Coding and Quantifying Counterintuitiveness in Religious Concepts: Theoretical and Methodological Reflections

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 308-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Barrett

AbstractBoyer's theory of counterintuitive cultural concept transmission claims that concepts that ideas that violate naturally occurring intuitive knowledge structures enough to be attention-demanding but not so much to undermine conceptual coherence have a transmission advantage over other concepts (Boyer et al. 2001: 535-64). Because of the prominence of these counterintuitive concepts in religious belief systems, Boyer's theory features prominently in many cognitive treatments of religion. Difficulties in identifying what are and are not counterintuitive concepts in this technical sense, however, has made empirical treatment of Boyer's theory irregular and difficult to evaluate. Further, inability to quantify just how counterintuitive a given concept is has made ambiguous specifying where the alleged cognitive optimum lies. The present project attempts to clarify Boyer's theory and presents a formal system for coding and quantifying the "counterintuitiveness" of a concept, and hence, facilitates empirical scrutiny of the theory.

Utafiti ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Plan Shenjere-Nyabezi

Despite Westernization and particularly the advent of Christianity and its widespread entrenchment on the African continent, traditional indigenous rituals continue to constitute an integral part of African religious belief systems and practices. This article presents the results of an ethnoarchaeological study of two death rituals that are conducted by the Ndau people of south eastern Zimbabwe. The rituals are a demonstration of attitudes towards death and beliefs about the role of the dead among the living. The Ndau do not believe that death signals and represents the end of life. In the same vein and perhaps more importantly, the Ndau do not believe that death just happens. It is caused by human agency out of jealousies, hatred and conflict among the living. These beliefs are central to the two rituals presented and discussed here: the first ritual is conducted to ascertain cause of death and the second to bring back the spirit of the deceased from a temporary state of limbo immediately after death. Meat and beer are central to these rituals, firstly as offerings to the deceased and secondly as an important part of the living celebration of the rituals. The paper then explores some interpretive implications of the rituals from an archaeological perspective.


Author(s):  
Harald Walach

Science and spirituality are at odds, due to the history of enlightenment. This led to freeing human inquiry from dogmatic and clerical bondage by religion. And because religion has been left behind by the new scientific narrative of a self-evolving world, driven by random accidents and mutations and natural laws, there seems to be no place for spirituality either. This contribution disentangles those conceptual problems. It first points out the history of this separation and its consequences. It is important to realize that spirituality and religion are two different things. While religion is a conceptual, ethical, ritual, and at times also a political framework, spirituality is the experiential core of all religions. As a human experience, it is universal and independent of religious belief systems. Spirituality, as a form of inner experiential access to reality, is also at the bottom of the scientific process—for instance, in important theoretical insights. 150 words


2021 ◽  
Vol 09 (03) ◽  
pp. 350-362
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Gibbons ◽  
Sherman A. Lee ◽  
Luke P. Fernandez ◽  
Emma D. Friedmann ◽  
Kaylee D. Harris ◽  
...  

The fading affect bias (FAB) is a robust phenomenon where unpleasant affect fades faster than pleasant affect. The FAB is believed to be coping mechanism designed to make life appear pleasant in the face of hardships and adversities. The FAB persists across several cultures and many event types (e.g., alcohol, religious, and death), even though low FAB has been demonstrated for social media events, videogame events, and events labeled as religious, but not spiritual. Although religion is also believed to make life more satisfying by providing existential meaning and social connectedness for their followers, research to date, has not examined religious differences in the FAB. Therefore, we examined the FAB using 2 measures of fading affect across participants’ self-reported religious affiliations and we found robust FAB effects for all categories except for an extremely small sample of Islamic followers. The FAB effects were strongest for Jewish and Buddhist affiliations and they were weakest for participants who did not report a well-known religious affiliation. The findings extend the literature on the FAB to religious belief systems. Future research should replicate the current study, examine the FAB for larger samples of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Jews, and test explanations for differential FAB effects across religious affiliations.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Herbert

Addressing complex social problems that are rooted in multiple causes is difficult. These issues often interact in unpredictable ways with numerous contributing factors, and they do not run along traditional departmental boundaries. For example, family violence is one of the most complex, multifaceted and poorly understood issues in Western society. Addressing family violence requires major social change in individual attitudes and relationships, cultural and religious belief systems and society's opinions, as well as comprehensive government strategies and a comprehensive range of services to support families and individuals affected by family violence. In this respect, it provided a useful case study through which to examine the implementation of complex social policy in New Zealand.


1968 ◽  
Vol 23 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1039-1042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald M. Meredith

The study investigated the multiple relationships among 39 personality and attitudinal variables with 2 clusters of religious attitudes. The findings suggest that conservatism plays a pervasive role in the prediction of religious belief for both male and female Ss.


Philosophy ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. M. S. HACKER

1. Belief and mental statesDavidson holds that intentional verbs occurring in the form ‘A Vs that p’ signify propositional attitudes. These are, he claims, (i) mental states (MS 160; KOM passim), and (ii) dispositions (FPA 103). Davidson does not conceive of himself as introducing a special technical sense of the common intentional verbs. He insists that ‘the mental states in question are beliefs, desires, intentions, and so on, as ordinarily conceived' (KOM 51f.). Consequently he contends that believing that p is a mental state, disposition or dispositional state. These ontological claims about the nature of belief inform his account of the logical form of belief sentences. I shall address the question of whether believing that p can justly be deemed a mental state, a disposition or dispositional state. Subsequently I shall examine Davidson's account of the logical form of belief sentences.Our concept of a mental state, like so many of the concepts which philosophers treat as categorial, is none too sharply defined. It has a respectable use, which can be described. But, like other such general psychological terms, e.g. ‘mental process’, ‘mental activity’, far from being the ‘hardest of the hard’ - a sharply circumscribed categorial term akin to a variable in a well-constructed formal system — it has blurred boundaries and is elastic. Like all our ordinary psychological concepts, it evolved in order to meet everyday needs. As Wittgenstein observed, ‘The concepts of psychology are just everyday concepts. They are not concepts newly fashioned by science for its own purposes, as are the concepts of physics and chemistry.’Although our ordinary concepts can be replaced by technical ones for specialized purposes, they cannot be abused without generating conceptual confusion and incoherence. If the expression ‘mental state’ is being employed in its ordinary sense, then it is wrong to hold that believing that p is to be in any mental state. If it is being employed in a special technical sense, then those who employ it thus owe us an account of what it means and how it is to be used. This Davidson and the many other philosophers who subscribe to the view that believing is a mental state have not done. Until such an account is forthcoming, one may presume that they think of themselves as deploying our ordinary concept of a mental state. And if so, I shall argue, they are misusing it.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 25-44
Author(s):  
Mohamed Mihlar Abdul Muthaliff

The article presents an introduction to the evolution of the perennial and ideological encounter between Inayat Khan’s (1882-1927) International Sufi Movement and the diversity of religious belief systems. It analyses the teachings and thoughts of Inayatian Sufi Movement which claim that all religions are equally true, or that one religion can be true for some and another for others. It begins with an introduction of Inayat Khan and his mystical message and then, explicates his religious and philosophical thoughts that include unity of religious ideals. Finally the paper concludes with a reflection on the key aspects of Inayatian Sufi order and their policy of Religious Pluralism in view of Islam.


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