The Religious Belief System: A Further Refinement on the Defined Relationship between Religion and Society

1971 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Kristen Wenzel
Keyword(s):  
Religious Belief ◽  
Belief System ◽  
System A

Belief System: A Barrier to the Use of Modern Contraceptives among the Idoma of Benue State, North Central Nigeria

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 600-616
Author(s):  
Chiemezie Scholastica Atama ◽  
Uzoma Odera Okoye ◽  
Amelia Ngozi Odo ◽  
Aloysius Odii ◽  
Uche Teresa Okonkwo
Keyword(s):  
Contraceptive Use ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Modern Contraceptive ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
North Central ◽  
System A ◽  
Modern Contraceptives ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
Modern Contraceptive Use

Despite the benefit of modern contraception, its use remains low in Nigeria. This study examined belief system as a barrier to the use of modern contraceptives among the Idoma of Benue State, North Central Nigeria. Questionnaire ( n = 1107), in-depth interview ( n = 6) and focus group discussion ( n = 52) were used to collect data from three local government areas (LGAs). The results showed high levels of knowledge (88.0%), however, only 37.8% used modern contraceptives. The male condom had the highest percentage use (56.7%). Chi-square results showed that LGA, education and occupation were significantly related to the use of modern contraceptives. Being of greater age increased the likelihood of use, whereas higher levels of education and income decreased the likelihood of modern contraceptive use ( p < 0.05). Qualitative data indicated that married women were expected to eschew modern contraceptives due to their belief in Alekwu, the community deity. Designing interventions that are culturally specific could promote use of modern contraceptives among the group.

The Secularization Debate

2020 ◽  
pp. 37-45
Author(s):  
Ronald F. Inglehart
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Church Attendance ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Religious Attendance ◽  
Traditional Religion ◽  
Religious Competition ◽  
The World

Well into the 20th century, leading social thinkers argued that religious beliefs reflected a prescientific worldview that would disappear as scientific rationality spread throughout the world. Though the creationism of traditional religion did give way to evolutionary worldviews, this failed to discredit religion among the general public. Religious markets theory argues that the key to flourishing religiosity is strong religious competition, but recent research found no relationship between religious pluralism and religious attendance. The individualization thesis claims that declining church attendance does not reflect declining religiosity; subjective forms of religion are simply replacing institutionalized ones. But empirical evidence indicates that individual religious belief is declining even more rapidly than church attendance. Secularization’s opponents hold that humans will always need religion. This claim seems true if it is broadened to hold that humans will always need a belief system. Norris and Inglehart argue that as survival becomes more secure, it reduces the demand for religion.

scholarly journals End of Life: A Family Narrative

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen K. Black ◽  
Miriam S. Moss ◽  
Robert L. Rubinstein ◽  
Sidney Z. Moss
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Extreme Case ◽  
Spiritual Beliefs ◽  
System A ◽  
Biological Children ◽  
Family Narrative ◽  
The Family

This paper is based on ethnographic research that examines family reaction to an elderly husband and father's end of life. From a group of 30 families in our study (family defined as a widow aged 70 and over and two adult biological children between the ages of 40 and 60), we offer an extreme case example of family bereavement. We report our findings through the open-ended responses of a widow and two children who were interviewed ten months after the death of the husband and father. Three general themes emerged: (1) how the family imputes meaning to the end of life, (2) changes in the roles of family members, and (3) the family's ways of coping with the death, particularly through their belief system. A key finding is that the meaning family members find in their loved one's death is tied to the context of his death (how and where he died), their perception of his quality of life as a whole, and their philosophical, religious, and spiritual beliefs about life, death, and the afterlife that are already in place.

scholarly journals If a Client is Operating From a Samoan World View How can S/He be Holistically and Appropriately Treated Under the Western Medical Model?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Folole Iaeli Esera
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
World View ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Health Service Delivery ◽  
Mental Health Service Delivery ◽  
System A ◽  
Mental Problems ◽  
The Mind

<p>This paper is an analysis of the cultural and traditional factors that I believe are essential considerations in the treatment of Samoan people who have been diagnosed with a mental illness.  Just as important to any diagnosis is the spiritual nature of our culture and traditions, which forms the most part of my people's belief system. A full understanding of these will explain how the traditional beliefs and cultural values of Samoan people have an impact on their perception of mental illness, its causes and cures. Greater emphasis will be placed on 'ma'i -aitu', the Samoan term for most ailments pertaining to the mind or psyche.  The focus will be on defining 'ma'i -aitu' as part of a Samoan world view and likewise a description of a similar type of manifestation in the Papalagi (western) context of a psychiatric disorder and how treatment and management is usually undertaken.  The issues addressed in this paper will serve to highlight the Samoan client's world view from a Samoan perspective of mental illness which then poses the question of how they can be managed holistically and appropriately under the Papalagi medical system. Furthermore, does the traditional belief system of Samoans run deeper than we originally thought and can the replacement thereof by a foreign culture be responsible for the increased mental problems in Samoans living in New Zealand?  This paper emphasises the importance of integrating the western medical model and Samoan health models, for appropriate mental health service delivery to Samoan people.</p>

scholarly journals Development and Validation of Religious Belief System Scale

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shivani Dangi ◽  
Y K Nagle
Keyword(s):  
Religious Belief ◽  
Item Analysis ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Good Test ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Adolescents And Adults ◽  
High Internal Consistency ◽  
Test Retest Reliability ◽  
Development And Validation

The literature cites multiple definitions for religiosity, with little consensus among researchers. Religiosity has been associated with a myriad of positive outcomes in both adolescents and adults. Religiosity refers to the degree to which a person adheres to his or her religious values, beliefs and practices and uses them in daily life. Religiosity is still an emerging concept in the developing countries such as India, though rich culture has enriched in the past. Confining to various definitions of Religiosity the study attempts to evolve a Religious belief System scale in an Indian context. With exploration of literature and expert reviews, various attributes of belief System scale was initiated with a pool of 164 items. These items were subjected to experts’ opinion and reduced to 136. The scale was administered on a sample of 456 participants and the item analysis was carried out the having more than 0.35and above value were retained for factor analysis. After initial factor analyses the scale was again administered on a sample of 550 participants. The principal component analyses were employed and 48 items were retained covering three factor i.e. Belief, Attitude and values. The measure demonstrated high internal consistency and good test-retest reliability as well as validity.

Dealing with Religious Resistances in Psychotherapy

1994 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 249-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Narramore
Keyword(s):  
Religious Belief ◽  
Emotional Health ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Psychotherapeutic Process ◽  
Defensive Structure

Managing resistance to insight and change is one of the central tasks in psychotherapy. When working with religious patients, therapists face the added task of dealing with resistances which may be supported by the patient's religious belief system. When this happens, therapists may be tempted to either avoid confronting the resistances for fear of undermining (or being accused of undermining) the patient's faith or to interpret the resistances in ways that do either undermine the patient's faith, or at least imply that faith is irrelevant to the patient's emotional health. This article deals with the management of resistances with Christian patients who are using their religious faith to reinforce their defensive structure in the psychotherapeutic process.

Concluding Reflections

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Wuthnow
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Sense Of Community ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Institutional Framework ◽  
Community Values ◽  
System A ◽  
Leadership Structure

This chapter considers the various factors that contribute to residents' sense of community in small towns. The discussion draws from Suzanne Keller's ethnographic study of community life in which she identifies ten key building blocks of community: territory or turf, membership criteria, an institutional framework, cultural values, a belief system, a myth of community, rituals and celebrations, a leadership structure, social networks, and the spirit of community. Keller's use of the term “institutional framework” refers to the laws, rules, sanctions, and rewards that provide governance to a community, whereas community values include cooperation and sharing. Community spirit in small towns is reinforced through periodic rituals that draw people out of their homes and away from work long enough to enjoy one another's company, engage in celebratory activities that involve sharing, and do something that explicitly reminds them that they are residents who have something in common.

‘A Double Face of False and True’

2019 ◽  
pp. 62-77
Author(s):  
Michael O'Neill
Keyword(s):  
Religious Belief ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Christian Belief ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Language ◽  
Poetic Vision

Chapter 3 traces the movements of Shelley’s ideas and attitudes toward religion throughout his life and writings. It views Shelley as a far more nuanced religious thinker than is often implied by critics. It identifies the ambivalence with which Shelley, a self-styled atheist, approaches religious belief—especially Christian modes of belief—and the ways in which Shelley wrestles with and subverts the boundaries between the secular and the religious. The chapter examines how Shelley’s imagination adapts the language of religious belief in order to articulate poetic vision and experience. It traces many of Shelley’s allusions to the Bible and identifies the ways in which Shelley ‘incessantly reorchestrate[s]’ Biblical language in his works. It identifies the treatment of religion in other Romantic poets, such as Wordsworth and Blake, and shows how Shelley’s poetry departs from their approaches to religion. The chapter also probes a recurring idea in Shelley’s poetry and writings that there is some power or spirit that affects human souls, that originates within or, just possibly, beyond humanity, and has characteristics that influence and are influenced by poets. For Shelley, poetry is religion and poets are prophets and seekers of truth. The chapter also discusses Shelley’s religious prose and the ways in which his writings about God, belief, and religion ‘[reveal] a double rhythm’ in which Shelley ranges from scientific examination to ‘eruptions of latent feeling’. The chapter concludes with a study of Shelley’s final poem, the unfinished Triumph of Life, showing that throughout the poem there ghosts a ‘Christian belief-system that is never wholly abandoned or forgotten’.

Foundation of Religious Beliefs after Foundationalism: Wittgenstein between Nielsen and Phillips

1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-267
Author(s):  
Yong Huang
Keyword(s):  
Religious Belief ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Main Part ◽  
Reflective Equilibrium ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Beliefs And Practices

Religious beliefs have often been taken either as absolutely foundational to all others or as ultimately founded on something else. This essay starts with an endorsement of the contemporary critique of foundationalism but sets its task as to search for the foundation(s) of religious belief after foundationalism. In its third and main part, it argues for a Wittgensteinian reflective equilibrium (within a belief system, between believing and acting and among people with different ways of believing and acting) as such a foundation. In this reflective equilibrium, religious beliefs are no more and no less foundational to, or founded by, other beliefs and practices. To appreciate this perspective better, I argue,in the first part, that Kai Neilsen's charge of Wittgenstein as a fideist is not accurate, and, in the second part, that D. Z. Phillips's fideistic contentions are unWittgensteinian.

In Their Image

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 5-25
Author(s):  
Abra Staffin-Wiebe ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Religious Culture ◽  
Religious Leader ◽  
Life Purpose ◽  
Mission Work

Religion, and the desire to find purpose, and often paramount to culture. In this work of philosophical short story fiction, a priest from earth is sent to another planet to continuing the mission work of his predecessor. The planet is inhabited by “teddies” a people with a deep spiritual faith and a belief that it is only by finding and performing one’s life purpose can they serve God’s role. Those that are unable to find their purpose are willingly put to death so that, according to their belief system, they can be reincarnated and make a new attempt at finding their purpose. The visiting human religious leader is appalled by this religious belief, and the religious culture. He goes against the community by helping those that a poor and hungry. This goes against the culture as the teddies see those that are poor or hungry and serving their purpose; they were born to live hungry and poor. This story, like all After Dinner Conversation stories, has suggested discussion questions at the end.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document