Religion as Attractor,Process, and Biology

Science and religion contend for the world's allegiance. Scientists are bewildered by people's acceptance of some seemingly irrational values and judgments endorsed by religion. They argue strenuously with people about the common good and systemic consequences of actions, but are trumped by religious nostrums. Why? Science and religion both arise from our bewilderment with the complexity of our lives. At their roots they are vital, necessary, liberating, and complementary processes. So, why the perceived conflict? Experiences of universal unity arise naturally in deep meditative states. What does this recently demonstrated biological fact tell us about our tendencies to religious belief?     

Notae ecclesiae in Luther's Von den Konziliis und Kirchen

In times of crisis such as the Reformation, the quest for the true Church comes into focus. In Luther's most important contribution to this question, Von den Konziliis und Kirchen (1539), he rejects the idea that the history of Fathers and Councils could be the solution, though the Councils are significant as defence of the biblical faith. Instead, Luther identifies the true Church as the place where the Spirit sanctifies believers through the word of God, which is the most important nota ecclesiae. The presence of the divine as fact and goal is thus what characterises the true Church.     

公正世界信念——重建公正的双刃剑

公正世界信念即相信所处的世界是公正的,人们得其所应得,所得即应得.然而在现实生活中这一信念常常受到各种不公正事件的威胁,公正世界信念可以帮助人们应对威胁、重建公正.这种重建可能是行动上的也可能是认知上的,认知公正重建往往导致对不公正现状的合理化以及对受害者的贬损责怪.同时对于各种不公正的受害者或见证者,公正世界信念充当着重要的个人资源或是心理缓冲,帮助个体应对不公正事件,维护心理健康,并遵循公正原则追求其长远目标.公正世界信念的多维结构是解释其双重功能的基础.     

Cognitive control in belief‐laden reasoning during conclusion processing: An ERP study

Belief bias is the tendency to accept conclusions that are compatible with existing beliefs more frequently than those that contradict beliefs. It is one of the most replicated behavioral findings in the reasoning literature. Recently, neuroimaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event‐related potentials (ERPs) have provided a new perspective and have demonstrated neural correlates of belief bias that have been viewed as supportive of dual‐process theories of belief bias. However, fMRI studies have tended to focus on conclusion processing, while ERPs studies have been concerned with the processing of premises. In the present research, the electrophysiological correlates of cognitive control were studied among 12 subjects using high‐density ERPs. The analysis was focused on the conclusion presentation phase and was limited to normatively sanctioned responses to valid–believable and valid–unbelievable problems. Results showed that when participants gave normatively sanctioned responses to problems where belief and logic conflicted, a more positive ERP deflection was elicited than for normatively sanctioned responses to nonconflict problems. This was observed from ?400 to ?200 ms prior to the correct response being given. The positive component is argued to be analogous to the late positive component (LPC) involved in cognitive control processes. This is consistent with the inhibition of empirically anomalous information when conclusions are unbelievable. These data are important in elucidating the neural correlates of belief bias by providing evidence for electrophysiological correlates of conflict resolution during conclusion processing. Moreover, they are supportive of dual‐process theories of belief bias that propose conflict detection and resolution processes as central to the explanation of belief bias.     

Cybervictimization and body esteem: Experiences of Swedish children and adolescents

This study investigates the relationship between cybervictimization and body esteem among 1076 pupils, ages 10–15. More specifically we investigated if being the victim of cyberbullying was related to body esteem, and if there were any grade and gender differences in these relationships. Additionally, we examined how often pupils' believed that cyberbullying was directed at the victims' appearance, and if this view was more common when girls were cybervictims compared to when boys were cybervictims. Pupils in fourth grade (10-year-olds), sixth grade (12-year-olds) and ninth grade (15-year-olds), from 21 different schools in Gothenburg were surveyed. The main finding was that victims of cyberbullying reported poorer body esteem than non-cybervictims. The results also showed that pupils believed that cyberbullying was directed at the victims' appearance, especially when girls were victims. This study provides unique data concerning the links between being exposed to cyberbullying and body esteem.     

Religiosity and fear of death: a three‐nation comparison

Numerous studies have sought to determine if religiosity is correlated with fear of death. Findings have been anything but consistent, with reports of negative relationships, positive relationships, no relationship, and even curvilinear associations. To shed light on this still contentious issue, the present study was undertaken among college students in three countries – Malaysia, Turkey, and the United States. Overall, the patterns in all three countries were similar. When linearity was assumed, there is a substantial positive correlation between most religiosity measures and fear of death. Assuming curvilinearity added slightly to the strength of the relationships in the US data and nothing to data from Malaysia or Turkey. Other findings were that on average females were more religious and feared death more than did males, and Muslims expressed considerably greater fear than did members of any other major religion. Results were discussed in the context of a new theory – called death apprehension theory. Among other things, it specifically predicts that death apprehension will be positively related to most religious beliefs and practices.     

Value in the guise of regret

Abstract

According to a widely accepted philosophical model, agent‐regret is practically significant and appropriate when the agent committed a mistake, or she faced a conflict of obligations. I argue that this account misunderstands moral phenomenology because it does not adequately characterize the object of agent‐regret. I suggest that the object of agent‐regret should be defined in terms of valuable unchosen alternatives supported by reasons. This model captures the phenomenological varieties of regret and explains its practical significance for the agent. My contention is that agent‐regret is a mode of valuing: a way in which the agent expresses and confers value.     

Iterated Non‐Refutation: Robert Lockie on Relativism 1

Abstract

I argue that an experience’s sensuous elements play an ineliminable role in our being intentionally directed upon an entity through perception. More specifically, I argue that whenever we appreciate a sensuous element in experience, we appreciate an intrinsic and irreducibly phenomenal aspect of experience that I call phenomenal presence – an aspect of experience that I show is central to its presentational character – and that the appreciation of phenomenal presence is necessary for perceptual intentionality. If an experience is to possess intentionality, the experience itself must make an entity available as an object of perceptually-based singular beliefs and the experiencing subject, by virtue of undergoing the experience, must in some sense be able to appreciate that it has done so. Phenomenal presence is necessary for perceptual intentionality because it plays an ineliminable role in making an entity available to its subject in this way.     

“蚁族”群体的公正世界信念与幸福感研究

以居住在北京小月河地区的304名“蚁族”为被试,采用公正世界信念问卷、积极消极情感问卷和生活满意度问卷,考察了一般公正世界信念、个人公正世界信念以及幸福感之间的关系,结果表明:(1)“蚁族”的生活满意度偏低,但其情绪状态仍然乐观,积极情感体验较高,且具有较高水平的公正世界信念;(2)公正世界信念对幸福感有显著的正向预测作用,公正世界信念水平越高的“蚁族”越幸福;(3)个人公正世界信念在一般公正世界信念和幸福感间起中介作用,即越相信世界是公正的“蚁族”更倾向于相信自己已经或即将受到的对待是公正的,最终提升幸福感。     

On Not Giving Up the World – Davidson and the Grounds of Belief

Abstract

What is the relation between our beliefs, or thoughts in general, and the perceptual experience of the world that gives rise to those beliefs? Donald Davidson is usually taken to have a well‐known answer to this question that runs as follows: while our beliefs are, at least in part, caused by our experience, such experience does not thereby count as providing a rational ground for those beliefs; our beliefs are thus evidentially grounded in other beliefs, but not in the experience that gives rise to them. John McDowell, among others, has challenged this Davidsonian picture on the grounds that it actually severs the connection between beliefs and their proper evidential grounds. Against such a view, this paper argues the Davidsonian position grounds belief in the specificity of our own locatedness in the world, and in the more general and prior embeddedness of belief in the world that is a part of the very concept of belief.