I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there. In the fertile fields and boundless forests, and it was not there. In her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good; and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. We all recognize that American democracy is essentially based on the idea of inalienable personal rights stemming from God the Creator. How­ ever, for the past forty years our more prominent educators have labored to deny the fact of God’s existence and of a consequent antecedent and tran­ scendent righteousness which individuals and social groups must observe. 397 398 FRANCISCAN STUDIES The naturalism preached and practised by these educators is atheism in evening dress. Under the influence of idealistic and materialistic monism, these teachers passed to such a conception of a reality that they denied the possibility of any abiding element in heaven or in the universe or in man. Dewey regards culture and social efficiency as synonymous, and affirms that "there is nothing to which growth is relative save more growth.” He also insists that growth can only be attained by an education which develops "the flexible attitude which seeks to outgrow existing social conditions.” Hence there should remain no traditional ought or ought not: "Not even the aim of democracy in education and in society is permitted to lay an obligation or claim on human life.” Kilpatrick, the popularizer of Dewey’s doctrines, also sets the student...

A growing volume of research suggests that religion protects against late-life suicide, but it remains unclear whether effects are relevant to clinical samples, which facets of religion are most relevant, and variations over the course of mood disorders (e.g. during periods of euthymia, depression, and/or heightened suicidality). Eighty adults aged 55-85 years with mood disorders completed assessments of religion (affiliation, service attendance, importance of religion, belief and faith in God), depression, and suicidality over time (M = 7.31 measurements over M = 727 days). We computed metrics to identify mean and maximum levels of depression and suicidality, and the number of episodes of significant depression and suicidality experienced by each participant. Religious affiliation and importance of religion, but not service attendance, belief, or faith in God, were associated with lower mean and maximum depression. Conversely, all facets of religion predicted significantly lower mean and maximum levels of suicidality (rs ranging from -0.24 to -0.39), and substantially less likelihood of experiencing significant suicidality during the study (ORs ranging from 0.19 to 0.33). Service attendance, belief, and faith in God predicted less suicidality even among individuals who did not affiliate with a religious group. Religious factors, particularly faith in God, are associated with substantially less suicidality over time among older adults with mood disorders, irrespective of religious affiliation.

Background: Mammography is one of the best methods to screen breast cancer. Because mammography screening is not entirely under the control of the person, the study of perceived behavioral control (PBC) is valuable in this regard. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate PBC in mammography in women in Khorramabad, Lorestan province, Iran (550 kilometers north of Persian Gulf). Methods: In this qualitative study conducted using semi-structured and in-depth interviews, 22 women, a gynecologist, and a general surgeon were interviewed purposively. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed, using the directed qualitative content analysis. The MAXQDA10 software was used to analyze the data. Results: Two categories, namely facilitators and barriers to mammography screening and 5 subcategories, namely individual facilitators, social facilitators, psychosocial barriers, barriers related to mammography technique, and structural barriers were drawn from the data. Individual facilitators included having faith and heart belief in God (Faith in God was a comfort for the participants and the acceptance of God's favor), family support, and follow-up; the only social facilitator drawn was respecting the rights of the referring people; psychosocial barriers were embarrassment, fear of breast cancer diagnosis, and belief in fate; the barriers related to mammography technique were radiation and painful mammography and lack of insurance; and high costs and long wait in public mammography centers were drawn as structural barriers. Conclusions: The results of this study provided useful information about the experiences regarding mammography. Psychological barriers may be reduced by changing women's knowledge and attitudes toward mammography, as well as by changing the national health system infrastructure. It is also recommended to strengthen cultural and religious beliefs along with holding training programs regarding mammography performing.

The subject of this chapter is belief in God. In its religiously important sense belief in God, in contrast to creedal belief, is not itself propositional (even though it implies certain propositional beliefs). It is seen how many religious thinkers have emphasized the difference between a bare belief that God exists and belief in God. Belief in God in its religiously important sense is an affective belief, the core of which is trust in God. As such it creates a God-relationship for believers that is defined by trust in God. In its affective sense “belief in God,” it is observed, is synonymous with “faith in God.” The chapter includes a discussion of Martin Buber’s distinction between two types of faith, pistis and emunah.

Grundtvigs udfordring til moderne theologi

The Role of Affect in Theology and Public Life: A Review of Joshua Hordern's <i>Political Affections: Civic Participation and Moral Theology</i>

A test of faith in God and treatment: The relationship of belief in God to psychiatric treatment outcomes

Social, cultural, and economic environments are associated with high rates of disease incidence and mortality in poor Appalachian regions of the United States. Although many historical studies suggest that aspects of Appalachian culture (e.g., fatalism, patriarchy) include values and beliefs that may put Appalachians at risk for poor health, other cultural aspects may be protective (e.g., strong social ties). Few recent studies have explored regional cultural issues qualitatively. The purpose of this study was to examine social and cultural factors that may be associated with health and illness in an Appalachian region.Ten focus groups were conducted in southern West Virginia and included five groups of men and five groups of women. Cultural norms associated with residents of rural Appalachia, such as faith, family values, and patriarchy, were examined.Both men and women in the focus groups have a sense of place, strong family ties, and a strong spiritual belief or faith in God. Patriarchy as a cultural value was not a strong factor.There are limits to how qualitative data may be used, but findings from this study help increase understanding of the social and cultural environments of people living in rural Appalachia and how these environments may affect health.

In Henry and Cato Iris Murdoch describes what it might be like for a priest to lose his belief in God - God understood ‘in the traditional sense of that term; and the traditional sense is perhaps the only sense’. In two later novels Murdoch returns to the theme of a priest’s loss of belief in God and, as was the case in Henry and Cato, she makes the priest’s acknowledgement of that loss central to her portrayal of his integrity as a man; in one case she also hints at the almost unbearable grief the priest suffers as he drifts into the darkness of atheism. In The Book and the Brotherhood, however, Murdoch takes a different path: she describes how a priest, who lost his faith in God ‘in the traditional sense’ long before, nonetheless uses ‘Christ’ to help a young woman recover from despair.The young woman, Tamar Hemshaw, takes the advice of another character (who suggests that ‘Abortion is nothing, it’s a method of birth control’) to have her pregnancy terminated. Resolving not to ‘think about babies thrown away with the surgical refuse, dying like fishes snatched out of their water, dying like little fishes on a white slab’, Tamar enters the clinic ‘as one in a dream’ and leaves it ‘all raw anguished tormented consciousness’. Murdoch does not spare the details of Tamar’s self-torture: She saw now, now, when it was so dreadfully absolutely just too late, that she had committed a terrible crime ... against herself, against the helpless fully-formed entirely-present human being whom she had wantonly destroyed. She had condemned herself to a lifetime of bitter remorse and lying.

One hundred Protestant, church-going children were surveyed concerning knowledge about the Bible, faith in God, and belief of God's personal concern. Statistically significant increases were found over five age groups (3–5 yr., 6–8 yr 9–12 yr., 13–15 yr., 16–18 yr.) for the three variables: strong increases for knowledge and moderate increases for faith and belief of God's concern. These and other results are discussed.

The Holy Grail in the phenomenology of religion (and, to a lesser extent, the sociology of religion) is a definition of religion that actually works, but, so far, this seems to have been elusive. Classical definitions of religion—substantive (e.g. Tylor) and functionalist (e.g. Durkheim)—fail, in part because they attempt to be in three places at once, as it were: they attempt to distinguish religion from non-religion; they attempt to capture what religions have in common; and they attempt to grasp the 'heart', or 'core', of religion. Consequently, family resemblance definitions of religion replace certainty and precision for its own sake with a more pragmatic and heuristic approach, embracing doubt and putting forward definitions that give us a better understanding (Verstehen) of religion. In this paper, I summarise some 'new' definitions of religion that take this approach, before proposing and defending another one, defining religion as non-propositional and 'apophatic', thus accepting that doubt is central to religion itself, as well as to the analysis of religion.

The article analyzes the views of the famous Orthodox theologian ChristosYannaras and his understanding of faith in God. The purpose of this work is to identify and analyze the semantic contexts of the concept of belief in God in the theologian's philosophical thought. It was determined that the version of Orthodox personalism of H. Yannaras has a basis in personalistic experience and considers the concept of faith in the context of the relationship between the personalities of God and man. Because of this, the concept of faith acquires dialogical features and undergoes characteristic transformations, which require additional understanding and analysis. The main ways of the emergence of faith in God and how they are distinguished and understood by theologians were considered, their shortcomings and problems that they were designed to solve were determined. It is substantiated why the personal approach to faith in God, according to the theologian's opinion, is considered the most perfect and natural for a person. The concept of personality, what forms it and how it is defined by H. Yannaras was considered. The article draws parallels with the views of other modern Orthodox theologians. It was determined how and in what way, according to the theologian, asceticism is designed to strengthen faith through a personal relationship to the world as God's creation. It is determined what exactly the theologian understands by the relation to the Other and "coming out of oneself" or "ecstasys". Special attention is paid to consideration of ascetic practice as a means of overcoming self-isolation and a way of strengthening faith by establishing a personal relationship with God through contemplation of the logos of the created world.