The Question of God in an Age of Science: Constructions of Reality and Ultimate Reality in Theology and Science

Both science and theology have lately faced a crisis of authority. Their shared realization of the extent to which knowledge is underdetermined by the data and socially constructed provides a kind of common ground for reconsideration of their respective methods of inquiry as well as of the status of the claims they have warrant to make. Both fields are now consciously and critically employing a models approach. This article proposes criteria for assessing models and applies the criteria to one model from each field. The model of understanding evolution as a struggle for existence is considered from the field of science, and the traditional model for understanding the God-world relation as that of a king's relation to his kingdom is considered from the field of theology. Each of these models is evaluated with respect to its credibility, religious viability, and moral adequacy. In each case an alternative analogy is proposed and argued for.     

Effects of surface texture on weight perception when lifting objects with a precision grip

In this paper, we show that, when lifting an object using a precision grip with the distal pads of the thumb and index finger at its sides, the perceived weight depends on the object’s surface texture. The smoother the surface texture, the greater the perceived weight. We suggest that a smoother object is judged to be heavier because the grip force, normal to the surface, required to prevent it from slipping is greater. The possibility of there being an influence of surface texture per se is excluded by a second experiment that employed a variant of the precision grip in which the thumb supports the weight of the object from underneath. With the grip oriented in this way, there is no need to match grip force to surface texture and, under these conditions, there is no effect of surface texture on weight perception. In the first two experiments, the test and comparison weights were lifted successively by the same hand. In a third experiment, the effect of surface texture was replicated for sequential lifts made with separate hands. Thus, the effect is not restricted to comparisons made with the same hand.     

Realism and relativism in modern physics

The standpoint of realism has been widely used to argue in favour of, or against, particular physical theories. An analysis is made of the adequacy of such arguments, taking an argument by Einstein as a starting point.Some reflexions are given on relativism and invariance. Invariances can be seen as generators of both regularity and paradox in physics.Work on this paper was supported by the Swedish Natural Science Research Council (contract no. F-TV 4775-300).     

Discrete tense logic with infinitary inference rules and systematic frame constants: A Hilbert-style axiomatization

The paper deals with the problem of axiomatizing a system 1 of discrete tense logic, where one thinks of time as the set Z of all the integers together with the operations +1 (immediate successor) and -1 (immediate predecessor). 1 is like the Segerberg-Sundholm system W1 in working with so-called infinitary inference rules; on the other hand, it differs from W1 with respect to (i) proof-theoretical setting, (ii) presence of past tense operators and a now operator, and, most importantly, with respect to (iii) the presence in of so-called systematic frame constants, which are meant to hold at exactly one point in a temporal structure and to enable us to express the irreflexivity of such structures. Those frame constants will be seen to play a paramount role in our axiomatization of 1.The present contribution reports research done under the auspices of the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and the Social Sciences (HSFR), project On the Legal Concepts of Rights and Duties: an Analysis Based on Deontic and Causal Conditional Logic. I wish to thank the anonymous referee for his/her extremely patient and accurate revision work, and Krister Segerberg for his helpful suggestions.     

A Playroom Observation Procedure to Assess Children with Mental Retardation and ADHD

Forty-two children (ages 6 to 12 years old) with moderate mental retardation to borderline intellectual functioning were studied in a laboratory playroom setting to determine whether children identified as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) or controls differed on activity and attentional measures. Children with ADHD were further divided into ADHD + conduct problems (ADHD + CD) and ADHD-only subgroups (with an ADHD-combined group comprising children of both subgroups). An interval recording system was used to code observations of independent play and a restricted academic task. Results indicated that the ADHD-combined group was significantly more vocal and engaged in a significantly greater number of toy changes than controls during independent play. Significant group differences were also noted during the restricted academic task, with the ADHD-combined and ADHD + CD groups more off-task and engaging in a greater number of toy touches than controls. Discriminant analyses found independent play measures to predict group membership in 70 percent of cases (ADHD-combined vs. controls), but in only 64 percent of cases using measures from the restricted academic task. No significant findings resulted when the ADHD subjects were further divided into two subgroups. Despite some inconsistent findings, such laboratory-based observations may be of value in the diagnosis of ADHD in children with moderate mental retardation to borderline intellectual functioning.     

The development of therapeutic consultations in child-focused family work

This paper outlines the theoretical influences that have led to our use of a consultation approach to work with children and families. Winnicott's notion of therapeutic consultation, the narrative approach in family therapy, the use of letters in therapeutic work and the two-plus-one model of therapeutic contact are discussed. A model of the consultation interview and process is presented together with examples of consultation letters responding to typical client expectations of the process.     

Attentional scanning and space errors

Using the method of paired comparisons, pairs of simultaneous horizontal or vertical lines, with one line above and one below or one on the left and one on the right of a fixation point, respectively, were presented tachistoscopically for length comparison. Space errors were found to have a pattern similar to that of time errors. The tendency to guess the comparative response from the absolute magnitude of stimuli is proposed as a basis for time and space errors. Manipulation of attentional scanning, which implies a more frequent usage of this guessing strategy for one of the two lines in a pair, was shown to affect space errors.     

Conditioned tilt naming: A modified absolute judgment method is used to measure the oblique effect

Two naive human observers were conditioned to report on the slant of a 3.8-cpd sinusoidal grating viewed monocularly with a light-adapted eye and presented at various orientations extending from ?45 to +135 deg. The procedures used yielded a baseline measure of performance and measures obtained during conditioning, extinction, and reconditioning of the tilt-naming response. Both subjects learned rapidly, achieving a level of performance that permits efficient measurement of meridional differences in perceived orientation Ithe oblique effect) at a large number of angles.     

Time errors are perceptual

Summary Methods for the measurement of time-errors (TEs) in the comparison of successive stimulus magnitudes are discussed. Combining a Thurstonian scaling method with the assumption of a fixed subjective width of the equal category, independent of stimulus level, a ratio scale for subjective differences within pairs of successive stimuli is derived. In a tone duration comparison experiment, with the TE defined in the terms of these subjective duration differences, data from four experimental groups were compared, the groups using different modes of judging and responding. Only minor effects of this factor were found, and hence it is concluded that the TE is a true perceptual phenomenon rather than an effect of response bias, criterion bias, or mediating verbal responses to the absolute level of stimulation. The quantitative results are interpreted in terms of a general model for the comparison of successive stimuli, employing the concepts of adaptation and differential weighting of sensation magnitudes.This investigation was supported by grants to the author from the University of Stockholm and from the Swedish Office of Administrative Rationalization and Economy (for computer time), and by grants to Mats Björkman and Hannes Eisler from the Swedish Council for Social Science Research, whose free consultation service at the Department of Statistics, University of Stockholm, also benefited the author.     

‘Just leave it blank’ non-religious children and their negotiation of prayer in school

ABSTRACT

This article examines how non-religious children experience acts of collective worship and prayer in primary school settings and analyses how they negotiate religion and their non-religious identities in these events. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork examining non-religious childhoods and collective worship in three English primary schools, the authors explore how non-religious children demonstrate their agency when confronted with particular boundaries and concepts related to religion and non-religion in school contexts. Attending to the experiences, perspectives, and practices of non-religious children adds to our understanding of the varieties of non-religion, which has to date largely focused on elite, adult populations. Focusing on non-religious children’s experiences of prayer reveals how these children did not experience tensions between praying to God and their non-religious identities and articulated their own interpretations of these practices, deepening understanding of the lived realities of non-religious cultures and identities.