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Summer 2008: Table of Contents
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ReligionBack to top
Social Science and Religion: Epistemology, Metaphysics and Considerations of the Public Good
L.A. Duhs
Abstract:
This paper addresses the relationship between religion and science in terms of the link between social science and religion defined broadly as a commitment to a set of values. It takes as a point of departure Myrdal’s contention that “there is an inevitable a priori element in all scientific work”. Varying a priori definitions of such key concepts as rationality, freedom, equality and of the nature of humankind, are embedded in all social science theories, and commonly serve to underpin disagreements between contending schools of thought. Hence the quip that the only prerequisite for the study of comparative economic systems is the study of comparative religion.
Metaphysics and epistemology are therefore of uncommon importance, but their consideration is nonetheless commonly excluded from the training of social scientists. The social sciences are increasingly dominated by the view that the ‘big picture’ epistemological and metaphysical debates have been resolved and that the way forward now is through empirical testing of specific hypotheses. Yet, as Sen puts it, the understanding of the public good implicit in much of the social sciences is very questionable, and “an incorrect theory can kill”. Continuing controversies e.g. of the type between Myrdal and Bauer, Sen and the Washington Consensus, Galbraith and Krugman on US political economy, the need for free markets versus selective government intervention should make clear however that the role of economic philosophy and the need for grounding in it is irremovable. Especially in that sense, there is a need to be more willingly attentive to the link between religion (defined broadly in terms of metaphysics or faith in particular value systems) and social science. The roots of the controversy sparked by Pope Benedict XVI’s controversial 2006 Regensburg address are examined within the same framework. Important links are adumbrated between metaphysics and what evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker calls the new sciences of the mind and of human nature.
Teenage Suicide Missions: The Role of Religion in the Recruitment of Young Suicide Bombers
William W. Emilsen
Abstract
‘No child’, writes Christopher Reuter in My Life Is A Weapon (2004) ‘is born with ten kilos of TNT strapped to its stomach’ yet there is disturbing evidence that children are being encouraged (tacitly or otherwise) to volunteer to kill themselves and others in the name of religion. This paper examines the extent of ‘underage’ suicide bombers and critiques the commonly-held view that religion plays a relatively minor part in the recruitment of children and teenagers for suicide missions. This study investigates the reports, writings, diaries, and interviews with and about children from four separate areas of conflict where they have been recruited for suicide missions. In particular, it examines Shintō/Buddhist influence in Japan during World War II on fourteen- and fifteen-year old Kamikaze recruits; Ayatollah Khomeini’s religious justification of Iran’s suicide battalions—tens of thousands of young Iranians some as young as twelve and thirteen―during the Iran-Iraq War in the mid 1980s; the influence of Hinduism on young Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka and, finally, the highly politicised evidence of Sunni Palestinian youth being recruited for suicide missions inside Israel.
World Religions in War and Peace in Conflict and Concord
George F. Fry
Abstract
It is the thesis of this paper that all the world religions contain within themselves the seeds can that lead either to conflict or to peace. This paper will provide references from the scriptures and the histories of the various religions to show the truth of this thesis. However, it becomes apparent that the seeds that lead to peace must move beyond a particular faith. Implementing the seeds of peace requires people of good will who are open to working with people holding different faith values and beliefs. This paper will provide promising examples of some who are trying to transcend differences that prevent religions from working together in concord.
Besides moderates, liberals and conservatives, world religions often include those who are called fundamentalists, and they are a real problem to the achievement of peace between faiths. Fundamentalists of every religion are characterized by rigidity in terms of the content of their faith, excessive zeal, and the exclusiveness of their religious claims. Due to the foregoing, fundamentalists present a real problem for peacemaking. However, in this paper, an effort is made to find the means to peace, not only among the various religions in general, but also in and through fundamentalists. Toward this end, this paper makes a thorough examination of the tendencies of the major world religions related to peace and conflict in hopes of promoting peace. In this regard, current promising efforts are shared.
Evolution, Religion, and Race: Critical Thinking and the Public Good
Joseph L. Graves Jr. and Gary Bailey
t is the intention of this paper to address certain issues concerning the relation between science, religion, and the public good. These relations are often discussed without clear, critical articulations of what is meant by the terms and without clear, informed understandings of what others, particularly those outside of a given discipline, mean by the terms. For example, discussants often assume their own particular, experiential understandings of religion, without expressing knowledge of the diversity of religions in the world, or even the diversity of historical manifestations of their own religions. Many discussants are unaware of critical scholarship in the study of religion, including informed and intense argument over definition, theory, and meaning of religion in human history. Likewise, discussants often assume narrow understandings of science. Many equate “science” with the natural sciences, and even more narrowly, with a stable body of knowledge about the natural world, as opposed to broad processes of critical inquiry into many different objects, including natural, social, and aesthetic objects. The 19th century Continental understanding of science as critical and systematic inquiry into all possible areas of thought is largely unknown in contemporary discussions in which the term “science” appears.
Science and religion as concepts: a history
Roger H. Green
Abstract
I will discuss the acquisition and transmission of (what we now call scientific) knowledge through history and among cultures, with emphasis on early periods: India, Persia, Greek, early Christian and early Islamic. Themes will be the stages of cultures which transmit such knowledge and those which receive it, and the tensions between knowledge from “science” (observation, deduction, prediction) and knowledge from revealed religion. These are similar in all cultures, reappearing as new kinds of knowledge in tension with different theologies. I will contend that there is really nothing new under the sun re. science vs. religion. Science did not begin with the Renaissance in Europe. Similar tensions and resulting cultural/political conflicts have flowed through history and cultures for millennia. In particular, the belief that it is all a recent civilizational conflict between Judeo-Christian European scientific mentality and an opposing theocratic Islamic mentality has no historical basis. Of course many non-Islamic as well as Islamic cultures are rife with theocratic mentalities these days—but my purpose here is to show how the same tensions flow, transmit, and reappear throughout history. Karen Armstrong and Amartya Sen, among others, provide support and similar views.
A Worldly View for Preventing Tragedies in Periods of Paradigm Shift: Reviewing the Thoughts of Shan-tao and Kitarō Nishida
Masanori Matsuda and Hiromasa Akiyama
Introduction
At the present time, the world is confronted with a variety of crises: various frictions caused by economical globalism, widespread destruction of the environment in universal proportions despite advances in science, and unbelievable life situations for children in advanced countries. We would like to present this paper in light of these issues. In this paper, we would like to review how we should address these difficult problems from a philosophical background by focusing on various tragedies in periods of “paradigm shift.”
Alienated Neighbours: Interpreting the Cronulla Race Riots For Christ’s Sake
Clive Robert Pearson
Abstract
On December 11, 2005 the Sydney beach-side suburb of Cronulla was subject to the worst race riot and ‘revenge raids’ in Australian history. Its origins lay in the mutual suspicion of an Anglo-Celtic surfing culture espousing ‘Australian values’ and Lebanese youths of ‘Middle Eastern appearance’. The explosive outburst had been fed for some time by the politics of fear and suspicion with respect to the Muslim / Middle Eastern other, public concern about attitudes towards women, and media populism. Those Australian values being defended were at times linked with a residual Christian influence.
The purpose of this article is to explore the response of a public theology and consider how it might play its part in the nurturing of the public good, a civil society, and ‘human flourishing’. The nature of a public theology is that it must be interdisciplinary and embedded in praxis. The case for a public theology is thus set within coverage of what transpired and interpretations emerging out of diverse forms of cultural studies.
Alienated Neighbours: Interpreting the Cronulla Race Riots For Christ’s Sake
Clive Robert Pearson
Abstract
On December 11, 2005 the Sydney beach-side suburb of Cronulla was subject to the worst race riot and ‘revenge raids’ in Australian history. Its origins lay in the mutual suspicion of an Anglo-Celtic surfing culture espousing ‘Australian values’ and Lebanese youths of ‘Middle Eastern appearance’. The explosive outburst had been fed for some time by the politics of fear and suspicion with respect to the Muslim / Middle Eastern other, public concern about attitudes towards women, and media populism. Those Australian values being defended were at times linked with a residual Christian influence.
The purpose of this article is to explore the response of a public theology and consider how it might play its part in the nurturing of the public good, a civil society, and ‘human flourishing’. The nature of a public theology is that it must be interdisciplinary and embedded in praxis. The case for a public theology is thus set within coverage of what transpired and interpretations emerging out of diverse forms of cultural studies.
Status of Modern Science and Religion
Paul S. Ramalingam
Abstract
Scientific innovations and discoveries are transforming the lives of many around the globe. Science commands a greater share of attention and respect from humanity than ever before in the history. Perhaps it has become the new religion or a faith system of the world. In light of the current wars, unsettled political disputes, violence in the Middle East, all with their latent religious connotations, there is a growing interest to examine all the major religions of the world. While the admiration for the artistic and aesthetic facets of religion cannot be forgotten, scholars question the survival of the traditional faith systems and practices in current forms especially in economically and educationally advanced nations. If religions ought to have vitality and respect, they need to resort to the original and central dogma of love i.e., humanitarian aid to alleviate the pains and sufferings of economically disadvantaged people.
Interfaith Dialogue and Salvation: Is there one Heaven in our Future?
Leon Strieder
Much of Interfaith Dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims rightly concerns those things they have in common. They do all claim to profess belief in the same one God. They all believe that this one God created all things, including human beings in His own likeness, and that there will be a Last Judgment for which all peoples will be held accountable for their beliefs and actions. The scope of this paper is to study how all three great Abrahamic religions understand salvation or life after death, the concept of heaven or paradise with the alternative concept of hell.
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