Non-Religion

Author(s):  
Lois Lee

Beginning with a focus on ‘secularism’ in the mid-1990s and extending to the study of ‘secularity,’ ‘atheism,’ and ‘irreligious’ and ‘non-religious’ cultures from the mid-2000s onwards, the study of religion’s various ‘others’ is receiving increasing attention from scholars of religion. This chapter untangles the key topic strands in this broad area: non-religious populations; ‘religious-like’ phenomena such as non-religious lifecycle ceremonies and worldviews; dialectics between the religious and non-religious or secular; and secularist regimes of power. It outlines the theoretical concerns of these projects: rival accounts of secularism/s (e.g. postcolonial critiques, realist ‘multiple’ approaches); new ways of investigating and challenging secularization theory; and ‘egalitarian’ approaches to religion which challenge the idea that religion is unique—a sole example of a type. Each of these overlapping areas of research are young fields, and conceptual resources and distinctions are therefore works in progress and require careful negotiation.

2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-121
Author(s):  
Anik Waldow

This essay argues that Humean impressions are triggers of associative processes, which enable us to form stable patterns of thought that co-vary with our experiences of the world. It will thus challenge the importance of the Copy Principle by claiming that it is the regularity with which certain kinds of sensory inputs motivate certain sets of complex ideas that matters for the discrimination of ideas. This reading is conducive to Hume’s account of perception, because it avoids the impoverishment of conceptual resources so typical for empiricist theories of meaning and explains why ideas should be based on impressions, although impressions cannot be known to mirror matters of fact. Dieser Aufsatz argumentiert dafür, dass humesche Eindrücke („impressions“) Auslöser von assoziativen Prozessen sind, welche es uns ermöglichen, stabile Denkmuster zu bilden, die mit unseren Erfahrungen der Welt kovariant sind. Der Aufsatz stellt somit die Wichtigkeit des Kopien-Prinzips in Frage, nämlich dadurch, dass behauptet wird, für die Unterscheidung der Ideen sei die Regelmäßigkeit maßgeblich, mit der gewisse Arten von sensorischen Eingaben gewisse Mengen von komplexen Ideen motivieren. Diese Lesart trägt zu einem Verständnis von Humes Auffassung der Wahrnehmung bei, da sie die Verarmung der begrifflichen Mittel, die für empiristische Theorien der Bedeutung so typisch ist, vermeidet und erklärt, warum Ideen auf Eindrücken basieren sollten, obwohl Eindrücke nicht als Abbildungen von Tatsachen erkannt werden können.


Author(s):  
John Clifford Holt

This is a study of very popular ritual celebrations observed by Buddhist monks and laity in each of the predominantly Theravada Buddhist cultures in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.) The theoretical approach deployed and guides the reader through the distinctiveness of each culture is comparative in nature, and the basic premise that angles the inquiry is that widely observed public rites common to each religious culture reflect the nature of social, economic and political change occurring more broadly in society. Instead of ascertaining how religious ideas have impacted the ideals of government or ethical practice, this study focuses on how important changes, or shifts in the trajectories of society impact the character of religious cultures. In each of the five chapters that focus specifically on a given rite of great public importance, an historical, political or social context is provided in some detail. As such, this volume can be read effectively as one volume introduction to the practice of Theravada Buddhism and the nature of social change in contemporary Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.


Author(s):  
Detlef Pollack ◽  
Gergely Rosta

The growth of Evangelical Protestantism and Pentecostalism is widely regarded as a potent argument against the validity of secularization theory. To explain this growth, Chapter 12 draws on theoretical approaches to analysing new social movements, which allows an expansion of the repertoire of explanations concerning religious change and a testing of alternatives to the models provided by secularization theory. To explain the worldwide growth and relative resilience of the Evangelical and Pentecostal movements, the chapter identifies a number of conditions and explanatory factors: cultural and social confirmation, religious syncretism, social deprivation, and the widespread magical worldview and broadly accepted spiritistic beliefs in Latin American countries that are conducive to the acceptance of Pentecostal experiences and healing rituals.


Author(s):  
Edward S. Hinchman

Which is more fundamental, assertion or testimony? Should we understand assertion as basic, treating testimony as what one gets when one adds an interpersonal addressee? Or should we understand testimony as basic, treating mere assertion—assertion without testimony—as what one gets when one subtracts that interpersonal relation? This article argues for the subtractive approach and for the more general thesis that its treatment of the interpersonal element in assertion makes understanding that interpersonal element the key to understanding how assertion expresses belief. This theory of belief expression in assertion treats it as internalizing the transmission of belief in testimony. How we understand that internalizing move depends on how we conceptualize the interpersonal element in testimony. Since what will be called the Command Model does not give one the conceptual resources to make this move, one should adopt an alternative that will be called the Custodial Model, on which a testifier aims not to convince her addressee but to reason with him—to give him reasons to believe what she tells him, where those reasons are grounded in her trustworthiness in thus attempting to influence him. The subtractive approach to assertion thus rests on a key distinction between the aims of reasoning and persuasion.


1993 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
L.E. Busse ◽  
L. Goldberg ◽  
D. Mehuys ◽  
G. Mizell

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 196-206
Author(s):  
Joel S. Kaminsky

This essay argues that the Hebrew Bible contains conceptual resources that can contribute to and enrich the ongoing discussions surrounding healthcare in the U.S. and in other modern Western societies. These biblical ideas may help us reframe our understandings of sickness and health, something urgently needed if we wish individuals and their families to have less medically invasive and less alienating experiences of illness, most especially during end of life care.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (20) ◽  
pp. 5857
Author(s):  
Brandy J. Johnson ◽  
Anthony P. Malanoski ◽  
Jeffrey S. Erickson

This review describes an ongoing effort intended to develop wireless sensor networks for real-time monitoring of airborne targets across a broad area. The goal is to apply the spectrophotometric characteristics of porphyrins and metalloporphyrins in a colorimetric array for detection and discrimination of changes in the chemical composition of environmental air samples. The work includes hardware, software, and firmware design as well as development of algorithms for identification of event occurrence and discrimination of targets. Here, we describe the prototype devices and algorithms related to this effort as well as work directed at selection of indicator arrays for use with the system. Finally, we review the field trials completed with the prototype devices and discuss the outlook for further development.


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