Midterm I - Psych Relig

Question 1

Define Fundamentalism

Answer 1

belief in one essential and unchangeable teaching or truth about human nature or deity(ies), which is opposed by forces of evil that must be fought. Individual has a special relationship with God. Us. vs. them that conflicts with social or political life.

Question 2

Define Authoritarianism

Answer 2

submission and aggression: submission to authority perceived to be established and legit in society. Aggression against deviants and outgroup perceived to be targets according to those authorities.

Question 3

Define prejudice

Answer 3

preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience, harm or injury that results

Question 4

Examples of fundamentalism:

Answer 4

Jesus camp: “we don’t have to debate about what to believe, it’s written in the bible”
Suicide killers: “I’m not making this stuff up, it’s in the Quran!” There is no other way but through Islam (Key to paradise) Kill the enemies of Islam and seeing everyone as attacking Islam if they don’t believe

Question 5

Examples of authoritarianism:

Answer 5

Jesus camp: “There are two kinds of people, those who love jesus and those who don’t”; and there is something just not right about non-christians. Seeing the world as sick.
Suicide Killers: Everyone who is not following Jihad is against Jihad.

Question 6

How does one come to be a suicide bomber?

Answer 6

1. Individuals grow up being trained to fight, being exposed to ideals from birth. To be a parent of martyr is greatest honor, whole families readily sacrificing children, forgiveness by God bestowed upon many members.
2. Honor, social status, dedication to the leader, need to belong
3. Moral obligation, desire to enter Heaven

Question 7

How does religion function in the life of a would-be suicide bomber in the examples we observed – what is the psychological purpose of religion for these individuals?

Answer 7

1. Expectation of gaining stature and respect as martyr.
2. Quest for emotional and social support by those by feel rejected by local societies. Islamic dictatorship keep people in poverty and miserable in humiliation economically, socially, and politically. This legitimate act will make them more important. Reject shame by sacrificing self.
3. Men confuse weapons for erections: they turn virility into muscle, power, and aggression, and possession over women’s bodies

Question 8

How do children learn about science and religion?

Answer 8

1. Children trust what adults tell them about scientific stuff and rework into coherent concept - role of the brain, shape of earth, and biological constraints on life
2. Trust is transferred to hidden properties like religious claims, immortality, omnipotence and omniscience of God, efficacy of prayer, and life after death.
3. They assume the claims they heart regarding these things are on same footing as other claims they cannot verify firsthand.

Question 9

What is the status of research in this area (general summary, specific research example)?

Answer 9

1. Study of 6-11 year olds – although alternative mental models were identified, most frequent model was sphere for all children
2. Study of impact of testimony of hidden body parts – life theorizers were more likely to mention life-maintaining function of body parts and function of those organs

Question 10

To what extent is scientific and religious knowledge based in trust in testimony or first-hand experience?

Answer 10

a. Many adult beliefs are based on testimony than on firsthand observation
b. Children rely on adult testimony for key pieces of info about causations and ontological features of the world. Testimony amplifies belief in proven science data. Understanding religious things (unverifiable firsthand) extend beyond science. d. Children seem to conceptualize unobservable scientific and religious entities similarly.
c. They draw out generalizations, register anomalies, and seek to resolve them.
d. Makes them gullible toward spiritual claims that aren’t grounded in science

Question 11

Examples from Jesus Camp of firsthand experience / testimony?

Answer 11

Testimony: camp leader asks who wants to accept Jesus into hearts, and girl’s mom raises her hand for her

Firsthand: when little boy is reading book alone about how to accept Jesus (outside of community source)

Question 12

Explain the fundamental reasoning of Terror Management Theory’s analysis of religion … where does our existential anxiety come from?

Answer 12

A conflict results from having desire to live, but knowledge of future death, which produces fear. We manage fear by embracing cultural values that give life meaning and value – including religion. Thoughts of death increase religious belief.

Question 13

What is the cultural anxiety buffer (including standards of value, the cultural worldview, & self-esteem) and what purpose does it serve?

Answer 13

Cultural worldviews (which include standards of value and systems of meaning) provide anxiety buffering by providing immortality for those who live up to standards. Self-esteem is boosted by living up to them in socially sanctioned way and is a buffer to cope with anxiety and coping mechanism to deal with terror. Provides personal value and validity of cultural worldview.

Question 14

Give examples of how anxiety buffers (including religious worldviews) promise us a degree of immortality (literal)

Answer 14

Literal: afterlife / reincarnation – aspects that endure beyond existence and not being alone. Religions provide this.

Question 15

Give examples of how anxiety buffers (including religious worldviews) promise us a degree of immortality (symbolic)

Answer 15

institutional - anything that endures in time and spreads teachings.
Permanent marks on world - bigger houses, what we contribute, statements.
Children - propagation of genetic code and extensions of our worldview.

Question 16

Explain the Mortality-Salience Hypothesis. Define it.

Answer 16

If one’s cultural worldview or self-esteem serves death-defying function, then threatening those constructs should produce defenses aimed at restoring psychological invulnerability.

Question 17

Mortality-Salience Hypothesis – give an example of research that supports its validity, in terms of the existential-defensive functions of religion.

Answer 17

1. Death reminders increased religiosity among christians. And increased agnostic’s faith in Buddha, Allah, and God.
2. Act of using cross disrespectfully increased self-reported anxiety

Question 18

What are the various contexts and processes of forgiveness? (see Varieties of Forgiveness article in particular: active vs. passive, intra vs. interpersonal, etc.).

Answer 18

1. Intrapersonal: self: “you can forgive, but never forget”; “people make mistakes like I do.” letting go of wrong done to you.
2. Interpersonal: acccpeting someone and remaining friends, understanding someone is sorry, accept what they did, let offender know they’re forgiven
3. Active: accepting apology, second chances, making up
4. Passive: letting past die, not bringing up act, no bad feelings / grudges

Question 19

Forms of forgiveness:

Answer 19

a. Behavior: moving on / reconciling
b. Emotion: negative vs. positive - letting go of hard feelings, regaining trust
c. Thought: forgetting what happened, attitude - understanding no one is perfect

Question 20

Dimensions of forgiveness:

Answer 20

Negative: both withdrawal or reduction of negative response
Positive: enhancement of positive responses

Question 21

Research evidence forgiveness:

Answer 21

About 20% of participants said that forgiveness is both active and passive, while the other 80% were fairly evenly split between the two categories.

Question 22

Forgiveness process:

Answer 22

You must come to terms with forgiveness on your own as well as have communication and understanding with the other person. Congruently, you must also diminish negative thoughts and feelings while increasing positive thoughts and feelings.

Question 23

What do people want? (pleasure, success, service, Self). Why is each want dissatisfying until Self-realization?

Answer 23

1. Pleasure: a brief satisfaction that sacrifices long goals. Dissatisfying b/c it is brief and cannot fulfill total nature. Problematically ephemeral.
2. Worldly success: wealth, power, fame. Dissatisfying b/c They are competitive, fragile, insatiable, limited to oneself, and impermanent.
3. Behave responsibly: service / duty. Dissatisfying b/c they leave human spirit unfulfilled due to only receiving rewards.
4. Infinite being, knowledge, and bliss: liberation from any impediment that holds you back from complete fulfillment. Until realization, we are all susceptible to human psychological pain of disappointments related to human desires

Question 24

Core paths of yoga:

Answer 24

1. Jnana: Knowledge: intuition, common sense, discerning true knowledge disconnected from expectations, feelings, and past experiences.
2. Bhakti: Love: loving lovers, friends, and family is loving God or loving designated deity first and foremost.
3. Karma: Work: finding God in mundane, everyday life or work. Putting your whole self into work to reap reward of finding God.
4. Raja: Psychophysical exercises: medication, stillness, and focus outside of self and external world.

Question 25

What is the nature of his fundamental argument against… finishing up Saint Paul by calling his vision on the road to Damascus a discharging lesion of the occipital cortex, he being an epileptic. Or snuffing out Saint Teresa as an hysteric, Saint Francis of Assisi as an hereditary degenerate?

Answer 25

it’s illogical and inconsistent to attribute religious experiences that public doesn’t understand / value biological explanations and not have same explanations for atheism. Paul’s conversion being linked to epilepsy is inconsistent because nobody has looked at richard dawkin’s biology to explain his atheistic views.

Question 26

How does he define and discuss the essence of religion / the religious life?

Answer 26

the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude - as they stand in relation to what they call the Divine.

Question 27

What is the characteristic state of the twice-born, divided human being?

Answer 27

a. Once born people: are naturally, innately predisposed to being happy, childlike acceptance of life as it is, not bothered by intense sufferings / evils in the world.
b. Twice born: believe something is amiss in world and must be rectified, sick souls. But some of happiest people are them because tehri crisis is accompanied by strong desire to make sense of things, therefore, they restore and renew themselves after tragic events.

Question 28

How and why is he or she in conflict with him or herself?

Answer 28

Conflict between how the person saw the sick world before, and their new way of seeing it when confronted with evil that can’t be explained away with newer happier worldview.

Question 29

Explain some characteristic features of wisdom as espoused by the Bhagavad Gita. Be able to quote or paraphrase from the text to support your main points.

Answer 29

1. “Consulting only their desires, they construct their own heaven, devising arduous and complex rites to secure their own pleasure and their own power; and the only result is rebirth.” Atonement is the only source of becoming a new person, yet we end up being stagnant by creating and participating in belief systems that only feed our ego and lead to selfishness, which results in rebirth to try to start all over again.
2. In the Gita it states that unity is achieved not through the harmonious blending of parts but by mutual recognition by each party. We can’t just use parts of belief systems to add to our own, we must respect all others.
3. While their minds are absorbed with ideas of power and personal enjoyment, they cannot concentrate their discrimination on one point. These lead to distraction from our true self and journey.
4. 3 constituents of life: Be steady in truth, free from world anxieties, and centred in the Self.

Question 30

In what ways do social comparison, attachment to the “fruits”and obedience to authority (in Krish. terms) limit self-realization / ego-transcendence. (What Chris wrote on the board)

Answer 30

a. Fruits: Not being attached to fruits of labor (reward) because when we are, leads to selfish occupation, you’ll always be living in the future vs. being present, and entangled by drama of seeking reward or ego status for spirituality or social services.
b. Social comparison: comparison causes fear, imitation, and conformity. It causes us to be attached to the past. Imitation leads to consumerism, materialism, and brand affinity - and if you go along with society’s feelings, you’ll never know what you feel or what your identity or path truly is.
c. Obedience to authority: seeking internal (past experiences) or external (someone telling you something) authority to tell us what to do or give us the answer makes us think that things will work out for us. We lose energy, vitality, capacity, and drive when we cling to these fears, because it takes energy to defend positive self-image that’s under attack all the time.

Question 31

How social comparison, obedience to authority, and focus on fruits relate to ego-transcendence:

Answer 31

Bad karma occurs when we fail to recognize the divinity within us. Therefore, the more selfish our behavior, the more the inner luminosity is obscured because we’re wrapped up in i/me/my. Self-realization is deeper self-identity than worldly ego that’s preoccupied with success, fame, pleasures, and social rewards for engaging in social charity. Renouncing the ego is the experience of connecting with the divine.

Question 32

Studies related to ego – ego transcendence

Answer 32

1. Study related to anxiety, depression + people feel greater autonomy vs. coercion in their everyday life in number of contexts: if people are engaged in controlling activity or ego-involved (identity and worth is on the line) this dissipates subjective vitality
2. Study nursing homes: engaging ego / esteem vs. intrinsic interests in activity = greater subjective vitality