Feeling Is Believing: Inspiration Encourages Belief in God

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 723-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clayton R. Critcher ◽  
Chan Jean Lee
Keyword(s):  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Experimental Methods ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Belief In God ◽  
Affective Experiences ◽  
Transcendent Experience ◽  
Theistic Belief

Even without direct evidence of God’s existence, about half of the world’s population believes in God. Although previous research has found that people arrive at such beliefs intuitively instead of analytically, relatively little research has aimed to understand what experiences encourage or legitimate theistic belief systems. Using cross-cultural correlational and experimental methods, we investigated whether the experience of inspiration encourages a belief in God. Participants who dispositionally experience more inspiration, were randomly assigned to relive or have an inspirational experience, or reported such experiences to be more inspirational all showed stronger belief in God. These effects were specific to inspiration (instead of adjacent affective experiences) and a belief in God (instead of other empirically unverifiable claims). Being inspired by someone or something (but not inspired to do something) offers a spiritually transcendent experience that elevates belief in God, in part because it makes people feel connected to something beyond themselves.

Making the most of individual differences in joint decisions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bahador Bahrami
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Collective Decision Making ◽  
Wisdom Of Crowds ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Adaptive Value ◽  
Joint Decisions ◽  
Cultural Data ◽  
Better Than

Evidence for and against the idea that “two heads are better than one” is abundant. This chapter considers the contextual conditions and social norms that predict madness or wisdom of crowds to identify the adaptive value of collective decision-making beyond increased accuracy. Similarity of competence among members of a collective impacts collective accuracy, but interacting individuals often seem to operate under the assumption that they are equally competent even when direct evidence suggest the opposite and dyadic performance suffers. Cross-cultural data from Iran, China, and Denmark support this assumption of similarity (i.e., equality bias) as a sensible heuristic that works most of the time and simplifies social interaction. Crowds often trade off accuracy for other collective benefits such as diffusion of responsibility and reduction of regret. Consequently, two heads are sometimes better than one, but no-one holds the collective accountable, not even for the most disastrous of outcomes.

Universal Human Dignity: Some Reflections in the Asian Context

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Man Yee Karen Lee
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Asian Context ◽  
Common Association

AbstractThe idea of “human dignity” is accorded a prominent status in domestic constitutions and international human rights law. Its symbolism as a universal ground of human rights sits awkwardly with the absence of a precise definition. The concept has evolved over history and has been interpreted in various ways by people holding different worldviews. The elusive nature of human dignity creates challenges when it is evaluated across cultures. Despite its common association with the concept of liberal democracy, the idea of human worthiness is not necessarily absent in Asian societies, many of which function under alternative political systems.A cross-cultural perspective requires putting aside ethnocentrism and exploring the convergence of views from different belief systems. Examples from Confucianism and Islam may provide insights on how human dignity is understood and realized in various Asian contexts.

scholarly journals Voices from different cultures: Foundation Phase students’ understanding across

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Annalie Botha
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Education Programme ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Emotional Expressions ◽  
Community Life ◽  
Linguistic Group ◽  
Cultural Boundaries ◽  
Different Cultures

From “How was your day?” to “Remember the time we …”, we use stories as a way to share our experiences, understandings and concerns with others. Stories extend our knowledge and understanding of other people and situations, other culturesand languages by including the emotional expressions of factual information. When so much of family and community life in South Africa remains insular and disconnected from other cultures, other languages and other belief systems, storiescan extend boundaries beyond our single perspectives and experiences to the varying perspectives of others. This becomes particularly important for teachers of young children who may have very different life experiences from those of the children they teach. In this project, we examined storytelling as a way to cross-cultural boundaries and of harnessing the diverse worlds of South African citizens pedagogically. We asked fourth year students in a Foundation Phase teacher education programme to identify a person from a different cultural and linguistic group; and to have that person share a story with them to discover how the experience of listening to stories from different cultures, languages, and belief systems might influence their attitudes towards teaching children with those characteristic differences.

scholarly journals Factorial Structure and Cross-Cultural Invariance of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form in Hong Kong and Thailand

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaozi Gao ◽  
Kerry Lee
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Parenting Stress ◽  
Discriminant Validity ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Stress Index ◽  
Partial Metric ◽  
Factorial Structure ◽  
Parenting Stress Index

With increasing attention on the role of parenting stress on family functioning and children’s development, one area that has been neglected is how such relations differ across cultures. Although sometimes viewed as homogeneous, Asian countries often have markedly different belief systems. Cross-cultural studies require instruments that have been validated in different socio-cultural contexts. The widely used parenting stress index-short form (PSI-SF) has been used in several locations. However, results regarding its factorial structure have been mixed. Furthermore, there are only a few cross-cultural comparison studies. This study examined the factorial structure of an abridged version of the PSI-SF with data from Hong Kong (N = 258) and Thailand (N = 190). The results from confirmatory factor analyses indicated that, in both cultures, a three-factorial structure provides the best model fit. Furthermore, we found evidence for partial metric invariance, suggesting that the test scores can be compared directly. Tests for convergent and discriminant validity revealed that the three factors were correlated with parent general distress, authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting behaviors, in both cultures. These findings suggest that the abridged PSI-SF can provide a meaningful comparison of parenting stress between Hong Kong and Thailand.

The Return of the God Hypothesis

1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Stephen C. Meyer ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Belief In God ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Theistic Belief

Historian of science Frederic Bumham has stated that the "God hypothesis" is now more respectable hypothesis than at any time in the last one hundred years. This essay explores recent evidence from cosmology, physics, and biology, which provides epistemoiogical support, though not proof, for belief in God as conceived by a theistic worldview. It develops a notion of epistemoiogical support based upon explanatory power, rather than just deductive entailment. It also evaluates the explanatory power of theism and its main metaphysical competitors with respect to several classes of scientific evidence. The cmclusion follows that theism explains a wide ensemble of metaphysically-significant evidences more adequately and comprehensively than other major worldviews or metaphysical systems. Thus, unlike much recent scholarship that characterizes science as either conflicting with theistic belief or entirely neutral with respect to it, this essay concludes that scientific evidence actually supports such.

scholarly journals A cross-cultural East-West appraisal of mental health curricula

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-77
Author(s):  
Peter Szto ◽  
Sara Ashencaen Crabtree ◽  
He Xuesong ◽  
Karen Rolf
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Culturally Congruent ◽  
Schools Of Social Work ◽  
Psychiatric Social Work

This paper considers findings from a cross-cultural project comparing mental health curricula across three schools of social work located in both China, specifically Shanghai, Hong Kong; and finally, Omaha, USA. Chinese philosophies and belief systems are reviewed as they pertain to mental illness and well-being. Additionally, the influence of dominant discourses informing professional practice and the development of indigenous social work practice are considered. Findings indicate that in the Chinese universities mental health social work curricula appears to balance pedagogical approaches towards providing students with up-to-date knowledge on psychopathology and psychiatric social work, while offering significant weighting to traditional philosophies and belief systems. The discussion revolves around the issue of developing Chinese practitioners equipped to work within medicalised, health settings but with sufficient indigenous knowledge to offer culturally congruent practice to local populations.

The Evolution and Exploitation of Transcendence

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Gorelik
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Transcendent Experience ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses the transcendent experience, which is defined as an ego-dissolving encounter with something greater than one’s self. The transcendent experience is cross-cultural and panhistorical. This chapter presents a model describing the evolution and function of various evolved modes of transcendence, such as group-directed transcendence, theory of mind (ToM) transcendence, aesthetic transcendence, and epistemic transcendence. It then discusses the susceptibility of these modes of transcendence to costly exploitation by selfish individuals. The ensuing sections discuss the relationship between transcendence and human development across the lifespan, and concludes with some thoughts on the epistemic and ethical utility of transcendence.

scholarly journals Faith and End of Life in Nursing Homes

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Rubinstein ◽  
Helen K. Black ◽  
Patrick J. Doyle ◽  
Miriam Moss ◽  
Sidney Z. Moss
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Home ◽  
Nursing Homes ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Catholic Faith ◽  
Belief In God ◽  
The Relationship

This paper explores the role of religious belief in the experiences of dying and death in a Catholic nursing home. The home appeals to residents and their families due to the active religious presence. Thus, religion is a salient element of the “local culture” which exists in this long-term care setting. The preeminence of faith within the organization and the personal religious convictions of staff, residents, and families may drive how death and dying are discussed and experienced in this setting, as well as the meanings that are attached to them. This paper examines the relationship between faith and the experience and meaning of death in this nursing home. We present themes that emerged from open-ended interviews with residents, family members, and staff, gathered between 1996 and 2004. The data indicate that people select the home due to their Catholic faith and the home's religious tone. Themes also show that belief in God and an afterlife helps shape the experience of dying and death for our informants. Our paper does not compare ease of dying with other nursing homes or within other belief systems.

Basic Theistic Belief

1986 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-464
Author(s):  
Bredo C. Johnsen
Keyword(s):  
Alvin Plantinga ◽  
Parallel Argument ◽  
Belief In God ◽  
Reductio Ad Absurdum ◽  
Positive Argument ◽  
Theistic Belief

In several recent writings and in the 1980 Freemantle Lectures at Oxford, Alvin Plantinga has defended the idea that belief in God is ‘properly basic,’ by which he means that it is perfectly rational to hold such a belief without basing it on any other beliefs. The defense falls naturally into two broad parts: a positive argument for the rationality of such beliefs, and a rebuttal of the charge that if such a positive argument ‘succeeds,’ then a parallel argument will ‘succeed’ equally well in showing that belief in the Great Pumpkin is properly basic. (It is taken as obvious that ‘the Great Pumpkin objection,’ unrebutted, would constitute a reductio ad absurdum of the claim that the positive argument had succeeded in proving anything at all.) In this essay I shall argue both that Plantinga has partially misconceived the objection, and that he has not succeeded, indeed cannot succeed, in rebutting it, for the objection does in fact constitute a reductio ad absurdum of his position. For the sake of ease of exposition, I shall first provide a bare sketch of the positive argument, though I shall discuss it directly only as it bears on the attempted reductio.

Medical Education and the Challenge of Race

2019 ◽  
pp. 111-128
Author(s):  
John Hoberman
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Cultural Competency ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Medical Schools ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Encounters

Medical curricula in the United States have never addressed the racial dimension of American medicine in an adequate, let alone systematic, way. Medical schools have instead marginalized race and ethnicity as unnecessary for medical education. This chapter argues that medical students should understand the breadth and depth of the health crises in American minority communities. Many medical schools have implemented so-called cultural competency courses that are supposed to improve the interracial and cross-cultural medical relationships future doctors will have with their patients. The consensus is that this type of instruction has proven to be inadequate to its task. In fact, much “cultural competency” instruction actually excludes the examination of black–white relationships and other cross-cultural encounters and the racial scenarios that arise in medical settings. Medical students should be informed about the ways in which cross-racial relationships (doctor–patient and doctor–doctor) can go wrong and have dysfunctional effects on medical treatment. In addition, these often superficial, episodic, and underfunded activities tend to focus on patient behaviors while leaving unexamined the racial belief systems of medical students and doctors. The chapter offers two strategies for pedagogy to address these issues: interpersonal relations within the medical culture and the racial dimension of diagnoses and treatments within the medical subdisciplines that medical students study. Medical students should be aware of these habits of thought and how they can affect the diagnosis and treatment of minority patients. The chapter ends by describing the author’s initial course offering on the topic.

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