Religious Knowledge Systems: Usage
Historical development
LITERAL/FUNDAMENTALIST, CONSERVATIVE, AND LIBERAL
A literal/fundamentalist is someone who believes in a strict literal interpretation of scripture. This is not limited to matters of faith and morals but also as a literal historical record. For instance, a literal/fundamentalist in the Christian faith belief in such doctrines as the creation of the world, the virgin birth, physical resurrection, atonement by the sacrificial death of Christ, and the Second Coming.
Conservatives principally seek to apply the teachings of particular religions to politics, sometimes by merely proclaiming the value of those teachings, at other times by having those teachings influence laws. Abortion, drug use, sexual activity besides within a marriage, and homosexuality are things conservatives usually oppose.
Religious liberalism is an approach to religion which is rationalistic, humanistic, and critical. Liberalism is a modern outlook that harps on freedom from tradition and authority, the development of spiritual capacities, and the adjustment of religious beliefs to scientific conceptions.
The debate between these three have led to different denominations of religions, for example, Judaism has Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. Christianity has many denominations including Protestants, Catholics, Methodist, and Baptist.
IMPACT OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE
Religion has been around longer than science and they are both very different ways of knowing. The central difference between the nature of science and religion is that the claims of science rely on experimental verification, while the claims of religions rely on faith. Because of this both are incompatible as currently practiced. However, science does have an impact on religion.
It was in the 19th century that relationship between science and religion became a formal topic of discussion, while before this no one had put science against religion or vice versa. Scientific and theological perspectives often coexist peacefully. Christians and a few of the non-Christian religions have historically integrated well with scientific ideas. Although admittedly embarrassingly late to the science game, the Vatican issued a formal apology to Galileo, who was also imprisoned for his scientific beliefs, in 1992, and now employs an official Vatican astronomer. The Big Bang Theory was originally developed by none other than Georges Lemaître, a Belgian physicist, astronomer, and Catholic priest. There also is the flourishing of logic and mathematics under Hinduism and Buddhism, and the scientific advances made by Muslim scholars during the Ottoman empire.
RELIGION AND LANGUAGE
Religion and human languages have evolved to be learned easily by undeveloped minds. Religion is acquired by children in a very similar way to language. Many people are taught religion literally as an infant, and religions infused early in life in this way have a different "feel" from those that may be adopted later as the result of conversion.
Acquiring a religion involves to some extent learning a new vocabulary and syntax because what is said may partially condition what can be thought, the use of such speech patterns will have subtle psychological effects on the speakers, tending to limit what can be named and hence what can be thought. Consequently, religion and language are closely connected at the structural level. Many religions have a sacred language (Hebrew for Judaism, classical Arabic for Islam, Sanskrit for Hinduism, Pali for Theravada Buddhism). Because religions are generally ancient the languages they use are often partially or wholly unintelligible to the ordinary person and sometimes the clergy. Early on in history, languages were spread with the distributions of religious literatures. The evolution of language has coincided with the evolution of religion by allowing accessibility to new religions through translation.
Leon P.
LITERAL/FUNDAMENTALIST, CONSERVATIVE, AND LIBERAL
A literal/fundamentalist is someone who believes in a strict literal interpretation of scripture. This is not limited to matters of faith and morals but also as a literal historical record. For instance, a literal/fundamentalist in the Christian faith belief in such doctrines as the creation of the world, the virgin birth, physical resurrection, atonement by the sacrificial death of Christ, and the Second Coming.
Conservatives principally seek to apply the teachings of particular religions to politics, sometimes by merely proclaiming the value of those teachings, at other times by having those teachings influence laws. Abortion, drug use, sexual activity besides within a marriage, and homosexuality are things conservatives usually oppose.
Religious liberalism is an approach to religion which is rationalistic, humanistic, and critical. Liberalism is a modern outlook that harps on freedom from tradition and authority, the development of spiritual capacities, and the adjustment of religious beliefs to scientific conceptions.
The debate between these three have led to different denominations of religions, for example, Judaism has Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. Christianity has many denominations including Protestants, Catholics, Methodist, and Baptist.
IMPACT OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE
Religion has been around longer than science and they are both very different ways of knowing. The central difference between the nature of science and religion is that the claims of science rely on experimental verification, while the claims of religions rely on faith. Because of this both are incompatible as currently practiced. However, science does have an impact on religion.
It was in the 19th century that relationship between science and religion became a formal topic of discussion, while before this no one had put science against religion or vice versa. Scientific and theological perspectives often coexist peacefully. Christians and a few of the non-Christian religions have historically integrated well with scientific ideas. Although admittedly embarrassingly late to the science game, the Vatican issued a formal apology to Galileo, who was also imprisoned for his scientific beliefs, in 1992, and now employs an official Vatican astronomer. The Big Bang Theory was originally developed by none other than Georges Lemaître, a Belgian physicist, astronomer, and Catholic priest. There also is the flourishing of logic and mathematics under Hinduism and Buddhism, and the scientific advances made by Muslim scholars during the Ottoman empire.
RELIGION AND LANGUAGE
Religion and human languages have evolved to be learned easily by undeveloped minds. Religion is acquired by children in a very similar way to language. Many people are taught religion literally as an infant, and religions infused early in life in this way have a different "feel" from those that may be adopted later as the result of conversion.
Acquiring a religion involves to some extent learning a new vocabulary and syntax because what is said may partially condition what can be thought, the use of such speech patterns will have subtle psychological effects on the speakers, tending to limit what can be named and hence what can be thought. Consequently, religion and language are closely connected at the structural level. Many religions have a sacred language (Hebrew for Judaism, classical Arabic for Islam, Sanskrit for Hinduism, Pali for Theravada Buddhism). Because religions are generally ancient the languages they use are often partially or wholly unintelligible to the ordinary person and sometimes the clergy. Early on in history, languages were spread with the distributions of religious literatures. The evolution of language has coincided with the evolution of religion by allowing accessibility to new religions through translation.
Leon P.
Relations to personal knowledge
Religion is usually instilled in people at a very young age and whether true or not the individual will believe the knowledge gained through religion to be unquestionably true. Personal knowledge gained through religion can shape an individual’s view of the world and is a big factor in whether an individual accepts or denies shared knowledge accepted by people outside the religion. The seven dimensions of religion; the ritual, mythological, doctrinal, ethical, social, experiential and material dimensions add up to create shared knowledge accepted to be unquestionably true by believers of a certain religious. This shared knowledge is used by individuals to either accept or deny certain views and ideas accepted as shared knowledge by people outside the religion. Personal experiences can shape an individual’s personal knowledge to make it unique. It can cause an individual to pick and choose elements of shared knowledge from their religious beliefs and shared knowledge from people outside the religion to form their own unique personal beliefs. This may contradict the traditional religious beliefs. For example a Christian person may deviate from their religious beliefs and conform to society’s general shared knowledge by agreeing that gay people should be able to marry. This poses the question of how far can an individual deviate from the standard version of their religion by rejecting certain part of the religion’s shared knowledge, and still be regarded as being part of it?
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Mohammed A.