Understanding Of Religious Belief Research Articles

Development of Religious-Based Natural And Social Science (IPAS) Teaching Materials

The natural and social sciences subjects which are currently called IPAS are a form of creative new curriculum in the independent curriculum, where this curriculum studies natural and social sciences which are designed into one book. Religion-based learning is learning that is integrated with religious values which aims to help students understand and apply religious aspects in their lives, as well as to deepen their understanding of religious beliefs and values. The research method used in developing natural and social science learning materials based on religion for class 4 is the Research and Development (R&D) method. The Research and Development (R&D) method is a research method used to produce certain products, to test the effectiveness of these products. This research uses the ASSURE development model which consists of Analyze learners, State Objectives, Select Strategies, methods, materials, Utilize Technology and Media, Require Learner Participation, Evaluate and Revise. The results of the module specification research show that the Islamic-based thematic module takes the form of print media. Second, namely validation, effectiveness and attractiveness. Based on design expert validation 79%, material expert validation 75%, learning expert validation 80%, based on field tests students in finding attractiveness obtained 88% results, based on the average pre-test and post-test results, namely 61.45 and 91.79 which can provide an assessment of the effectiveness of the module. Based on the results, the module created by the researcher is effective, valid and interesting.

Religious delusion or religious belief?

ABSTRACT How shall we distinguish religious delusion from sane religious belief? Making this determination is not usually found to be difficult in clinical practice – but what shall be our theoretical rationale? Attempts to answer this question often try to provide differentiating principles by which the religious “sheep” may be separated from the delusional “goats.” As we shall see, none of these attempts work. We may, however, ask whether the assumption underlying the search for a differentiating principle – that religious beliefs and religious delusions can usefully be considered species of a common genus – is a good one. In this paper, we outline an alternative, “disjunctive,” understanding of religious belief and religious delusion. By reminding ourselves both of what is central to any delusion and of what distinguishes bona fide religious claims from their pretenders, we show how to resolve our reflective puzzlement about religious delusion without recourse to differentiating principles.

ECLIPSES, MYTHOLOGY, AND ISLAM

Comparative religion is a field of study through which views of various religions about a particular topic or sets of topics can be collated, interpreted, and systematically compared for attaining useful insights and broadening the understanding of religious beliefs, behaviors, and actions [i]. The current research furthers the study of comparative religion by elaborating the conceptions or myths related to eclipses as found in various religions and cultures in the world. Written as a narrative literature review, it aims to collate these conceptions and opinions for comparative analysis. In this paper, we have studied the ‘myths’ and ‘mythology’ of the religions and cultures spread across Australia, Asia, the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. It is found that some common themes exist in the beliefs held by various people and religions. However, if we compare these themes with each other, they are found to be considerably different indicating that they have not come from a common source; people have been creating them at various points in history. However, very different to them is the Islamic perspective on the topic. It profoundly differs from the conceptions held in other religions. It does not say that the eclipses are caused by some giant creature eating up the sun, or because of the sun being imprisoned, or because of a fight between some ‘gods’, and so on. It rather explains them as a phenomenon of nature that invites reflection and pondering. This raises a very important question to ponder upon: Why did Islam not adopt any myths to explain the concept of eclipse unlike any other religion even though it could use them for its benefit? This paper answers it by explaining the nature and objective of the Prophet of Islam and the source of his knowledge which was that very Creator who created the sun and the moon and everything else. Another important point that the current research highlights is that there is an inseparable connection between the fields of history, science, religion, politics, culture, and psychology; none of them can be separated from each other if one wishes to obtain a holistic understanding of this topic as well as many other matters of the past, present, and future.

Reading Wittgenstein (on Belief) with Tillich (on Doubt)

AbstractIn this paper, I explore the possibility of reading Wittgenstein’s understanding of religious belief with Tillich’s concept of existential/religious doubt, especially as developed in his

Spirituality, Religion and Psychopathology: Towards an integrative psychiatry

The concepts of person-centred medicine and of psychiatry for the person offer, perhaps more than any other current biopsychosocial concept, the opportunity to develop a truly integrated approach to the psychiatric patient as a person suffering from mental turmoil. Within this approach to patients as people it is often necessary to give thorough attention to the patient’s spirituality, religious beliefs or worldview. Person centred psychiatry offers a well grounded reason for incorporating spirituality and religion into psychiatric assessment, diagnosis, case-formulation, therapy, and as a component of psychiatric training and continuous professional development. In this paper we consider the need for increased understanding of the nature of religious belief and of the variety of spiritual practice if a truly person centered psychiatry is to be practiced. Psychiatry sits on a three-legged stool of science, art and ethics [1]. Its provenance therefore includes understanding the spirit (soul) of patients, their Weltanschauung (View of the World) and the quality and meaning of their personal and professional relationships. The bio-psychosocial model of George Engel was based on general systems theory and yet successfully encouraged doctors to consider the social and psychological aspects of patient care in addition to biological parameters. The model however was considered primarily as a causal scientific framework, which could neglect its full potential to promote a humanistic person centered medicine. A biosocial/psychospiritual relationship based approach to health care provision is perhaps therefore closer to the essence of a Psychiatry of the person [2] as it is within this wider perspective that consideration of religious faith and spiritual practice optimally resides. Paul Tournier, pioneer of ‘medicine of the person’, encouraged crossing the boundaries of science, spirituality and psychology within the specific context of the doctor-patient relationship [3]. This bridging of disciplines is facilitated by new knowledge of the complexity of neuronal circuits, and recognition that religious belief has a partial origin in brain function and yet also determined by metaphysical events and transformational experiences. For Tournier, a Genevan family practitioner, there were no contradictions between his understanding of religious belief, the importance of spiritual practice (meditation), the dynamic of personal growth, and the scientific/biological exploration of illness for the optimal practice of medicine.

The accessibility of religious beliefs

We used reaction time techniques to study individual differences in accessibility of beliefs about the reality of religious targets. Moderately religious people were slower than religious or irreligious people. Religious people were faster than non-religious people. Reaction times to classify religious stimuli are stable over 8 days. We also found that religious people with accessible beliefs have the highest well-being, and that religious beliefs correspond to greater levels of religious behavior when the reality of religious stimuli is accessible. These results further our understanding on natural individual differences in attitude accessibility and add to our understanding of religious beliefs, including their impact.

Religious Education, Religious Literacy and Common Schooling: a Philosophy and History of Skewed Reflection

In recent times, questions of religious education—about the place and significance of knowledge and understanding of religious belief and practice in the general educational development of children and young people—seem to have been largely overshadowed or overtaken by controversies concerning the relative merits and shortcomings of common and faith schools. However, in as much as such controversies have also turned upon questions of the relative merits of so-called confessional and non-confessional conceptions of religious education, they have mostly served to obscure the inadequacies of both these approaches to religious education. The present paper maintains that the real question of religious education—as a key element in the educational formation of all children—is that of how the great religious narratives of diverse cultural inheritance might be meaningfully understood and taught in a broadly liberal educational spirit. To this end, it is argued that a form of religious literacy—avoiding the errors of both confessional and non-confessional approaches—can and should be promoted in common schools as not just compatible with but indispensable to liberal education.

Collective Worship: A Window into Contemporary Understandings of the Nature of Religious Belief?

This article gives an account of a recent qualitative research project which investigated the understanding of religious belief which underlies the current practice of collective worship in a sample of state schools in a large town in Southern England (Cheetham 1999). It describes four powerful themes which pervaded collective worship in the schools and argues from these that religious belief was effectively being understood as an ‘individually chosen, private, practical guide to living’. It is further argued that this understanding of religious belief falls almost entirely within a liberal, rationalist framework which is proving increasingly inadequate for a society which is more and more plural and postmodern in character.

Religious extremism: Origins and consequences

Economic perspectives enhance our understanding of religious beliefs, activities, and institutions. This essay outlines an economic theory of supernaturalism that accounts for the failure of secularization theories, the contrasting character of religion and magic, and the continued vitality of extremely demanding religious groups. Drawing upon insights that date back to Adam Smith, the theory also explains why extremism and state support often combine to produce religious militancy.

Preparing to Counsel Clients of Different Religious Backgrounds: A Phenomenological Approach

With a clientele reflecting the profound demographic changes taking place in the United States, counselors in the 1990s need to acquire a practical understanding of religious beliefs that may be new and different to them. In their religious research and study, counselors must avoid the pitfalls of bias and stereotyping. The phenomenological method is proposed as a means of studying religion with minimum distortion from personal prejudices and presuppositions.

Pascal on Belief and the Religious Life

At the end of his celebrated wager argument, Pascal advises the sceptic to whom it is addressed to take up a religious way of life in hope of thereby cultivating religious beliefs he does not presently hold, and this because of the immense advantage to him of believing. Many who have shown some sympathy with the wager argument or the understanding of religious belief on which it is based have found this advice, if not silly and dangerous, at least uninstructive. William James, for example, whose philosophy of religion has striking similarities to Pascal's, objected that the advice is unsound because the sceptic has no reason to believe that religious practice will have its promised result. The tone of James's discussion and the fact that he misrepresents Pascal's advice as a simple belief in the efficacy of ‘masses and holy water’, however, suggest that his rejection of it ran deeper than the force of this objection. In fact, the context of his remarks indicates that he regarded this part of Pascal's wager as a particularly clear example of the cases in which to base belief on volition is ‘simply silly’. Even one as sympathetic to Pascal's thought as Donald Baillie seems troubled by the advice. On the one hand, Baillie does not rule out the possibility that some cases of doubt or disbelief may be adequately treated by a measured dose of religious practice.