The New Agnosticism

Agnosticism ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 29-46
Author(s):  
Robin Le Poidevin
Keyword(s):  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Epistemic Probability

What is agnosticism? Is it compatible with a genuinely religious life? Here is a conventional answer to these questions: ‘Agnosticism is the view that we do not, and perhaps cannot, know whether God exists. Provided we think the epistemic probability of God’s existence is not negligible, engagement in religious discourse and practice is entirely rational’. Agnosticism so defined is quite different from fictionalism, which takes religious discourse to be fictional discourse, and religious practice a game of make-believe. Fictionalism, it seems, would have to offer a completely different justification for a religious life. This paper explores a hybrid between these positions, a hybrid that might be called ‘religious semantic agnosticism’, but which is perhaps more memorably called ‘New Agnosticism’. It is suggested that this hybrid position combines the advantages of both traditional agnosticism and fictionalism, but does not inherit their disadvantages.

scholarly journals TAREKAT SYEIKH MUHAMMAD ARSYAD AL-BANJARI: TELAAH ATAS KITAB KANZ AL-MA'RIFAH

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Hadi
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Diverse Group ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Colour Patterns

Development of Sufism in the archipelago is one icon in view of the problems connected with the Sufi. Sufism is the diversity of colour patterns of thought of religious life, while religious practice to be a representation of the diversity of religious thought to be highly variable and often decorated with the interview "controversial" a very sharp. In the context of religious institutions belonging to the tarekat also have a variety of variants, so that a diverse group of tarekat scattered every where and have the characteristics of each in accordance with religious discourse and the "religious experience" developer congregation. In fact there are some "differences" between the executive tarekat in an area with other regions, although with the same tarekat. Sheikh Muhammad Arsyad Al-Banjary as a prolific writer in various fields of Islamic sciences, such as Tawheed, Fiqh and Sufism. Among his works is the Kanz al-patterned ma'rifah Sufism, but in some discussion related to religious practices and traditions of the congregation are very close, but the Sammaniyah tarekat who had been brought closer to the Al-Banjary Arsyad not so visible in Kanz al-Ma 'rifah but Syaziliyah tarekat who are more visible.

ADHD, Religiosity, and Psychiatric Comorbidity in Adolescence and Adulthood

2020 ◽  
pp. 108705472097280
Author(s):  
Rachel E. Dew ◽  
Scott H. Kollins ◽  
Harold G. Koenig
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Psychiatric Comorbidity ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Add Health ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Health Study ◽  
Adhd Symptoms ◽  
Childhood Adhd ◽  
Mediation And Moderation

Objective: Religiosity has been repeatedly proposed as protective in the development of depression, sociopathy and addictions. ADHD frequently co-occurs with these same conditions. Although ADHD symptoms may affect religious practice, religiosity in ADHD remains unexplored. Method: Analyses examined data from >8000 subjects aged 12 to 34 in four waves of the Add Health Study. Relationships of religious variables with childhood ADHD symptoms were statistically evaluated. Observed correlations of ADHD symptoms to depression, delinquency, and substance use were tested for mediation and moderation by religiosity. Results: ADHD symptoms correlated with lower levels of all religious variables at nearly all waves. In some analyses at Wave IV, prayer and attendance interacted with ADHD to predict worsened psychopathology. Conclusion: ADHD symptoms predicted lower engagement in religious life. In adulthood, some aspects of religiosity interacted with ADHD symptoms to predict worse outcomes. Further research should explore whether lower religiosity partially explains prevalent comorbidities in ADHD.

La recherche appliquée: le cas du « Katholiek Sociaal Kerkelijk Instituut (KASKI) » aux Pays-Bas

1971 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 621-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adolf Holl ◽  
Hyacinthe Crépin
Keyword(s):  
Professional Competence ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
The People ◽  
Pastoral Planning ◽  
Senior Research ◽  
The Right

Following Vatican II changes are rapidly taking place within Dutch Catholicism — the bishops no longer make decisions in an authoritarian way: religious practice is de clining ; priests and religious are decreasing in numbers and many religious and pastoral experiments have come into being. KASKI has the responsibility of keeping pace with the Church during this process of change. In order to do this it makes use of several modes of work — the production of statistics relating to the position of religion in Society, the planning of religious and pastoral institutions and the study of new forms of the religious life in orders and congregations. For the first task it has used the same instruments for twenty- five years and the censuses thus produced yield valuable infor mation. As far as pastoral planning is concerned, it works in the field, playing the role of catalyst for those who have to make decisions and the people who have to carry out these decisions. This was the case, for instance, in the pastoral planning of the town of Eindhoven. Finally, when dealing with the new forms of communal religious life it adopts the method of studying through participation so that two of its researchers working in this sector are themselves members of religious groups. Applied research poses important problems, both from the methodological and from the political points of view. Amongst them may be noted the difficulty of determining precisely what constitutes rapid change in religious life, and the political choice of the persons for whom the research is being con ducted; the latter inevitably imposes a certain degree of conformity upon the perspectives of the work. (For example, the choice of the Dutch hierarchy which was to follow the general lines given by a large majority of Catholic opinion when it was tested particularly on questions like the liturgical and parochial changes). The fact, also, that the director of KASKI himself has a personal commitment to what may be described as the « right of centre » position in Dutch Catho licism poses problems for the work of the Institute. Political and religious radicalism is not a strong characteristic of the more senior research workers. KASKI is a rare example of a centre which brings socio logists together and uses their professional competence to accompany change in religious institutions.

Pengamalan Hidup Beragama dalam Kalangan Mahasiswa Institut Pengajian Tinggi Islam di Malaysia

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-93
Author(s):  
Nazneen Ismail ◽  
Norul Huda Bakar ◽  
Mariam Abd. Majid ◽  
Hasnan Kasan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Specific Model ◽  
Personality Inventory ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Religious Devotion ◽  
Muslim Religiosity ◽  
High Level

Religious life, which also refers to piety, is the highest level as a Muslim. It is achieved through the practice of religious devotion and appreciation based on true understanding. As students of Islamic Institutes of Higher Education (IPTI), they have a reputation as a group that understands and practices Islam in everyday life. This includes faith, worship, and morals. Various studies have been conducted to evaluate the religious life of university students. However, studies on students of Islamic Institutes of Higher Education (IPTI) have received inadequate attention. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the level of religious practice among students of Islamic Institutes of Higher Education (IPTI) in Malaysia. This quantitative study used a cross-sectional survey approach by distributing the Muslim Religiosity Personality Inventory questionnaire or the MRPI (2011) to students from four selected Islamic Institutes of Higher Education (IPTI). The selection was conducted using zone-based methods, namely, UIAM (West), USIM (South), UniSHAMS (North), and KUIPSAS (East). A total of 400 sets of questionnaires was distributed randomly to students from the selected universities. Data were analyzed descriptively using frequency and mean. The findings show that students possess a high level knowledge of Islamic values and a high religiosity personality. Thus, this study is a basis to the requirement for establishing a specific model in the development of religious life so that empowerment can be done from time to time with the supervision of the university. ABSTRAK Hidup beragama juga disebut sebagai takwa merupakan tingkatan tertinggi sebagai Muslim. Ia dicapai melalui pengamalan dan penghayatan agama yang tinggi berasaskan kepada kefahaman yang benar. Sebagai mahasiswa Institut Pengajian Tinggi Islam (IPTI) mereka mempunyai imej sebagai golongan yang memahami dan mengamalkan Islam dalam kehidupan seharian. Ini meliputi akidah, ibadah dan akhlak. Pelbagai kajian telah dijalankan untuk menilai tahap hidup beragama mahasiswa universiti. Namun, kajian terhadap mahasiswa IPTI didapati kurang diberikan tumpuan. Justeru, kajian ini bertujuan mengenalpasti tahap pengamalan hidup beragama dalam kalangan mahasiswa Institut Pengajian Tinggi Islam (IPTI) di Malaysia. Kajian ini bersifat kuantitatif menggunakan pendekatan tinjauan keratan rentas dengan mengedarkan borang soal selidik Muslim Religiositi Personality Inventory atau singkatannya MRPI (2011) kepada mahasiswa daripada empat buah IPTI terpilih. Pemilihan IPTI dilakukan melalui kaedah penentuan zon iaitu UIAM (Barat), USIM (Selatan), UniSHAMS (Utara) dan KUIPSAS (Timur). Sebanyak 400 set soal selidik diedarkan kepada mahasiswa universiti secara rawak bebas. Data dianalisis secara deskriptif melibatkan frekuensi dan min. Dapatan menunjukkan mahasiswa mempunyai tahap pengetahuan sarwajagat Islam dan personaliti religiositi yang tinggi. Justeru, kajian ini menjadi asas kepada keperluan pembinaan model khusus bagi pembangunan hidup beragama supaya pemerkasaan dapat dilakukan dari masa ke masa dengan pemantauan daripada pihak universiti.

Speaking up for Superstition: A Note on The Ethics of Chinese Popular Belief

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 709-722
Author(s):  
Timothy H. Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Body ◽  
Practical Reasons ◽  
Speaking Up ◽  
Spirit World ◽  
To Come ◽  
Legal Consequences ◽  
Vast Area

Most Chinese religious practice and belief in times past, and even throughout much of the Chinese world today, falls into the still current category of superstition. Assessing the ethical notions that tend to obtain within this vast area of religious life is not easy, but it needs to be done for practical reasons, not least because the legal consequences of moral actions arising from the body of beliefs concerned are starting to come before courts outside China itself. Once the assumptions of a very different worldview affirming the existence of an unseen spirit world are taken into account, the deeds of believers in this worldview can be discussed from the point of view of ethics. Philosophers might do well to pay more attention to this topic.

‘Inordinata locutio’: Blasphemy in Pastoral Literature, 1200–1500

Traditio ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 135-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin D. Craun
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Book Of Job ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Literal Sense ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Modern Thought ◽  
Pastoral Literature ◽  
The Way

Forbidden language, like forbidden knowledge, has always had its attractions. Of its many varieties, the inordinata locutio of blasphemy, speech which violates fundamental norms in the way it represents God, has held no small appeal for people in times of widespread religious practice. The late Middle Ages offers no exception to these two commonplaces of modern thought, judging from the number of civil statutes designed to extirpate blasphemy and from the stringent measures drawn up by influential clerics like Jean Gerson. This animus against blasphemy among the lettered, both lay and clerical, means that few blasphemous utterances, few of the words judged as blasphemous by someone other than the speaker, have come down to us. Preachers and compilers of catechetical handbooks, like theologians and glossators, are as silent about the actual words of blasphemers as they are eloquent about their temerity. Even the collectors of exempla, whose tales provide so much information about religious life, rarely record so much as a blasphemous phrase in their repertoire of tales about blasphemers. Perhaps these late medieval writers shared the reticence of the author of the Book of Job, who, according to the Priest (ps.- Jerome), wrote benedixerit for maledixerit, inverting the literal sense ‘quod non fuit ausus scriptor historiae ore suo in Deum dicere verbum blasphemiae.’

Keeping the Faith in Revolutionary Mexico: Clerical and Lay Resistance to Religious Persecution, East Michoacán, 1926-1929

2002 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Butler
Keyword(s):  
Full Range ◽  
Popular Religion ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The State ◽  
Passive Resistance ◽  
Religious Persecution ◽  
Catholic Clergy ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

This article analyses the character of local religious practice in the archdiocese of Michoacán during Mexico'scristerorebellion, and explores the relationship between ‘official’ and ‘popular’ religion under persecution. In particular, it shows how the Catholic clergy and laity reconstructed the religious life at parish level in an attempt to mitigate the effects of the revolutionary state's campaigns against the Church. For a variety of reasons, the significance of such passive resistance to the state, and the complexity of the interaction between the ecclesiastical elite and the Catholic laity, tend to be downplayed in many existing accounts. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many historians see cristero violence as the most important response to religious persecution, and therefore study it to the exclusion of alternative, less visible, modes of resistance. As for the Church, the hierarchy's wranglings with the regime similarly tend to overshadow the labours of priests and their parishioners under persecution. But the full range of popular experiences has also been deliberately compressed for ideological reasons. Many Catholic writers, for instance, seek to exalt the Church by describing a persecution of mythical ferocity. While Calles is likened to Herod, Nero, or Diocletian, the clergy and laity comprise a uniform Church of martyrs designate in revolt against a godless state. To achieve this instructive vision, however, a few exemplary martyrs—such as Father Pro and Anacleto González Flores—are allowed to stand for the whole mass of priests and believers, in the same way that Edmund Campion is revered as the protomartyr of the Elizabethan persecution in England. As a result, a stereotypical but politically serviceable image of a monolithic Church is perpetuated, an image which was recently institutionalised by the canonisation of 25 ‘cristero’ martyrs in May 2000.

Habit, Practice, Grace

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Carlisle
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Lived Religion ◽  
Traditional Philosophy ◽  
Propositional Form

Traditional philosophy of religion is shaped by its focus on the cognitive aspects of religious life—beliefs and doctrines—which can easily be articulated in propositional form. But “lived religion” encompasses more than belief, and if philosophers of religion are to do justice to our subject-matter, we need to learn to think philosophically about practice in general, and about religious practices in particular. This chapter considers some of the methodological questions and challenges that come with this task, and looks at two recent attempts to develop a philosophy of religious practice. It then outlines a concept of practice which tries to take account of two features of religious practice: how practice uses repetition to generate change, or even transformation; and how practice gives form to desire.

Living Religion

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Theory To Practice ◽  
Religious Person ◽  
The World ◽  
Natural Home ◽  
Opening Up

The modern tendency to separate theory and practice, reflection and contemplation, has done inestimable mischief to the life of religion in the modern world. Religion’s claims about God or the world or the nature and destiny of the human spirit have been ripped from their context in religious practice and treated as discrete doctrinal abstractions to be justified or refuted in isolation from the living religious life that is their natural home. Many of the dilemmas faced by those who think seriously about religion today arise from or are intensified by this separation of theory and practice. Trends in contemporary psychology, especially an emphasis on embodiment and relationality, can help the thoughtful religious person of any tradition by returning theory to practice and thereby opening up new avenues of religious knowing and new ways of justifying the commitment to a religiously lived life. This text moves between psychology (especially neuropsychology) and various forms of religious thought in order to demonstrate the validity of living the religiously informed life. This book argues that it is meaningful and reasonable to speak of a “spiritual sense” by discussing ways we can “sense” or “perceive” the reality of God and what that might mean for the religiously concerned person and how it might be understood psychologically and neurologically.

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