Discussion
According to theorists such as professor of Religion Michael H. Barnes (2003), a tremendously wide range of different religious beliefs and thought on religion (both across contemporaneous cultures as well as among cultures existing at different historical periods) is exceptionally useful for evaluating the literal truth of specific beliefs in any particular society. On the other hand, it may be possible to strip away those differences that are impossible to reconcile to reveal a more general fundamental religious perspective or tendency that exists as a common natural theme throughout humanity, with specific societal differences more akin to harmonics on the same chord rather than to different chords altogether (Barnes, 2003).
That view is sharply contradicted by several renowned authorities in so-called "hard" sciences, including neurobiological theorist Daniel Dennet, the late paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, Stephen J. Gould, and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. According to their view, any similarity among distant societies with respect to the belief in gods and with respect to a religious perspective is strictly a function of two elements: (1) the natural tendency of all primitive human societies to create fictitious explanations for that which they could not understand, and (2) the exceptionally powerful influence of social learning, especially in connection with anything taught directly by parents to young children (Dawkins, 2006 p84; Dennet, 1996 p 126; Marantz-Henig, 2007 p62).
Furthermore, contemporary research has documented that a fundamental moral impulse and a desire for shared communal values exists in human beings completely apart from any supposed specific inherent desire for a theistic religious perspective (Dawkins, 2006 p 87; Pinker, 2008 p35-6). Likewise, primate research demonstrates that this impulse and the ability to fine shared moral rules is hardly even limited to human beings (Pinker, 2008 p36), and that to the extent human evolution is the source of any common impulse in this regard, it is the only the impulse to establish meaning (even from apparent randomness) rather than a...
I was too proud to heed my wife's warning. But I dared not go against the opinion of my mother and my eldest brother. Nevertheless I pleaded with them saying, 'I know he has the weaknesses you attribute to him, but you do not know his virtues. He cannot lead me astray, as my association with him is meant to reform him. For I am sure that if he
William James, complete religious experience is far more than simply a theoretical, or abstract living-in -- the moment feeling. For him, religion has to be lived and experienced in a wholesome, holistic manner. It has to be conscious and permeate man's entire being. James described this in the following way: If religion be a function by which either God's cause or man's cause is to be really advanced, then he who
Experiencing the Sacred Compare St. Teresa's experience of the spiritual marriage with both Muhammad's Night Journey and the Buddha's Enlightenment. The focus should clearly identify similarities and differences. Teresa of Avila, Muhammad, and the Shakyamuni Buddha all had intense spiritual experiences. Their experience can all be classified as numinous and ecstatic, because they each surrendered their physical selves to experience union with a spiritual dimension. They were each subsumed by their spiritual
Human Nature Book Summary Jeeves, Malcolm. (Editor) From Cells to Souls -- and Beyond. New York: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004. According to Michael Steel in the book edited Malcolm Jeeves entitled From Cells to Souls -- and Beyond, the most critical moral and ethical debate of our time is the relationship of the human being as a 'self' or 'soul' (depending on one's preferred cultural, psychological or religious term for describing
The fact that all of these traditions make the same truth-claims and all believers believe with equal intensity, yet fall short of fully capturing the earth's majesty, calls into question the limits of human being's ability to find a comprehensive explanation for the earth. All the earth, even the weather, not simply the animate elements have power. Ultimately control is impossible, and even the filmmakers are limited in time
Human Trafficking: Comparative Analysis of Human Trafficking in the United States with the World Stephanie I. Specialized Field Project Human Trafficking is a very serious issue that affects every country around the world. Human Trafficking is also known as "Sex Trafficking," or "Modern Day Slavery," which reflects the primary reasons people are bought and sold today -- sex trade and involuntary labor. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) defines sex trafficking as "the
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now