Divine Influence Research Articles

Conceptualising the Value of Life in Bioethical Discourse: Sanctity vs Quality of Life

The article deals with the problem of the value of life in the context of its understanding in bioethical discourse. Two different approaches are used to discuss the topic. The first approach demonstrates a set of imperatives of human behaviour associated with the dominance of the religious component defining the value of life. It is called the concept of the “sanctity of life” and considers human life as a sacred act of divine influence on the existence of the living. The second approach systematises bioethical views that promote the supreme value of freedom and autonomy in making decisions by each individual, including those related to their life and health. It is called the concept of “quality of life” and represents a set of ideas that suggest toconsciously influence the state of life of the individual if it is possible to improve it or if its further existence loses its rational meaning. Being in opposition to each other, these two main conceptual approaches create a problematic situation that stimulates scientific interdisciplinary research within the framework of bioethical discourse, forming its conceptual and categorical apparatus and expanding the worldview of the researcher and the reflective individual.

The God of Chance and Purpose: Divine Involvement in a Secular Evolutionary World

The God of Chance and Purpose: Divine Involvement in a Secular Evolutionary World

Understanding Words to Change Behaviour

AbstractWhy do people in churches exclude, alienate, and even abuse others? Acknowledging the need for many ways of addressing this question, insights from the study of language have been explored, creating a synthesis from the ways in which ideology and language are related, an adaptation of Judith Butler's exploration of our constitution in language, understandings within the discipline of psycholinguistics, and insights from Wittgenstein's philosophy of language. This synthesis shows how words to and for the divine influence our behaviour to each other and indicates that the traditional words of male hierarchy uphold an ideology that seeks to maintain power structures, with behaviours that exclude, alienate, and even abuse fitting within these structures. The synthesis demonstrates both the need for and possibility of change from the traditionally used words to and for the divine.

The Impact of Christian Leadership on PT. Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa Tbk

Leaders play a vital role in a company. The success or failure of a company is greatly influenced by the leadership style adopted in the Company. This research is field research with a qualitative approach. The method used in this study is the method of interviews and observation or observation. Harmony occurred between the Company and the assisted villages around the cement factory of PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa Tbk. Palimanan unit, which in the previous era of Leadership did not occur within the scope of the CSR program. The changes that have occurred and can be seen are the increasing relations with the assisted villages within the assisted area of P.T. Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa. Tbk Palimanan unit, and the maximum reactivation of UPS (Waste Management Unit) BUMDes (Village Owned Enterprises) West Palimanan. Combining the Democratic Leadership Style and Christian Leadership is applied to solve existing problems. Success in the era of Christian Leadership in PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa Tbk. is inseparable from divine Influence, namely the factor of God's intervention in an individual's life. God's intervention aims to shape the individual into a leader with full capacity by using self, other people, special events, and the individual leader's response to what she is experiencing.

Revives My Soul Again

The work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. remains deeply influential in justice discourse. In this paper, the author employs classic wisdom of the discernment of spirits to explore whether King’s words can be determined as influenced by the Holy Spirit. While the impact of King’s writing and speeches are not in doubt, the question of divine influence is important to consider as issues of racial and economic justice persist today. Focusing specifically on three of King’s works (“The Letter from Birmingham Jail,” “I Have a Dream,” and “I Have Been to the Mountaintop”), the author argues that these works align with markers of the Holy Spirit at work, and as such, King’s words remain vital to the pursuit of justice today on the social and spiritual levels.

Divine influence: Religious foundations of U.S. foreign policy attitudes

AbstractObjectiveReligion has been shown to affect the U.S. public opinion about foreign policy. Recent studies emphasize attitudes about issues pertaining to the Middle East. They also tend to focus on the perspectives of evangelical Protestants, so we know comparatively little about how being mainline Protestant, Black Protestant, Catholic, or religiously unaffiliated might affect one's foreign policy preferences.MethodsUsing data drawn from the 2009 America's Place in the World General Public Survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, we analyze religion's impact on public attitudes about foreign affairs, comparing evangelical Protestants with four other religious groups.ResultsWe find that the main driver of religion's impact on foreign policy attitudes is nominal religious affiliation (“belonging”), not the frequency of worship attendance (“behaving”). Religiously unaffiliated Americans and Catholics—and to a lesser extent, mainline and Black Protestants—perceive the world as less threatening than do evangelicals. They also prefer multilateral, cooperative solutions to international problems.ConclusionAmericans vary significantly in their international threat perception and support for militant or cooperative internationalism based on their religious affiliation. In addition, evangelical Protestants’ preference for hawkish, unilateral foreign policy extends beyond the context of the Middle East.

Paramedics feelings and beliefs about COVID-19

IntroductionThe year 2020 was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Health services were overwhelmed by the demands for care. Paramedics were both the main actors in the fight and the victims of this pandemic.ObjectivesThe objective of our work was to assess paramedics’ feelings and beliefs about COVID-19.MethodsDescriptive and cross-sectional study including paramedics (nurses, orderlies) from the military hospital of Tunis. Data collection was carried out by a clinical psychologist. we studied paramedics’ feelings and beliefs about COVID-19.ResultsA total of 161 paramedics agreed to answer our questionnaire. The average age was 37.73 years. The average number of years worked was 14.95 years. There were 85 women (52.8%) and 76 men (47.2%). The feelings about COVID-19 were anxiety in 127 (78.9%) paramedics and indifference in 34 (21.1%). The factors that could influence the spread of the pandemic were divine influence (25.5%), the organized fight against viruses (70.2%), our genetics (9.9%), mutations of the virus (6.8%), the BCG vaccine (21.7%), the Tunisian climate (5.6%), our food (13%).ConclusionsThe beliefs and feelings of paramedics regarding COVID-19 are many and varied. These factors must be taken into consideration because they influence the involvement of paramedics in the fight against the virus and their compliance with health and safety rules.

Works, Days, and Divine Influence in Hesiod’s Story World

Throughout the Works and Days (WD), Hesiod reaffirms and promotes his audience’s belief in the reality of the supernatural — that is, the gods of Olympus, whose power the poet clearly takes seriously, given the somber warnings that populate the final calendrical portion of the piece. Drawing on S.I. Johnston’s recent The Story of Myth, as well as the work of folklorists K. Hänninen and G. Bennett, I outline the techniques Hesiod employs to render believable the influence of the divine in both the distant past and the contemporary period. Hesiod constructs a story world familiar to his audience in order to bolster the credibility of the supernatural events, both mythical and contemporary, that he reports. When speaking of the gods’ influence in his own time, Hesiod remains firm on the fact of the gods’ continued intervention only in concrete, mundane phenomena experienced by each of his audience members. Otherwise, the poet tends toward vague language, leaving his audience to come to their own conclusion about the influence of the divine. To encourage a positive conclusion, Hesiod creates an analogy between abstract concepts, such as Strife, and the anthropomorphic gods of myth. Using these strategies, Hesiod imbues WD with belief in divine influence in the world, past and present.

The creative process explored: artists’ views and reflections

The creative process continues to occupy the minds of countless philosophers, psychologists and academics. While it is relevant to a range of fields of practice, artists who enact the creative process have attracted attention as far back as the early Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato. Since that time there have been numerous theories as to the stages involved in the creative process, with recent research arguing that to date, there is still no consensus as to how to best understand or develop a model relevant to artists. In order to contribute to the discourse, this paper focuses on 339 artists from a range of disciplines and countries who voluntarily completed a survey inviting them to consider various aspects of their creative process. The findings reveal that it is complex in nature, and that it involves a range of factors, both internal and external. While internal factors such as inspiration, experimentation and sustained effort feature strongly, external factors such as the work of peers and audiences have a significant role to play. For some artists, there is also recognition of a divine influence on their process. While this research reveals a range of insights into the creative process as applied to artists, it also highlights the potential for numerous areas of inquiry in order to further understand this complex area of practice.

How do fatalistic beliefs affect the attitudes and pedestrian behaviours of road users in different countries? A cross-cultural study

This paper reports on an exploratory investigation of the influence of five different fatalistic belief constructs (divine control, luck, helplessness, internality, and general fatalism) on three classes of self-reported pedestrian behaviours (memory and attention errors, rule violations, and aggressive behaviours) and on respondents’ general attitudes to road safety, and how relationships between constructs differ across countries. A survey of over 3400 respondents across Bangladesh, China, Kenya, Thailand, the UK, and Vietnam revealed a similar pattern for most of the relationships assessed, in most countries; those who reported higher fatalistic beliefs or more external attributions of causality also reported performing riskier pedestrian behaviours and holding more dangerous attitudes to road safety. The strengths of relationships between constructs did, however, differ by country, behaviour type, and aspect of fatalism. One particularly notable country difference was that in Bangladesh and, to a lesser extent, in Kenya, a stronger belief in divine influence over one’s life was associated with safer attitudes and behaviours, whereas where significant relationships existed in the other countries the opposite was true. In some cases, the effect of fatalistic beliefs on self-reported behaviours was mediated through attitudes, in other cases the effect was direct. Results are discussed in terms of the need to consider the effect of locus of control and attributions of causality on attitudes and behaviours, and the need to understand the differences between countries therein.

Examining the roles of multidimensional fatalism on traffic safety attitudes and pedestrian behaviour

This paper examines the roles of fatalistic beliefs on attitudes towards traffic safety and pedestrian behaviour using the data from a questionnaire survey with a sample of 835 road users in Vietnam. A multidimensional fatalism scale was used to measure distinct facets of fatalistic beliefs. The data showed that fatalism could be represented by four factors including divine control (a belief in divine influence over one’s life), luck, internality (or locus of control), and general fatalism. Results from a structural equation model indicated that several of these fatalistic belief facets, namely internality, divine control, and luck significantly associated with traffic safety attitudes above demographic variables. In addition, internality was found to be significantly related to pedestrian behaviour after controlling for demographic variables and attitudes towards traffic safety. The findings are discussed with respect to practical implications for traffic safety interventions.

Notes about Czerniawski

The article constitutes a collection of notes related to the lesser known and rarely commented works by an émigré writer – Adam Czerniawski: his poems translated into English, short texts of literary criticism, short novels and his memoirs. Modern Polish prose is still frequently treated as a ciphertext, of interest only to a limited number of readers who revel in this labyrinth of thoughts. It may seem that at the end of the 20th century – a period so involved in the debate about the traditional understanding of literature – avant-garde variants of prose should be understandable for everyone or, at least, that literary criticism would assign them to the appropriate level in the hierarchy of modern forms. However, the situation turned out to be different. The prose model imposed by Positivism still remains predominant in the habits and tastes of both literary critics and readers, and only recently has this model been questioned. As a result, the short novels by Czerniawski have not yet been sufficiently analysed. Reminiscent of Gombrowicz, these texts can be seen as absolute stories. The feature of absoluteness is visible at all their levels: origin, narration, reading. Everything is possible, yet nothing is accidental or random. However, limiting these narratives to only avant-garde rules would, without a doubt, distort their sense. Czerniawski’s prose also uses the infinite potential of the grotesque, plays with its own language, thus making it into an undoubtedly philosophical Ding an sich. The prose was also written in order to face traditional sanctities such as, for instance, the incorrigible “Polishness” that glorifies old symbols and sees a divine influence in them. Finally, Czerniawski’s prose is based on the “common sense” that can be found in numerous amusing contexts of the surrounding world.

Chardin’s Divine Milieu as Touchstone

AbstractChardin wrote The Divine Milieu in 1927 (published in 1957). Waugh could not have known Chardin’s essay before the publication of Brideshead Revisited, but he demonstrates similar ideas concerning one’s spiritual development. A primary goal of both writers was to reconcile the apparent duality of matter and spirit. They argue for the necessity of individual freedom in one’s spiritual search, the value of creative work of all kinds in building spiritual insight, and the importance of perceiving divine influence at the center of all things.

Secular Humanism and Islamic Humanism – Is there a Common Ground?

<p><em>In the modern and post-modern world, we have loosely used the term humanism to describe many subjects and the use has been too broad for its specificity and objectivity to be precisely comprehended. In fact, at many points, it has lost positivity in light of discussion within the current century. The term humanism or humanist came from the 15th-century Italian academic world to describe the process of teaching and learning of art and literature between teachers and students. It is very interesting to find out that both the ancient Greeks-Romans and the early modern European use of the concept of humanism was very much in order to detach from the rising of scientific and empirical processes, as well as the rise of modern knowledge. Either way, the point attempted to be broken here is the fact that the early history and use of the concept of modernism had completely nothing to do with the detachment of religion or a divine influence from human life and choice. Humanism in both ancient Roman and middle-age European had little or no correlation with trying to steer clear neither from any religious influence nor from trying to be modernized with new knowledge from the scientific world. Humanity and humanism in Islam shall be limited to the recognition of human rights, effort, kindness, generosity, being productive and giving benefits to others in the society, instead of having the limitless and boundless definition, which has become meaningless.</em></p><p><em>Keywords: Secular humanism, Islamic humanism, ideology.</em></p>

The Self and the Structure of the Personality: An Overview of Sri Aurobindo’s Topography of Consciousness

Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga aimed not only at what he called the realization of the Divine, but also at an integral transformation of human nature under Divine influence. For this exceptionally wide aim, he developed an exceptionally deep and comprehensive frame for understanding human nature. His concepts, as discussed in this paper, must be understood on their own terms, which are often different from meanings attributed in the conventional language of Western psychology. This paper provides a detailed account of Sri Aurobindo’s conceptualization of the various centers of identity and of the vertical and concentric dimensions he used to describe the structure of the personality. It explains the importance Sri Aurobindo gave to the location where one places one’s consciousness, and indicates why he argued that consciousness is not only awareness, but also force. Finally, this paper describes how Sri Aurobindo visualized the still ongoing evolution of consciousness and humanity’s role in it.

Evolutionary thinking among biology students in a third world country

BackgroundEvolutionary thinking is traditionally directly related to education and inversely to religiosity. Accordingly, biology students are naturally expected to be more prone to naturalist evolution due to their close contact with this theory and high scientific literacy. To test this, we performed a cross-national study surveying biology students’ evolutionary opinions in Brazil, contrasting the proportions of creationism (Cr), divinely guided evolution (DGE) and naturalist evolution (NaE).ResultsWe found that NaE comprised 44.4%, DGE 43.3%, and Cr 12.3% of students’ opinions. NaE was higher among postgraduate than undergraduate students. There were marked geographic differences, with NaE peaking in the most socioeconomically developed regions and Cr in the less. Opinions related to divine influence as a whole (Cr + DGE) became more likely as the score of students’ institutions decreased (i.e. institutions with lower-quality standards).ConclusionsMost biology students paradoxically do not have NaE as an explanation (55.6%), a high proportion given their presumed contact with the theory. We demonstrate that socioeconomic and institution quality factors are apparently important in determining the evolutionary thinking patterns. NaE paucity among biology students may also be influenced by low scientific literacy and the extreme religiosity of the population, which incorporates divine influence in students’ opinions long before they have any contact with evolutionary theory.

Individual Influence

George Moses Horton (1797?-1883?) is one of three African Americans known to have published poetry while enslaved in colonial north America or the United States. The recently discovered holograph manuscript of “Individual Influence” is the only available evidence that Horton also wrote short essays. Written in 1855 or 1856 and published here for the first time, “Individual Influence” provides a new perspective on Horton's writing process, his strategic affiliations in Chapel Hill, and his changing ideas about the relative efficacy of political and divine influence. More generally, the essay expands the available archive of writing by enslaved African Americans.

Health locus of control, spirituality and hope for healing in individuals with intestinal stoma

ObjectiveTo assess the health locus of control, spirituality and hope of cure in patients with intestinal stoma. MethodsThis study was conducted at the Polo of Ostomized People in the city of Pouso Alegre, Minas Gerais. Participants were 52 patients with intestinal stoma. Three questionnaires were applied for data collection: a questionnaire on demographic and stoma-related data; the Scale for Health Locus of Control; the Herth Hope Scale, and the Self-rating Scale for Spirituality. ResultsMost ostomized subjects were women aged over 61 years, married and retired. As to the stoma, in the majority of cases these operations were definitive and were carried out due to a diagnosis of neoplasia. Most ostomized subjects had a 20- to 40-mm diameter colostomy, 27 showed dermatitis as a complication, and 39 (75%) used a two-part device. The mean total score for the Scale for Health Locus of Control, the Herth Hope Scale, and the Self-rating Scale for Spirituality were 62.42, 38.27, and 23.67, respectively. Regarding the dimensions of the Scale for Health Locus of Control, the dimension “completeness of health”=22.48, dimension “externality-powerful others”=22.48, and dimension “health externality”=19.48. ConclusionOstomized patients participating in the study believe they can control their health and that caregivers and individuals involved in their rehabilitation can contribute to their improvement. The cure or improvement has a divine influence through religious practices or beliefs.

An Uncommon Threat: Shipworms as a Novel Disaster

The sudden arrival of shipworms (Teredo navalis) along Dutch coasts in the 1730s posed significant challenges for water management. Although this invasive mollusc would eventually catalyse a dramatic transformation of coastal dike infrastructure, those changes only developed in the context of years of experimentation, wide ranging popular participation and increasing public anxiety. The perceived novelty of the shipworm episode was crucial to the Dutch interpretation of this disaster. This was the first sustained, explosive appearance of marine boring molluscs in Dutch waters. The novelty of the shipworm threat revealed the limitations of adaptive decision-making based in prior experience or cultural memory. At the same time, the novelty of the biological organism offered unique possibilities for natural historians and laypeople to participate in adaptive dialogues. Finally, moralists used the exceptionality of the threat as proof of divine influence. Ultimate technological ‘solutions’ to the shipworm threat developed out of this expanded adaptive discourse.

Against Miracles as Law-Violations: A Neo-Aristotelian Approach

Miracles are commonly understood in the way David Hume defined them: as violations of the laws of nature. I argue, however, that the conjunction of Hume’s definition with a neo-Humean view of the laws of nature yields objectionable consequences. In particular, the two jointly imply that some miracles are logically impossible. A better way of thinking about miracles, I suggest, is on a neo-Aristotelian metaphysics. On that view, the laws of nature contain built-in ceteris paribus clauses that allow for the possibility of external influences in the natural world. Miracles, understood as instances of external, divine influence, would therefore neither violate the laws of nature nor be instances of those laws. In this respect, neo-Aristotelians have an advantage over neo-Humeans in providing a coherent account of miracles.