Religion and Psychology - Science topic

Certainly it is. We must not confuse faith in God with faith in his priests.

Dear Dr. Chinedu Okafor ,

I recommend for you the scale of (Anandarajah and Hight, 2001), and You can go to this link about of moral teachers and moral student:

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar03/vol60/num06/Moral-Teachers,-Moral-Students.aspx

I did not say that there will be no end, however, the end will retroact as a motive for the present. The future, in order to be able to call itself a future, must be able to feed back into the motor for the present; therefore, in a completely theoretical way, what does not have a future cannot even be foreseen.

What will not be predictable is not predictable. Nothing physical we mean chemical or biological, pure principle of causality and knowledge. Only what is possible in the future is foreseeable. Confirm what the religious preached long ago? Evidently continuing to preach the end has not done so badly to the "development" of humanity. "Development" let us not be "progress". Fighting or dancing against the end of the world is the greatest and most wonderful refrain of humanity. Difo Voukang Harouna Thanks for the reply.

Ignatz Lieben (* 28. Februar 1805 in Prag; † 12. März 1862 in Wien) war ein österreichischer Kaufmann, Großhändler und einflussreicher Bankier. Auf sein Testament geht der als „österreichischer Nobelpreis“ geltende Lieben-Preis zurück.

Familie [Bearbeiten]

Ignatz Lieben war verheiratet mit Elise Lewinger (* 15. Februar 1807 Wien; † 24. Juni 1867 in Weikersdorf, heute Stadtteil von Baden), die Tochter des Samuel Lewinger und der Judit Wertheimer, beide aus Bankier- und Kaufmannsfamilien. Das Ehepaar hatte nachstehende Kinder:

Lieben-Preis [Bearbeiten]

In seinem Testament verfügte Ignatz Lieben, dass alle drei Jahre 10.000 Gulden „für das allgemeine Beste“ verwendet werden sollte. Von 1865 bis 1937 wurde der als „österreichischer Nobelpreis“ hoch angesehene Lieben-Preis vergeben. Mehrfach wurde das Stiftungsvermögen von Mitgliedern der Familie Lieben erhöht.

In der Nazi-Zeit wurde auch diese Familie vertrieben und sogar einzelne Familienmitglieder ermordet.

Dank der privaten Förderer Alfred Bader und seiner Ehefrau Isabel wird seit November 2004 der Ignatz-Lieben-Preis wieder an junge Forscherinnen und Forscher vergeben.

Literatur [Bearbeiten] Evi Fuks, Gabriele Kohlbauer (Hrsg.): Die Liebens. 150 Jahre Geschichte einer Wiener Familie. Wien 2004.

Weblinks [Bearbeiten] Geschichte des Ignaz L. Lieben-Preises Die Liebens: Glanz und Untergang einer Familie Online-Zeitung der Universität Wien, 11. November 2004

I think religious differences may be the main cause after money for wars.....

Kenneth Pargament has written a standard text on religion and coping called The Psychology of Religion and Coping. In addition, in an act of shameless self-promotion, I can also refer you to my book The Cognitive Psychology of Religion, which is a summary of the research in the cognitive science of religion. There is information about what is called epidemiological culture, which is the idea that compelling cognitive information is easily transmitted from person to person. This is one explanation for why religious ideas become accepted by the group. There is much more, of course. Hope that is helpful.

Psychology is the result of close observation of many individuals at various mental states, usually those who have a disease or a condition. Hence it can be faulty, though most of the times, it is not. Since each human has some disease in him/her. True religion is close observation of the individual self itself and then progressing above by self cleansing through sadhana/meditation. Book religion is true only for those with open eyes, else it is a poison, coz 'the reading I' becomes the character of the book read

If one considers the common elements shared by most religions, the level of spirituality might be based on an individual's sense of connectedness or oneness with other individuals. The more selfish and individualistic one is, the less spiritual one is. The more loving one is and the more willing one is to make sacrifices for the larger community, the more spiritual one is. This idea is in harmony with most great spiritual leaders from Buddha to Jesus to Gandhi to Mandella.

Bob, this is more an observation, given your own comment that Catholics are still less likely to commit suicide, or accept it than Protestants have you figured in to your researches the possibility that it may just be that Protestants define suicide more widely?  If you look to areas of Ulster the IRA hunger strikers strikers who starved themselves to death in protest at British rule are still widely regarded as martyrs and therefore their deaths are accepted, indeed even lauded despite being technically suicides.  It may be that Catholics are finding other ways to kill themselves such as automobile accidents or 'suicide by cop' that are not making it into either the official figures or the local community definitions of suicide.  wrt Protestants I note a similar impulse in Victorian England when there was some pressure on coroners to record verdicts of accidental death in order to spare families extra grief.

You could contact Bert Roebben, he is Dr in Theology and specializes in Religious education.

Dear Arij,

Constructing religious identity and accounting for the relationship between religion and well-being: A discourse analysis.

The title above  is of a dissertation written by Ballantyne, Sylvia 2011.It is good to read it, as it will provide u with views and some sources about how the religious identity is constructed and presented by applying CDA....

Good Luck 

I use the standard Wang-Baker FACES Pain Rating Chart that is often tacked to the walls of hospital rooms, and ask "On a scale of 1 to 10 with one being 'completely at peace' you and 10 being 'extreme anxiety', where are you?" I ask at the beginning of my spiritual evaluation and then after providing spiritual care, I ask the same question. The comparison of the two numbers is a self reported evidence based scale.

Other questions that can use this scale are found in:

Also consider:

Hi Leonardo,

I notice that you have an interest in the psychology of religion.

How do those faith based beliefs that stand at the centre of an understanding of the world, those beliefs about which everything else hangs, relate to beliefs that are held dogmatically ? The definition offered by Google of dogmatism is  'the tendency to lay down principles as undeniably true, without consideration of evidence or the opinions of others'.  What one might argue, however, is that without some kind of common set of assumptions upon which evidence and opinion is constructed one is not in a position to consider evidence and opinions of those who stand outside those shared assumptions.  I suppose that this is not to say that those assumptions are necessarily true although if they are challenged one might find oneself puzzled as to whether any truth is possible.  They might constitute my criteria for the possibility of truth.

Would it be dogmatic to say that the world was formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago ?  How might I argue this 'fact' with a Christian fundamentalist who believed that is was formed about 4000 years ago?  I cannot imagined myself being shaken from that belief so does that make me dogmatic ?

Regards, Mike

There is a Japanese proverb, "To Pray to God only in hard times." Similar English proverbs are: "The danger past, and God forgotten," and "Vows made in storms are forgotten in calms." So, it might be a truth to some extent that people embrace religion out of fear.

Mariano, the soul is not only that of Catholic origin and Jesus himself had a soul....the soul has been in many religions for many years and has been metaphorically used in the way an individual would want to write his or her scripture. I do agree that science does not approve of the soul....but who and what is science to not approve of the soul...is it just because the soul cannot be reduce to the reductionist approaches of science. Therefore seeking the mind in the brain cannot help, as the mind is that which created the brain. The mind resides in every part of the body just like the soul and has, is and will drive every bit of creation. @Beatrice, the nervus vagus is a transmitter of the soul or the mind; the built in microtubule network can help understand why it is better than the nerve cells or any other networking

I appreciate your remarks, Andrew. There is a third possibility, different from both theism and atheism, at least when using conventional definitions: a knowledge that we are a single, eternal, unbounded consciousness. This is sometimes called self-realization, although this natural state has other names as well.

While it is useful to consider both theism and atheism in relation to a fully functioning life (what you seem to call coping), I think, historically, self-realization has been the goal that provides an end to psychological problems.

The theory behind nonduality, or the direct path, might be used as an example of a teaching having self-realization or "enlightenment" as its goal.

In nonduality, we consider every aspect of our life and see clearly that these aspects are always changing. They don't last forever and therefore are not fundamental to life.

By attaching to (or identifying with) our body and/or thinking mind, both of which are unreliable and unsteady, we doom ourselves to periods of dysfunction and suffering.

Nonduality uses a technique called pointing to help us see reality, which is normally hidden by our identification as a separate self.

In just a few minutes of following such a teaching, we can become aware of our awareness itself, independent of thoughts, events, memory, objects, matter, energy, space, time, and everything else that is limited in time or space.

While this is just a start, continued practice leads us to become increasingly identified with our underlying awareness, which doesn't change, and less identified with limitations and problems.

Right, Francis Leslie is specialized researcher in personality, spirituality, and religiosity. 

If you can find a copy in a library, an excellent book with many measures is Measures of Religiosity, 1999, by Peter C. Hill and Ralph W. Hood Jr. Hardcover: 531 pages

Publisher: Religious Education Pr; 1 edition (July 1, 1999)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 089135106X

ISBN-13: 978-0891351061

This is an excellent resource offering several options for measuring qualitative change in a wide range of formats. Each tool has its own area of application. Measures of Religiosity offers many different models for measuring spiritual growth and patterns. If you do any research at all in the psychology of religion, owning (or having your library own) a copy of this volume is an absolute must. It has all the scales that are important to the professional literature.

Hope attached is of interest to you.

I think Harshvardhan has given you some good sources. From my experience attending Catholic schools right up to my undergrad level, ethics is taught in relation to the precepts of the faith such as do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. For me, the latter helped to deepen my faith and truly establish a "fear" for God but not in a negative way. In other words, I was in "awe" of God's goodness and might.

Best regards,

Debra

Some suggestions to get you started, from PsycInfo

Religion und Fanatismus. / Religion and fanaticism.

By Britton, Ronald

Psyche: Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse und ihre Anwendungen, Vol 63(9-10), Sep-Oct 2009, 907-924.

It is not what is believed but how it is believed that makes conviction dangerous. Absolutism whether it is in religion, metaphysics or politics treats a belief system as the final solution. It is unlike science in this respect which regards the state of knowledge as always incomplete and not as ultimate. The safeguard in religion and philosophy is scepticism so that those who practice either do so with a sceptical inner eye. To achieve sceptical belief as opposed to absolutism requires inner objectivity alongside subjectivity. It needs a third position and triangular space so that the believer can see himself in an act of belief rather than being possessed of knowledge. Initially in our development we treat beliefs as facts and it is only with emancipation from an inner certainty that we can see our beliefs as requiring reality testing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Review of Bad faith: The danger of religious extremism and Faith-based radicalism: Christianity, Islam and Judaism between constructive activism and destructive fanaticism.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2008.00693.x

By Cherribi, Sam

Political Psychology, Vol 30(2), Apr 2009, 319-323.

Reviews the books, Bad faith: The danger of religious extremism by Neil J. Kressel (see record 2007-18823-000) and Faith-based radicalism: Christianity, Islam and Judaism between constructive activism and destructive fanaticism edited by Christine Timmerman, Dirk Hutsebaut, Sara Mels, Walter Nonneman, and Walter Van Herk (2007). The author of the first book offers up a broad look at fundamentalism in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. A lack of original research (there is none by the author) beggars the book in a way that is particularly noticeable given a persistent weakness in the text, a distracting lack of full thought, the kind of short shrift that doesn’t allow an idea to be finished enough to provide transitions between, and contexts for, citations of secondary data references. The second book promises much in its introduction; it refers to Mark Juergensmeyer’s concept of the “cosmic warrior.” Second book addresses the roots of radicalism in sacred texts. Using a rabbinic approach shaped by a study of Talmudic law, Brawer seeks to deconstruct sacred texts in order to excise the fibers of violence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)

Review of Fanaticism in psychoanalysis: Upheavals in the institutions.

By Mizen, Richard

The Journal of Analytical Psychology, Vol 59(3), Jun 2014, 457-459.

Reviews the book, Fanaticism in Psychoanalysis: Upheavals in the Institutions by Manuela Utrilla Robles (see record 2013-26876-000).This book by the Spanish psychoanalyst Manuela Utrilla Robles is a rare and honourable, systematic attempt to understand in detail some of the processes that can distort the analytic project and its ostensible commitment to psychological and emotional development, the toleration and valuing of separateness and difference and to truth and integrity rather than defensive illusion and dissembling. Defining fanaticism she considers it to have five particular characteristics: dogmatism; lack of a critical spirit; ‘Manichaeism’ - by which she means the kind of dualism in which no subtleties, nuances or differences may be allowed; hatred of difference and finally eagerness to impose one’s own beliefs. On balance then, the reviewer feels that this book has much in it of value but is flawed or at least limited, in a number of ways, not least in illustrating the limits of analytic understanding. But I hope that this will not be understood as a major criticism because what it does do, in its systematic, imaginative and thoughtful treatment of its subject, is establish a sound starting point and directions for further work by other analysts brave enough to take up the task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)

Working with infantile fanaticism syndrome.

By Walewska, Katarzyna

Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Vol 14(3), Sep 2012, 59-66.

The author introduces the phenomenon of infantile fanaticism through a clinical illustration of a particular group of adult patients met in contemporary psychoanalytic practice—patients that present psychotisation and the strong need for a narcissistic-fanatic object relation. The author bases her work on the theories of Freud, Kohut, Klein, Segal, Bion, Racamier, Abensour, Rosenfeld and others. She refers equally to the findings of Peter Canzler, a German psychoanalyst, who described the psychological mechanism of the formation and functioning of fanaticism with reference to research on fascism. Additionally, she proposes her own theoretical thesis based on her psychoanalytical work. The author alternates between the terms "child" and "infantile", where if mentioned is an adult "syndrome", the preference is "infantile", while "childish" (in line with Freudian tradition) is used to describe a "desire". (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)

Pluralism: An antidote for fanaticism, the delusion of our age.

By Howard, George S.; Christopherson, Cody D.

Journal of Mind and Behavior, Vol 30(3), 2009, 139-148.

William James's pluralism, when combined with his pragmatism and radical empiricism, is a complete and coherent philosophy of life. James provides an antidote to the excesses of both the extreme realist/objectivist and the extreme constructivist/relativist camps. In this paper, we demonstrate how this is so in a discussion of epistemology and ontology including several extended examples. These examples demonstrate the inescapability of context and background assumptions and the advantages of a pluralist worldview. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

One possible measure of the degree of spirituality in a country is the number of spiritual people fully consecrated to religion (like priests or nuns in christianity) per million of inhabitants. If a country has a strong "spiritual capital" it probably reflects in that.

Another measure could be the economic profile of the country. In spite of all being legal, some activities, like natural resources management, health and education, caring activities are more "Social responsibility" oriented than others like producing weapons, tobacco or pornography.

I have seen a master thesis (but it's in portuguese) that tests the correlation between activity sector and social responsibility (evaluated through sustainability reports of companies) and concludes this connection is statistically significant.

Kind regards

Fernando

There are different measures of Religious Fundamentalism:

- The - RFS 12 item revised see Altemeyer and Hunsberger 2004  - unidimensional

- The Intratextual Religious Fundamentalism see Williamson et al. 2010 - unidimensional

- The Multicultural-Fundamentalism Scale see J Liht 2011 - multidimensional

These measures are the "most" used, cross-culturally tested and Content Free. 

Richard -- I am also seeking a religious self-efficacy scale. Have you, by chance, had any success in developing your own or modifying another scale to suit your needs? If so, would you be willing to share? If not, would you be interested in chatting and sharing ideas regarding the types of questions that might be useful to include?

You may be also interested in these responses.

Dear Marc,

Go to this link: http://en.bookfi.org/book/1035038 and http://en.bookfi.org/book/1284659

You may freely download those books. I hope you will find them helpful.

@Aon, from 50 years ago anthropologists and historians have been stressing the fact that it's impossible to define ethnic groups by any 'cultural trait' (religion, language, tradition, beliefs, taboos, material culture, customs, and so on). Research has been focusing on how people get to identify as this or that ethnic name and what exactly that means in terms of the social situation different ethnic groups are within in relation to each other. So yes, it's one ethnic group as long as they think so, and as long as others who do not identify as themselves see them as one group, regardless of their internal differences, that can be religious and otherwise. I would refer you to the introduction of a 1960s collective book called Ethnic groups and boundaries, by Fredrik Barth (you can find it easily online), and the debate that ensued.

Take a look at the on-line theology courses at Ambrose University.  Location is irrelevant if you are taking the courses by e-learning. 

This is the first time, i have heard of it. Its very interesting. Please do share some information. Thank you.

Hi Nicole,

Best of luck with your project; fascinating question. Agree with the opinions stated above.  You might find some data in the anthropological literature, as opposed to the sociology/psychology/psychiatric realm.  Also, some market research data in this area has been collected in the US by a company called Barna Research

Possibly their data and questions will inspire your project.

Ken

Dear Kaz,

Your mini-thesis will become a maxi-thesis unless you circumscribe, define, and delimit very carefully what you mean by "minority religion."  Do you mean a minority throughout the world, or a minority in a single world region, or a minority in a single country?  I can think of abundant examples of all three. 

I think Walter Breuggemann answered this question the best in his book on the Psalms :-

"Basically, the horizon of archetypes and repetition cannot be transcended with impunity unless we accept a philosophy of freedom that does not exclude God. And indeed this proved to be true when the horizon of archetypes and repetitions was transcended, for the first time, by Judeo-Christianism, which introduced a new category into religious experience, the category of faith."

Walter Brueggemann, "Impossibility" and Epistemology, ch.9 in The Psalms and the Life of the Church (ed.P.D.Miller; 1995, Fortress, Minneapolis), reprinted from Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 94 (1979) 615-634 (quoting Mircea Eliade, Myth of the Eternal Returns, Routledge Kegan Paul, London, 1955, pp.160-162) 

"Religion" is naturally "archetypal":  it is a status quo sort of thing.  People have "religion" to be comforted,  not to be disturbed.  So of course,  it is natural for it to: "paint an unrealistic and one-sided picture of relationship with God".  In this sense,  neither Judaism nor Christianity are, properly speaking,  "religions":  so for example,  Pompey famously in 63BC looked in the Holy of Holies and seeing no images concluded that the Jews were atheists;  and Christians were similarly prosecuted as atheists in the first century.  It is interesting that Socrates also was condemned for atheism.

The Psalms,  used by both Jews and Christians,  illustrate this point perfectly.  Kierkegaard was the first modern "existentialist" (to use Jasper's term),  but his point was to underline the existentialism of Abraham (I refer here to "Fear and Trembling" - "Frygt og Bæven", 1843).  But the psalmists were explicit and systematic existentialists.  Nothing very cosy about them!  It is ironic that Shashi Joyce Soans,  the first commenter on this thread,  in not answering the question quoted Psalm 34:8!  But "tasting" the Lord is usually very disturbing (see the story of the Great Lady of Shunem, 2 Kings 4);  also, having your eyes opened can end up being very uncomfortable (see John 9).

Yes, I have published a lot of work examining spirituality from the context of the Five-Factor Model of personality. You can read some of my work in books by Paloutzian and Park; Pargament et al, and Lisa Miller. I have chapters in all three. I do have several peer-reviewed papers, the most fundamental is in the Journal of Personality, 1999 and in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2009.