scholarly journals Atheists

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah R. Schiavone ◽  
Will M Gervais

Atheists represent an inconspicuous minority, identifiable only by their disbelief in God(s). Despite being highly stigmatized and disliked, until recent scientific endeavors, little has been known about this group including why they don’t believe, how many people are atheists, and why they trigger intense reactions. Thus, this paper aims to synthesize what is known about atheists (so far), and to help explain the widespread negative attitudes and prejudice towards atheists; the possible cognitive, motivational, and cultural origins of disbelief; and the unique challenges facing the study of religious disbelievers. To do so, we will explore current findings in psychological research on atheism by considering the complex interactions of cultural learning, motivations, and core cognitive processes. Although significant scientific progress has been made in understanding the factors underlying atheism, there remains much to be explored in the domain of religious disbelief.

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1599) ◽  
pp. 2181-2191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Heyes

Cumulative cultural evolution is what ‘makes us odd’; our capacity to learn facts and techniques from others, and to refine them over generations, plays a major role in making human minds and lives radically different from those of other animals. In this article, I discuss cognitive processes that are known collectively as ‘cultural learning’ because they enable cumulative cultural evolution. These cognitive processes include reading, social learning, imitation, teaching, social motivation and theory of mind. Taking the first of these three types of cultural learning as examples, I ask whether and to what extent these cognitive processes have been adapted genetically or culturally to enable cumulative cultural evolution. I find that recent empirical work in comparative psychology, developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience provides surprisingly little evidence of genetic adaptation, and ample evidence of cultural adaptation. This raises the possibility that it is not only ‘grist’ but also ‘mills’ that are culturally inherited; through social interaction in the course of development, we not only acquire facts about the world and how to deal with it (grist), we also build the cognitive processes that make ‘fact inheritance’ possible (mills).


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maykel Verkuyten ◽  
Kumar Yogeeswaran

Abstract. Multiculturalism has been criticized and rejected by an increasing number of politicians, and social psychological research has shown that it can lead to outgroup stereotyping, essentialist thinking, and negative attitudes. Interculturalism has been proposed as an alternative diversity ideology, but there is almost no systematic empirical evidence about the impact of interculturalism on the acceptance of migrants and minority groups. Using data from a survey experiment conducted in the Netherlands, we examined the situational effect of promoting interculturalism on acceptance. The results show that for liberals, but not for conservatives, interculturalism leads to more positive attitudes toward immigrant-origin groups and increased willingness to engage in contact, relative to multiculturalism.


Author(s):  
Thomas N. Sherratt ◽  
David M. Wilkinson

Why do we age? Why cooperate? Why do so many species engage in sex? Why do the tropics have so many species? When did humans start to affect world climate? This book provides an introduction to a range of fundamental questions that have taxed evolutionary biologists and ecologists for decades. Some of the phenomena discussed are, on first reflection, simply puzzling to understand from an evolutionary perspective, whilst others have direct implications for the future of the planet. All of the questions posed have at least a partial solution, all have seen exciting breakthroughs in recent years, yet many of the explanations continue to be hotly debated. Big Questions in Ecology and Evolution is a curiosity-driven book, written in an accessible way so as to appeal to a broad audience. It is very deliberately not a formal text book, but something designed to transmit the excitement and breadth of the field by discussing a number of major questions in ecology and evolution and how they have been answered. This is a book aimed at informing and inspiring anybody with an interest in ecology and evolution. It reveals to the reader the immense scope of the field, its fundamental importance, and the exciting breakthroughs that have been made in recent years.


2021 ◽  
Vol 137 (2) ◽  
pp. 344-361
Author(s):  
Philippe Del Giudice

Abstract A new project has just been launched to write a synchronic, descriptive grammar of Niçois, the Occitan dialect of Nice. In this article, I define the corpus of the research. To do so, I first review written production from the Middle Ages to the present. I then analyze the linguistic features of Niçois over time, in order to determine the precise starting point of the current language state. But because of reinforced normativism and the decreasing social use of Niçois among the educated population, written language after WWII became artificial and does not really correspond to recordings made in the field. The corpus will thus be composed of writings from the 1820’s to WWII and recordings from the last few decades.


Humanities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 62
Author(s):  
Emiel Martens

In this article, I consider the representation of African-Caribbean religions in the early horror adventure film from a postcolonial perspective. I do so by zooming in on Ouanga (1935), Obeah (1935), and Devil’s Daughter (1939), three low-budget horror productions filmed on location in Jamaica during the 1930s (and the only films shot on the island throughout that decade). First, I discuss the emergence of depictions of African-Caribbean religious practices of voodoo and obeah in popular Euro-American literature, and show how the zombie figure entered Euro-American empire cinema in the 1930s as a colonial expression of tropical savagery and jungle terror. Then, combining historical newspaper research with content analyses of these films, I present my exploration into the three low-budget horror films in two parts. The first part contains a discussion of Ouanga, the first sound film ever made in Jamaica and allegedly the first zombie film ever shot on location in the Caribbean. In this early horror adventure, which was made in the final year of the U.S. occupation of Haiti, zombies were portrayed as products of evil supernatural powers to be oppressed by colonial rule. In the second part, I review Obeah and The Devil’s Daughter, two horror adventure movies that merely portrayed African-Caribbean religion as primitive superstition. While Obeah was disturbingly set on a tropical island in the South Seas infested by voodoo practices and native cannibals, The Devil’s Daughter was authorized by the British Board of Censors to show black populations in Jamaica and elsewhere in the colonial world that African-Caribbean religions were both fraudulent and dangerous. Taking into account both the production and content of these movies, I show that these 1930s horror adventure films shot on location in Jamaica were rooted in a long colonial tradition of demonizing and terrorizing African-Caribbean religions—a tradition that lasts until today.


Author(s):  
Åse Eriksen
Keyword(s):  
Made In ◽  

Patterned silks came to Scandinavia as small pieces of reused material, but they were still valuable for the Vikings to have been used as trimmings on their garments. In over a millennium, the weave structure of samitum in these fragments was used in all patterned silk. In the medieval it was displaced in favor for other structures. It has lapsed into obscurity for weavers today. For several reasons the study of these silks has been difficult. The fragments are fragile. They were not made in Norway. Few have mastered this weaving technique.  Is it possible to reconstruct these ancient silks, based on the knowledge gained from studying historical silks and experience acquired from using the structure in modern textiles? This article is about my attempt to do so, and also my reflections of the possible longtime impact on these silks on the weaving tradition in Norway.


Visualidades ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 93
Author(s):  
Victor Junger
Keyword(s):  
Made In ◽  

Procuro pensar a multiplicidade de relações estabelecidas entre os praticantes e as imagens fotográficas em meio à ocupação imagética realizada no colégio, no âmbito de minha pesquisa de mestrado, tomando a sua aparição momentânea como acontecimento de criação da escola, assim como das visibilidades presididas em seus contextos. Para tanto, apenas me deterei sobre os deslocamentos e desaparecimentos das fotografias no dispositivo da ocupação, bem como acerca das rasuras e inscrições marcadas na superfície das imagens, como indícios de um território dinâmico, polêmico, e não menos poético, desta visualidade que, incessante, se faz instaurar nos espaços e tempos da escola. AbstractLooking for thinking the multiplicity of relations between practitioners and photographic images through the imagistic occupation held at the college as part of my master's research, taking its momentary appearance as a happening of school creation, as well as chaired the visibilities in their contexts. To do so, just dwell on the displacements and disappearances of the photos in the occupation dispositive, as well as about the erasures and markings to the surface of the images as evidence of a dynamic, controversial territory, and no less poetic, of this visuality that, incessantly, is made in the spaces and times of the school. ResumenBusco pensar la multiplicidad de relaciones establecidas entre los practicantes y las imágenes fotográficas en medio a la ocupación imagética realizada en el colegio, en el ámbito de mi investigación de maestría, tomando su aparición momentánea como acontecimiento de creación de la escuela, así como de las visibilidades presididas en sus contextos. Para ello, sólo me detendré sobre los desplazamientos y desapariciones de las fotografías en el dispositivo de la ocupación, así como sobre las rasuras e inscripciones marcadas en la superficie de las imágenes, como indicios de un territorio dinámico, polémico, y no menos poético, de esta visualidad que, incesante, se hace instaurar en los espacios y tiempos de la escuela.


2015 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-77
Author(s):  
Herbert Schwarzenberger ◽  
Stephan Muehlbacher ◽  
Cécile Bazart ◽  
Lucas Unger ◽  
Erich Kirchler

A representative sample of 471 Austrian self-employed taxpayers was investigated and types of taxpayers selected on the basis of their motivational postures were extracted. By means of a cluster analysis four basic clusters of taxpayers were identified. ‘Solidary’ taxpayers pay their taxes because they perceive the tax system as fair. ‘Non-solidary’ taxpayers experience their tax burden as unfair. ‘Critical’ taxpayers feel unfairly treated and show high resistance but do not necessarily react by evading taxes. ‘Strategic’ taxpayers feel fairly treated but still try to reduce their tax burden if they perceive the opportunity to do so. The results show that positive and negative attitudes, respectively, to taxes do not necessarily lead to tax compliance or tax evasion. Cooperative and uncooperative behaviour originates from different motives.


Author(s):  
Łukasz Łuniewski ◽  
Barbara Gołębiewska

The aim of the research was to evaluate the sources of financing agricultural activities in farms specialized in milk production. The subject of research was a group of family farms located in the Podlaskie and Mazowieckie voivodeships (provinces). The criterion for farm division was the number of cows in the basic herd. There was also an assessment of the most important factors conducive to the development of dairy farms. To do so, the opinions of dairy farmers were used, and their views in this regard were expressed on a five-point Likert scale. The research was conducted on a sample of 100 farms in 2021. The interpretation of the results was made in relation to the criterion adopted in the division of farms into quartiles. It was found that the main source of financing activities in dairy farms was own funds. The highest share of farms using commercial loans was in the group of farms with the largest number of cows. With an increase in the number of cows in a herd, the area of farms increased, which is understandable due to the need to produce roughage. The most important factors influencing the development possibilities of agricultural holdings were the uninterrupted collection of raw material and a stable milk purchase price, which guaranteed the farmers’ financial liquidity.


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