5. THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO (I THINK): Recent Trends in Religious Beliefs

2016 ◽  
pp. 89-111
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Recent Trends

scholarly journals Kontrowersje wokół powstania człowieka - wstępna analiza ankiet studentów

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Jacek Tomczyk ◽  
Grzegorz Bugajak
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Popular Literature ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Origins ◽  
University Professors ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Book Of Genesis ◽  
Origin Of Man

The paper presents the results of the research which was carried out as a part of the project: Current controversies about human origins. Between anthropology and the Bible, this project was focused on the supposed conflict between natural sciences and theology (or religious beliefs) with regard to the origin of man. The research was aimed at finding out whether such a conflict really exits. For we cannot exclude the possibility that these controversies have no factual ground and their significance is inflated by American popular literature. If, on the other hand, we assume that the conflict is real, it should be worthwhile examining its sources. Such an approach may prove helpful in systematize the highly emotional debates about the origin of man. One of the ways of tackling the issue was a questionnaire which was distributed among students, teachers and university professors. Our respondents represented three disciplines: theology, philosophy and natural sciences, t t e paper presents selected results of the questionnaire which was addressed to a group of students, they were asked to fill in the form consisting of eleven questions, these questions concerned the following issues: the existence of the conflict between evolutionism and creationism, the definitions of creation and evolution, the existence of the spiritual element in man, and the ways of interpreting the Bible (esp. the first chapters of the Book of Genesis).

Belief

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Chaves
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Young People ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Spiritual But Not Religious ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Recent Growth

This chapter focuses on one of the few traditional religious beliefs that truly declined in recent decades: believing that the Bible is the inerrant word of God. Generational turnover is an important part of this trend, with more recently born individuals much less likely to believe in an inerrant Bible than those born longer ago. The overall percentage of those who believe that the Bible is the literal word of God declined slowly but surely as younger generations replaced older generations who had stricter views about the Bible. Social change occurring in this way can be gradual, but still profound. The chapter also looks at the recent growth in diffuse spirituality, including the rising number of people—especially young people—who say that they are spiritual but not religious.

Belief in Life After Death and Attitudes Toward Voluntary Euthanasia

2017 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shane Sharp
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Sociodemographic Factors ◽  
Religious Attendance ◽  
Voluntary Euthanasia ◽  
Life After Death ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Positive Attitudes

Research has documented associations among religious affiliation, religious practice, and attitudes toward voluntary euthanasia, yet very few studies have investigated how particular religious beliefs influence these attitudes. I use data from the General Social Survey (GSS; N = 19,967) to evaluate the association between the belief in life after death and attitudes toward voluntary euthanasia. I find that those who believe in life after death are significantly less likely than those who do not believe in life after death or those who doubt the existence of life after death to have positive attitudes toward voluntary euthanasia. These associations hold even after controlling for religious affiliation, religious attendance, views of the Bible, and sociodemographic factors. The findings indicate that to understand individuals’ views about voluntary euthanasia, one must pay attention to individuals’ particular religious beliefs.

scholarly journals Recent Trends in Freshwater Pearl Farming in India

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shailesh Saurabh ◽  
Sweta Pradhan ◽  
Sonal Suman
Keyword(s):  
Fish Farming ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Freshwater Aquaculture ◽  
Freshwater Habitats ◽  
Pearl Quality ◽  
Recent Trends

Cultured pearls have an important place in international trade. The Vedas, the Bible, and the Koran all mentioned pearls, and they are regarded as one of the highest honours. Pearls are generated in nature when an irritant, such as a sand grain or a parasite, is swept into the pearl molluscs and lodged within it, where it is coated with micro-layers of nacre, a lustrous substance made up of 80–90 per cent aragonite crystals of CaCO3. The ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA), Kausalyaganga, Bhubaneswar, India, has created a base technology for cultivating pearls in freshwater habitats, recognising the scope and value of freshwater pearl production. Indian pond mussel, Lamellidens marginalis is the major species used in freshwater pearl aquaculture. In addition, ICAR-CIFA has pioneered a novel feature of freshwater pearl farming. The Institute has also taken the lead in disseminating freshwater pearl culture technology to the country’s fish farming communities, entrepreneurs, researchers, and students to build a sustainable model for the country’s socio-economic development. In this chapter, we will briefly cover pearls and their types, their historical significance, the spread of pearl mussels of freshwater origin in various countries, pearl biomineralisation, pearl farming techniques, and factors affecting pearl quality, among other things.

Defamiliarizing the popular image of the bible in some contemporary rewritings in english

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Ewa Rychter
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Status ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Popular Image ◽  
Fervent Believer

Abstract This paper focuses on the ways some recent British and Irish rewritings of the Bible estrange what has become the publicly accepted and dominant image of the biblical text. Recently, the Bible has been given the status of “home scripture” (Sherwood, Yvonne. 2012. Biblical Blaspheming: Trials of the Sacred for a Secular Age. Cambridge: CUP) and become a domesticated and conservative text, a rather placid cultural/literary monument, an important foundation of democracy, a venerable religious document judged more tolerant and liberal than other scriptures. Though the Bible used to be perceived as an explosive text, peppered with potentially offensive passages, today its enmity is neutralised either by linking the Bible with ancient times or by relating it to people’s religious beliefs and by entrenching its more scandalous parts within the discourse of tolerance. It is such an anodyne image of the Bible that the biblical rewritings of Roberts, Winterson, Barnes, Crace, Pullman, Tóibin, Alderman, Diski defamiliarize. By showing biblical events through the eyes of various non-standard focalizers, those novels disrupt the formulaic patterns of the contemporary perception of the Bible. It is through these strange perspectives that we observe the critical moment when the overall meaning and the role of the biblical text is established and the biblical story is actually written down. Importantly, it is also the moment when somebody moulds the scripture according to their ideas and glosses over all the complexities, violence and immorality related to the events the biblical text describes. Also, contemporary biblical rewritings defamiliarize the currently popular image of the Bible – that of a whitewashed text which inculcates morality, conserves social order and teaches love and tolerance, by employing images of disintegration, dirt and contagion as well as by constructing a figure of a fervent believer in the Bible and its ideas.

scholarly journals Badania nad konwersją: nowe trendy, metody, wyzwania

2021 ◽  
pp. 425-436
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Jagodzińska
Keyword(s):  
Review Article ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Recent Trends

Research on Jewish Conversion: New Trends, Methods, and Challenges This review article addresses the recent popularity of studies on Jewish conversion. In particular, it examines the volume Bastards and Believers: Jewish Converts and Conversion from the Bible to the Present edited by Theodor Dunkelgrün and PawełMaciejko (Philadelphia, 2020). The author of the article suggests looking at this volume as at a representative example of recent trends, themes, methods, and challenges present in studying Jewish conversion.

scholarly journals THE SOURCES OF COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES’ MINIATURES OF ANIMALS: THE CASE OF THE “UNICORN”

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 531-546
Author(s):  
V Christides
Keyword(s):  
Red Sea ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Cosmological Theory ◽  
Made In

The aim of this paper is to trace the sources of the Byzantine author Cosmas Indicopleustes’ miniatures of animals, in particular of the “unicorn”, in his work Christian topography. Cosmas, a sixth century seaman and merchant, wrote his work, Christian topography, based on his personal experience travelling in the Red Sea and beyond. Although his main aim was to enhance religious beliefs, his work yields important geographical information concerning navigation, peoples and animals of various countries neighbouring the Red Sea and beyond. His description of various exotic countries is decorated with drawings and numerous designs relevant to his cosmological interpretation of the Bible. While Cosmas’ cosmological theory and the relevant designs have been studied by a number of scholars, little attention has been paid to his drawings of animals based on his travelling experience. An attempt is made in this study to trace the origin of Cosmas Indicopleustes’ illustrations of animals, focusing on the unicorn. Furthermore, a comparison with similar drawings found in Arabic manuscripts is added. An effort is also made in this study to draw information not only from the pictorial evidence but also from the literary tradition of the original Greek and Arabic sources.

scholarly journals The transmutation of bogwera in Luke 2:21 in the 1857 English-Setswana Bible

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Itumeleng D. Mothoagae
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
The Political ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Ideological Criticism ◽  
Central Figure ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Political Economic

In her article on ‘translating ngaka’ (diviner-healer), Musa Dube argues that in the writings of Robert Moffat and subsequently in his translation of the Bible into Setswana, the person of the ngaka, rather than being portrayed as occupying a central and positive role in Setswana culture, is relegated to a marginal position and is even depicted as evil and an imposter. The article seeks to argue that firstly, there is a fundamental connection between ngaka and bogwera in Setswana tradition. This is because ngaka performed the rite of initiation and was a central figure in the circumcision (rupa) of those undergoing the rite of imitation. Secondly, in his 1857 English–Setswana Bible Moffat alters the word bogwera in Luke 2:21. In representing and translating bogwera as circumcision in Luke 2:21 Moffat rewrites and reorders the political, economic and religious beliefs of Batswana. It is in the transmogrification of bogwera in Luke 2:21 that an act of hybridisation and creolisation takes place through the ordering of the Batswana cosmology and culture. I would further argue that not only did this marginalisation colour the perceptions of the Batswana regarding bogwera, but also that the translated text was used as a tool to disrupt, marginalise, replace, subvert and colonise the spiritual spaces of the Batswana. Furthermore, the article attempts to critically engage with the translated text from an ideological criticism within postcolonial theory, engaging with the fundamental question: why did Moffat translate and alter bogwera as circumcision rather than using the proper word which is rupa (circumcision)? Selected letters published in the newspaper Mahoko a Becwana (Words of Batswana) are quoted and discussed, as it is in these letters that we are confronted with an act of hybridisation and creolisation. The letters also point to the effects of such a translation and transmogrification as a discursive tool to reorder and to pervert the Batswana cosmology and culture. In translating and altering circumcision as bogwera Moffat performs an act of mutation of meaning. It is in this morphing of bogwera into something that is charged with negativity in order to reorder and rewrite through an exercise of transmutation that Moffat attempts to subvert and to indoctrinate, resulting in the subversion of the spiritual spaces of Batswana.

Religious Enlightenment and Awakening

2019 ◽  
pp. 37-74
Author(s):  
Andrew Kloes
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
The Awakening ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

This chapter examines how a distinctive historical consciousness informed how awakened Protestants understood their religious beliefs and activities. An intrinsic problem that is common to the historical study of all strongly partisan movements in the history of Protestantism is understanding the mentality, or worldview, of those who desired to see religious changes. To understand the Awakening movement, there is a need to understand what the Protestant activists wanted to awaken. This chapter answers this question by considering two competing interpretations of the history of modern Protestantism that appeared within the Protestant churches of Germany before and during the Awakening. The former of these narratives perceived changes in faith and theology as signs that Christianity was progressively advancing through the providential enlightenment of the church. The latter regarded these same changes as a falling away from the forms of faith and theology that were taught by the Bible.

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