RethinkingDover: Religion, Science, and the Values of Democratic Citizenship

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 441-462
Author(s):  
Susan P. Liebell
Keyword(s):  
Intelligent Design ◽  
Science Classroom ◽  
School Science ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Civic Identity ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Role Of Religion

AbstractTheDoverdecision restricted the mention of Intelligent Design in a public school science classroom yet theDoveropinion offers an inadequate defensive position. Liberal democracy can exclude Intelligent Design based on the Establishment Clause yet courts do not affirm the teaching of best available science or connect teaching science to other constitutional rights, duties, or institutions. AlthoughDoverhas triggered a debate over the role of religion in public and private life, the case reveals complex issues regarding science, citizenship, and the values of liberal democratic civic identity. In three sections, this article (1) reviews the creationism jurisprudence; (2) dissects theDoverdecision; and (3) suggests an alternative juridical approach grounded in an education case,Plyler v. Doe, in which education creates citizens who are politically competent, economically fit, and capable of self-development. The conclusion reframes the debate over Intelligent Design as one of civic identity and political reproduction arguing that liberals, using the ideas of Brennan, Marshall, and Breyer must make a positive case for the role of science in shaping the liberal citizen, worker, and person.

Religious Freedom and Human Rights in Kazakhstan

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-127
Author(s):  
Roman Podoprigora ◽  
Nurlan Apakhayev ◽  
Aizhan Zhatkanbayeva ◽  
Dina Baimakhanova ◽  
Elina P Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Religious Activity ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Religious Issues ◽  
Church Relationships ◽  
The Government ◽  
Role Of Religion

Abstract Many post-Soviet governments are still unable to identify the attitude to religious freedom and religious activity. The human rights trend adjoins with a very suspicious attitude to the religious phenomena as a relic of the Soviet regime of the state–church relationships. Moreover, the professional communities and society as a whole were not appropriately prepared for the religious diversity or the new role of religion in public and private life. This article discusses why the government is very careful in the regulation of religious processes. The article also explains the reasons of inattention by Kazakhstani lawyers to human rights and religious issues and analyses the situation regarding religious freedom within frames of existing legislation in Kazakhstan.

Judicializing Religion

2020 ◽  
pp. 157-188
Author(s):  
Yvonne Tew
Keyword(s):  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Malaysian Politics ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
Civil Courts

Religion has become one of the great fault lines of modern Malaysian politics and adjudication. This chapter focuses on the role of religion and religious freedom in the contemporary Malaysian state. It outlines the constitution-making process to locate the place of Islam and religious liberty within the Constitution’s generally secular original framework. Over the past quarter century, the politicization and judicialization of religion has led to an expansion of Islam’s role, fueling polarizing debate over the Malaysian state’s identity as secular or Islamic. Courts have contributed to elevating Islam’s position by deferring jurisdiction to the Sharia courts and expansively interpreting Islam’s constitutional position. The chapter then turns from the descriptive to the prescriptive. It discusses how courts can draw on the constitutional basic structure doctrine to entrench the judicial power of the civil courts to reclaim jurisdictional areas that engage constitutional rights which in the past they have ceded to the religious courts, such as apostasy. It also outlines how courts can use a purposive interpretive approach in line with the Constitution’s framework of protection for religious minorities and individual rights. Finally, it shows how the court can operationalize a proportionality analysis to closely scrutinize government regulations that restrict religious freedom or freedom of expression.

scholarly journals Hinduism in the News: The Shifting Role of Religion and the Media in Canadian Public Life

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Mann
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Media ◽  
Role Of Religion

This article studies Canadian and international newspaper reports from September, 1995, of the Ganesha milk drinking miracle. It analyzes the chronology of the newspaper reports as the story develops from an account of a miracle in the “exotic” East to an account of a miracle also occurring in Canada. The evidence demonstrates an inability on the part of the Canadian news media to view religion as hard news with broad social and political implications. The comparison with international reports demonstrates that the story had a significant political dimension and was viewed as hard news in other parts of the world. The comparison questions the assumed boundaries between the public and private spheres in relation to religion and demonstrates that such boundaries are constructed through power relationships and the news media itself.Cette etude examine des articles canadiens et internationaux parus en septembre 1995 concernant le miracle de la consommation du lait de Ganesha. Elle analyse la chronologie des articles de journaux tenant compte du développement du miracle de l’Orient ‘exotique’ vers le développement de ce même miracle au Canada. La discussion l’analyse fait valoir l’incapacité de la part des médias canadiens de percevoir la religion comme étant au centre des actualités sérieuses ayant des conséquences sociales graves et des implications politiques. La comparaison des rapports internationaux montre que ce sujet a une dimension politique importante et est considéré d’actualit sérieuse. La comparaison remet en question les frontières définissant les sphères publiques et privées en matière de religion et démontre que de telles limites sont construites par l’entremise des relations de pouvoir et des médias eux - mêmes.

scholarly journals From patriotism to political totalitarianism: the role of collective narcissism

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 48-60
Author(s):  
Dmitry S. Grigoryev
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Motivational Orientation ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Relationship

Background. Patriotic education is carried out in many countries, being an integral part of the process of socialization of the younger generation. At the same time, patriotism is often used by autocracies to maintain power and total state control over all aspects of public and private life. What is the socio-psychological aspect of this possible transformation? Objective. The aim of the study was to test the model of the relationship between patriotism, nationalism, rightwing authoritarianism and political totalitarianism, as well as to examine the role of collective narcissism in these relationships. We hypothesized that patriotism is not directly related to totalitarianism, this connection is mediated by nationalism and right-wing authoritarianism, while patriotism and nationalism are connected only under the condition of a high level of collective narcissism (i.e., collective narcissism demonstrates the effect of moderation). Design. The study of the role of collective narcissism in the relationship between patriotism, nationalism, rightwing authoritarianism and political totalitarianism was carried out in 2018 on a gender-balanced sample of residents of Russia (N — 232) aged 16 to 61 (M — 28.5; SD — 10.2). Reliable and valid tools were used for measurements: cultural patriotism and nationalism (Grigoryan 2013; Grigoryan, Lepshokova, 2012), collective narcissism (Golec de Zavala et al., 2009), right-wing authoritarianism (Bizumic, Duckitt, 2018). A cross-sectional single-sample correlation design was applied using data from a socio-psychological survey. The data was collected in 2018 through an online survey conducted by an independent commercial research company as a result of a survey of their own panel of respondents. The survey was conducted using various Likert scales. All scales that had not previously been translated into Russian were adapted by double translation and cognitive interviews using the “think-aloud” technique (Batkhina, Grigoryev, 2019). Results. The hypotheses that were put forward were confirmed. It was found that (1) patriotism is not directly related to totalitarianism: nationalism and authoritarianism mediated the relationship between patriotism and totalitarianism, and nationalism mediated the relationship between patriotism and authoritarianism; (2) patriotism is positively associated with nationalism only if the level of collective narcissism is high; (3) nationalism is positively associated with authoritarianism and totalitarianism, and authoritarianism with totalitarianism. Conclusions. Collective narcissism may reflect the process of compensating for low self-esteem and lack of control over their lives in people, and generate belief in an exalted image of the in-group and its right to special recognition. Subsequently, this helps to use patriotism as a basis for supporting political totalitarianism. Nationalism and authoritarianism can carry an instrumental function in this process acting as certain strategies for the implementation of the motivational orientation set by collective narcissism.

Dignity as non-discrimination

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wairimu Njoya
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
High Court ◽  
European Court ◽  
Concrete Form ◽  
Public Status ◽  
Equal Citizenship

Analysing two reproductive rights claims brought before the High Court of Namibia and the European Court of Human Rights, this article argues that human dignity is not reducible to a recognized warrant (a right) to demand a particular set of goods, services, or treatments. Rather, dignity in the contexts in which women experience sterilization abuse would be better characterized as an existential protest against degradation, a protest that takes concrete form in legal demands for equal citizenship. Equality is conceived here as necessitating the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women in public and private life. The dignity as non-discrimination framework developed in the article thus integrates two of the leading interpretations of dignity in contemporary political philosophy – the existentialist approach that attends to the inward cry against degradation and the view of dignity as the equal, public status of democratic citizenship.

Understanding Religion and Politics in Africa: A Call for the Re-enchantment of the Scholarly Imagination

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-161
Author(s):  
Anicka Fast
Keyword(s):  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Religious Imagination ◽  
Postcolonial Africa

Abstract In his 2015 book Christianity, Development, and Modernity in Africa, Paul Gifford argues that Christianity in Africa is bifurcated into an ‘enchanted’ and a ‘disenchanted’ form. He presents the conundrum that the enchanted form is pervasive yet incompatible with modernity and consistently ignored by scholars. In this review article I draw on Gifford’s conundrum as a springboard to propose a new angle from which to analyse religion and politics in postcolonial Africa: one that moves beyond received dichotomies between tradition and modernity, public and private life, or this-worldly and otherworldly concerns. The work of Michael Schatzberg, Peter Geschiere, Ogbu Kalu, and Emmanuel Katongole moves in various ways past the oppositions that undermine Gifford’s work. In dialogue with these scholars, I articulate a plea to scholars of religion and politics in Africa to develop an appreciation for the powerful role of the religious imagination in African and global arenas of power.

scholarly journals Housing habitability in times of COVID-19 in Mexico. Case of Culiacan

2021 ◽  
pp. 77-112
Author(s):  
Mercedes Verdugo López ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Care Facility ◽  
Statistical Processing ◽  
Target Population ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Short Time

The prolonged social distancing caused by the Covid-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented condition that has severely impacted on the different aspects of public and private life in Mexico. One of the most affected areas is the role of housing and its habitability. In a very short time, homes have become a place of work, a school, and sometimes a medical care facility. This article exposes the importance of the inhabitant's bond with their home and the habitability that is reconfigured in the social conditions imposed by the current health crisis. We believe that preventive isolation can contribute to containing contagions if the living conditions encourage to the collaboration of citizens. The methodology consists of a case study carried out in Culiacán, one of the Mexican cities most affected by the pandemic. The analysis is derived from the statistical processing of an online survey, applied in two times to the target population. In the first, 231 questionnaires were processed as a filter and in the second 50, which contained the most significant topics on the subject.

A Cultural History of the Home in the Age of Enlightenment

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Order And Disorder ◽  
Living Space ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
History Of ◽  
Role Of Religion

During the period of the Enlightenment, the word ‘home’ could refer to a specific and defined physical living space, the location of domestic life, and a concept related to ideas of roots, origins, and retreat. The transformations that the Enlightenment encouraged created the circumstances for the concept of home to change and develop in the following three ways. First to influence homemaking were the literary and cultural manifestations that included issues around attitudes to education, social order and disorder, sensibility, and sexuality. Secondly, were the roles of visual and material culture of the home that demonstrated themselves through print, portraiture, literature, objects and products, and dress and fashion. Thirdly, were the industrial and sociological aspects that included concepts of luxury, progress, trade and technology, consumption, domesticity, and the notions of public and private spaces within a home. The chapters in this volume therefore discuss and reflect upon issues relating to the home through a range of approaches. Enlightenment homes are examined in terms of signification and meaning; the persons who inhabited them; the physical buildings and their furniture and furnishings; the work undertaken within them; the differing roles of men and women; the nature of hospitality, and the important role of religion in the home. Taken together they give a valuable overview of the manners, customs, and operation of the Enlightenment home.

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