Praying to Die

Prayer has long been a staple in the proverbial Jewish medical toolbox. While the vast majority of relevant prayers seek renewed health and prolonged life, what might prayers for someone to die look like? What ethical dimensions are involved in such liturgical expressions? By examining both prayers for oneself to die and prayers for someone else to die, this essay discerns reasons why it may be good and even necessary to pray for a patient's demise.     

社会主义者是实践的无神论者

马克思、恩格斯对宗教的批判,与历史唯物主义的创立同步,两者相辅相成,密不可分。科学无神论是历史唯物主义宗教观的哲学基础,与共产主义事业紧密相连。社会主义者是实践的无神论者。     

Religiousness,social support and subjective well‐being: An exploratory study among adolescents in an Asian atheist country

Few studies have focused on the relationships among religiousness, social support and subjective well‐being in Chinese adolescent populations. This study tries to fill this gap. Using cluster sampling, we selected two groups: Group A, which included 738 Tibetan adolescents with a formal religious affiliation and represented adolescents from a religious culture, and Group B, which included 720 Han adolescents without a religious affiliation and represented adolescents from an irreligious culture. Structural equation modelling showed that only in Group A did social support mediate (partially) the relationship between religious experience and subjective well‐being; furthermore, the results of a hierarchical regression analysis showed that only in Group A did social support moderate the relationship between religious ideology and subjective well‐being. Possible explanations for the discrepancies between the findings obtained in this study and those obtained in previous studies are discussed.     

你有可能走向泛神论——关于有神论与无神论的对话

一个偶然机遇,主客之间进行了一次涉及科学与无神论诸问题的友谊式的、比较系统的对话,取得一定的效果。     

架起中国无神论者与世界世俗人文主义者之桥

2007年10月12日,在北京友谊宾馆,中国无神论学会专家一行5人,在"科学探索与人类福祉"国际研讨会前夕,拜会了国际探索中心主席、     

Writing and Praying Collects as an Intervention in Narrative Therapy

The integration of spiritual practices in therapy is a valuable tool for supporting and reinforcing change. This paper explores the use of a written form of prayer called a collect as an intervention in narrative therapy. A collect is a form of prayer with a structure that can be easily co-constructed by clients and therapists. This spiritual intervention serves as a therapeutic document to help reinforce the externalization of a client’s problem or help thicken alternative narratives. Relevant aspects of narrative therapy and written prayer are summarized. A guide for implementation, examples of collects, and a worksheet for helping clients write collects is provided.

     

共产党员要成为马克思主义无神论者

中国共产党是马克思主义政党。它根据马克思辩证唯物主义、历史唯物主义以及我们党的性质一再重申,共产党员必须树立科学世界观,不信宗教、不信迷信、不信任何伪科学的东西,要成为马克思主义唯物论者和彻底的无神论者。可近些年来,有些地方,特别是农村,有神论、愚昧迷信沉渣泛起,反科学、伪科学的东西频频出现,非法宗教活动屡禁不止。这不仅严重败坏     

Praying in a Secularized Society: An Empirical Study of Praying Practices and Varieties

Social scientific studies from the secular Netherlands has pointed out that religious rituals such as praying are still widely present. This study examines the content of the praying practices of the Dutch and distinguishes varieties of prayer by analyzing answers to open-ended questions of a representative Dutch survey (N = 1,008). It is concluded, first, that a majority of the Dutch prays. Second, four varieties of prayer are distinguished: petitionary, religious, meditative, and impulsive prayer. Comparing these varieties with types of prayer found in other empirical studies, it emerges that the petitionary and religious prayer are similar to classical prayers found in other studies from less secularized countries, whereas the meditative and impulsive prayers are fundamentally different from other prayer types and can be considered as examples of a praying practice in a secularized society.     

Persuading people to stop smoking

Forty smokers attending a chest clinic were given a questionnaire designed to measure motivation to stop smoking. The effects of three variables on their smoking level were investigated: (1) advice from the chest physician to stop smoking; (2) subjection to a further ‘motivating’ interview by a psychologist: (3) the wearing of a white coat by the psychologist during his interview. The questionnaire proved a useful predictor of smoking reduction over a 3-month follow-up period. Advice from the chest physician had a significant effect in getting people to reduce smoking over 3 months but the extra ‘motivating’ interview was ineffective. Patients responded to the white coat by reducing their smoking level significantly, irrespective of whether the psychologist wearing the white coat was advising them to reduce smoking or not. These results suggest that the advice-giving role of the doctor could be used more effectively than it currently is in preventive medicine, and that the psychologist has an important role to play in measuring the successful parameters of such advice and hence improving its quality.     

无神论在当代文化语境下的话语权问题——2008年学术年会发言摘要

2008年12月6日至7日．中国无神论学会在北京举行了2008年学术年会．主题是“无神论在当代文化语境下的话语权”。参加会议的来自中国社科院、中国科学院、中国科协、中央党校、中央社会主义学院、中央民族大学、中国地质大学、北京师范大学、上海师范大学等30多个全国科研院所和部分省市高校的学者．共计50多人。     

Finding the faithless: perceived atheist prevalence reduces anti-atheist prejudice

Although prejudice is typically positively related to relative outgroup size, four studies found converging evidence that perceived atheist prevalence reduces anti-atheist prejudice. Study 1 demonstrated that anti-atheist prejudice among religious believers is reduced in countries in which atheists are especially prevalent. Study 2 demonstrated that perceived atheist prevalence is negatively associated with anti-atheist prejudice. Study 3 demonstrated a causal relationship: Reminders of atheist prevalence reduced explicit distrust of atheists. These results appeared distinct from intergroup contact effects. Study 4 demonstrated that prevalence information decreased implicit atheist distrust. The latter two experiments provide the first evidence that mere prevalence information can reduce prejudice against any outgroup. These findings offer insights about anti-atheist prejudice, a poorly understood phenomenon. Furthermore, they suggest both novel directions for future prejudice research and potential interventions that could reduce a variety of prejudices.