Transcript Moral Development, Values & Religion

Existential/Spiritual
Development
Personal Values, Religion & Spiritual Experiences
Module 11-2
What are Values?
• Beliefs & attitudes about the way things should be, &
what is important
Do your values affect your life?
 Values and life satisfaction
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Importance
scores
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Money
Love
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-0.4
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3.00
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Life satisfaction
6.00
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Can Cultural Values Change?
• Changes in U.S. (college student) values in the last 50
years
–Less importance on a meaningful philosophy of life
–Less concern for the well-being of others.
–Greater concern for personal well-being
–More interested in self-fulfillment & self-expression
–More interest in physical health & well-being
Values Taught in the U.S. – last 50 years
 Emphasized personal rights in education.
 De-emphasized social responsibility.
 Produced a “me first” mentality that undermines:
 trust in others
 commitment
 altruism
Results? Increasing Antisocial Behavior
 Conduct disorder – age-inappropriate actions & attitudes that violate
family expectations, society’s norms, and the personal or property
rights of others
 Impulsive, overactive, aggressive, under-controlled
 Temperament, parenting, violent neighborhood
Is there a Spiritual Void?
Gabarino (1999) interviewed youth. Found
spiritual, emotional emptiness. Seeking
meaning on the dark side.
Does out-of-control behavior come from a
lack of meaning, or a lack of order and
authority? Are the two related?
Meaning in Life
 Victor Frankl (1984)
 Life is meaningful because it is unique & finite; three most
distinct human qualities are spirituality, freedom &
responsibility
 Baumeister (1992) Needs for meaning
 Purpose: goals & fulfillment
 Values:
 Sense of efficacy: one can make a difference
 Self-worth: from doing & belonging
What does being religious do for a person?
• Teenagers (13-18 year olds)
– 95% believe in God
– 75% pray
– 50% went to church
• Among college students
– 79% believe in God
– 69% pray
– 69% searching for meaning
– 50% not secure about religious beliefs
– Lifespan Religious/Spiritual Beliefs - U.S.
Religion & Spirituality – U.S. Adolescents
Positive effects
Less likely to use drugs
Health
Lower levels of problem
behavior/delinquency
More likely to do community service
Religious behaviors were linked to
sexual activity
U.S. Religious/Spiritual Beliefs Adulthood
• MacArthur Study of Midlife Development
– 70% religious, spirituality a part of their lives
– 75% pray
– Half attend services only rarely
• Declining faith in
– Mainstream institutions (denominations)
– Religious leaders
– Spiritual & moral stature of the nation
Benefits of Faith
Meaningful faith related to happiness
Religious women had higher self-rated health
throughout life (ages 20-94); no association for men
Studies have found that religious commitment
moderates blood pressure
Religious participation related to longer life (42 studies)
– Health Psychology
Prayer is associated with positive, health-related
changes
Benefits of Faith
Mind Health Report, Dr. Andrew Newberg, neurotheology
 Becoming more forgiving. Forgiveness is associated with
better overall health and life satisfaction – Psychological
Science
 Achieving Goals more effectively (better self-control)–
Psychological Bulletin
 Teens only half as likely to use drugs – Psychology of
Addictive Behaviors
Benefits of Faith
 Medical
 Coping better with breast cancer – PsychoOncology
 Improving recovery from heart surgery – The Gerontologist
 Enhancing Recovery from brain injury – Rehabilitation Psychology
 Reducing the impact of chronic pain – Journal of Behavioral Medicine
 Reducing risk for diabetes complications – Diabetes Care
 Lowering kids’ anxiety before surgery – Anesthesia & Intensive Care
Benefits of Faith
Mental Health
 Recovering from abusive relationships – Social Psychology Quarterly
 Reducing risk for depression – American Journal of Psychiatry
 Protecting against stress – Annals of Behavioral Medicine
 Protecting against Age-related Mental Decline – The Journals of
Gerontology: Series B
 Improving mood & outlook – Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease
 Calming Anger – Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin
 Controlling Fear of Terrorist attacks – Journal of Personality & Social
Psychology
 Alleviating Panic Disorder – Depression & Anxiety
Negative Views of God
 Holding God responsible for harm
 Feeling abandoned by God
 Attributing cruelty to God
 Anger at God
 Seeing self as a victim
Have negative consequences
 Increased risk of death – Archives of internal Medicine (600 hospital
patients)
 Mental well-being decreased among breast-cancer patients – Journal
of Palliative Medicine
 Problems recovering from the death of a loved one – Journal of
Personality & Social Psychology
Religious
Activity & the Brain
 Generally, prayer activates the more “human” (anterior
cingulate) and rational (frontal lobe) parts of the brain and
deactivates the more primitive emotional systems (limbic)
 Speaking in Tongues (also known as praying in the Spirit)
decreases frontal lobe activity
Spirituality & Neuroscience
 What does a PET scan of prayer and meditation look like?
 Parietal lobes become quiet (sense of timelessness)
 Temporal lobes become active (associated with
hallucinations, OBE’s)
 Conclusion: It appears the brain is wired for mystical
experience.
Religious
Activity & the Brain
 12 minutes of prayer per day may decrease frontal lobe shrinkage
that occurs with age
 Increased activity in the anterior cingulate area leads to feelings of
compassion
 As parietal lobe activity drops, we begin to feel more at one with God,
others and the universe
 Prayer can prevent activation of negative emotions in the limbic
system (fear/anger)
Religious Activity & the Brain
 The frontal lobe is engaged in activities such as:
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Meditation
Chanting
Repetitive prayers
Contemplative prayers
 For optimum brain function, it may be good to reduce limbic
activity as much as possible
 This should help the body by reducing stress.
How about people who had NDE’s (Near
Death Experiences)?
 More self-awareness
 More social awareness
 Vivid memories of the NDE
 Increased belief in an afterlife
 Lessening of the fear of death
 More empathy
 Effects persisted and even increased after 8 years.
 A control group of people who nearly died, but had no NDE, did not have
these effects, but more PTSD-like (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder)
symptoms
 Van Lommel (Cited in Discover, July 2005)
Religion in Older Adults
 Increase in spirituality at the beginning of older adulthood;
 Associated with earlier spirituality in the 30’s
 Early involvement predisposes to further development
 Older adults more likely to say that:
 Faith is the most significant influence in their lives
 Try to put faith into practice
 Attend services
Religion in Older Adults
 Affects self-esteem, life satisfaction, & optimism if it is meaningful
 Helps one to face death
 Helps one to find meaning
 Helps one to accept the losses of old age
 Religious friends give social support
 Religious services and activities allow people to assume leadership, teaching
roles
 Prayer & meditation lower stress and are associated with longevity
Culture & Religion
Feldman Module 11-2
Religion & Culture
 Religion can be the chief influence of a culture – Islam
 Religion can be a unifying force for cultural morality.
 Religion can be ignored in a culture – The “state church” of
Denmark is Lutheranism.
 Differing religious views within a culture can be a cause for
conflict.
Christianity
The Foundational Religion of The United States
is
 “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed. That whenever any form of government becomes
destructive to these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to
abolish it, . . . . .
Christian Apostasy
 Started around 1900 with questioning of the
infallibility/inerrancy of the Holy Bible.
 Denial of Biblical beliefs; truth and authority of the Holy Bible
(Apostasy)
 Mentality of salvation by good works
 Universal salvation of all faiths and those with no faith
 The idea of many equal paths to God – universal religion
Who among Christians Has a Biblical
Worldview?
 Source: Barna Polls in 1995, 2000 and 2005 Respondents: self-described Christians
yes
 Biblical worldview
no
9%
91%
 Absolute moral truth exists
34%
66%
 The Bible is accurate
50%
50%
 Truth is discovered only through logic, reason,
and experience
54%
46%
 The Bible, the Koran (Qu’ran), and the Book of
Mormon are different versions of the same truth
44%
56%
 Beliefs about truth:
What Do “Christians” Really Believe?
yes
no
 *God is the all-knowing, all powerful
creator who still rules
70%
30%
 The Holy Spirit is only a symbol
40%
60%
 *Jesus lived a sinless life
40%
60%
 *Satan is real
27%
73%
 *Demon’s are real
67%
33%
 * True according to the Bible/Christian doctrine.
What Do “Christians” Really
Believe?
Only 30% believed that salvation comes through
believing in Jesus. (correct doctrine)
50% believed in salvation (getting to heaven) on the basis of good
works.
- Only 28% believed you cannot get to heaven by good
works.
- 50+% believed some non-believers can get to heaven
(42% included
atheists)
75% believed people are not born sinful, but neutral
Is the Influence of Christianity in
America Waning?
 “at the close of 2008, few Americans perceive that religion is thriving
in U.S. society, and a relatively small majority believe that religion is
relevant to solving today’s problems. They also believe the overall
influence of religion is declining.”
2008 Gallup Poll
With What Competing Ideologies are people
trying to merge traditional Christianity?
 New Age/Humanism/Cosmic Humanism
 One-world Spirituality
 Liberation Theology/Social Justice (Marxist)
 Socialism/Communism (atheist)
 Islam (Chrislam)?
How about the New Spirituality?
 New Age “Cafeteria” Religion
 Based on personal experience
 Cosmic Humanism
 God is in everything. (Pantheism)
 We are all gods.
 Wicca is popular; reincarnation is popular; meditation and occult
practices are popular
One-World Spirituality: Do we really all
need to be on the same page?
 Evolutionary humanism (Man will spiritually evolve on into
godhood.)
 Hindu pantheism (God is in everything.)
 Occultism
 Practice, experiences, channeling “ascended masters”
 Socialism/social justice
 Environmentalism (nature worship)
 Coming Alien Invasion (U.N., Vatican, Barbara Marx
Hubbard)
What is liberation theology?
 It is Marxist, Communist tactics and doctrine masquerading
as (Catholic) Christianity.
 It has a history among liberal Catholic theologians, and was
practiced extensively in South America by Jesuit priests in
the 1970s and 1980s.
What is liberation theology?
 What is currently happening?
 Rev. Jim Wallis hopes to be a spiritual advisor to the President. He
is calling for “social justice” in America (redistribution of income).
 Tony Campolo (The Red-Letter Christians) says that “Christians
should engage in efforts to change the political and economic
structures of our society because these structures do not
adequately address the needs of the poor and the oppressed.”
What is liberation theology?
 Together they want the U.S. government to further tax America’s rich and
give the confiscated proceeds to the poor.
 They do not seem to realize what when you do this, most of the money ends
up in the pockets of highly paid government administrators (about 75%), or
in the case of foreign aid, the Swiss bank accounts of dictators.
 Columnist Thomas Sowell insists that we could raise every poor person in
the U.S. out of poverty in one week while reducing the program budget by
75% simply by getting rid of the government bureaucracy.
And How About the Muslims?
 The Muslim goal is world domination.
 To achieve this they are using population, immigration, and terrorism.
 Their agenda is the U.S. is to become a mainstream (the dominant)
religion, become numerous enough to elect a mayor of a large city,
and eventually a president (2024).
 They also want many countries, including the U.S. to become Sharia
compliant.
 This would cost us our freedom of speech, freedom of worship, and
women’s rights.
Why you don’t want to be Sharia compliant?
 Islam commands:
 1. . . . Jihad (war) against the infidels (unbelievers).
 2.. . . Apostates to be killed.
 3. . . .death for critics of Muhammad, the Qu’ran, & Sharia.
 4.. . . Fornicators to be whipped; adulterers stoned to death.
 5. . . . Homosexuals must be executed.
 6. . . . Highway robbers should be crucified or mutilated.
 7. . . . Male & female thieves must have a hand cut off.
 8. . . . An injured plaintiff may extract an eye for an eye.
 9.. . . Husbands may hit their wives, even if they merely fear
highhandedness
 10. . . Drinkers and gamblers should be whipped.
Culture 14-3
Culture & Religion 11-2
Cultural Worldview
 Elements of the non-material culture (ideas, beliefs, values, etc.) are
generally held together by an integrated and coherent worldview,
which is a comprehensive but basic idea of how the world works
and/or ought to work.
 To the extent that this worldview is shared among the members of the
culture, the worldview and the culture remain stable with low levels of
change.
America is a “Kingdom Divided”
 Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation;
...
 Matthew 12:25, Holy Bible, KJV
The New World Order
 What Is Globalism?
 . . . The belief that events in one country cannot be separated from
another and that the world is moving toward a form of government and
economics that transcends traditional nation-states.
 A small but powerful group of internationalists have been working for
decades to bring various aspects of our society under one, universal
system.
 Kirby Anderson
 Worldviewtimes.com
What is elitism?
 . . . The belief that a small and certain group of people are, in
fact, better equipped to rule the world than are others and
that the rest of the people are best governed by the elite.
 A group of about 300 families control most of the world’s
wealth.
 Some are apparently convinced that it is their right and duty
to rule the world.
Who are the power elite?
 Extremely wealthy international bankers from all around the world,
with a larger concentration in Europe and the U.S.
 European royalty, heads of state, & other extremely rich and/or
powerful people.
 Backed on the next level by heads of corporations & universities;
powerful politicians, etc.
 And who are not?
 The rest of us
Why do we need a New World Order?
 Reasons
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Peace
Saving the environment
Equality
Regulation of business
Or is it just the enjoyment of money and power?
How about the U.S.?
 As we become global, Americans should expect –
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Loss of national sovereignty
Loss of prosperity
Erosion of freedom
Erosion of privacy
Enslavement to a lifetime of debt
New World Order: Proponents
 Council on Foreign Relations (July 29, 1921)
 Promotional arm of the ruling Elite in the U.S.A.: politicians, academics, media,
most Presidents & Secretaries of State (Sometimes called America’s Shadow
Government); Original goal: to federate the English-speaking people of the
world
 Bilderberg Group (The Alliance) (1954, Holland)
 100 elite picked by Lord Victor Rothschild & Lawrence Rockefeller; Initial
purpose: Create the European Union; Current purpose: microchip world
population by 2017
 Club of Rome (1965/1968, Bellagio, Italy)
 75 members, 25 countries; connected to Round Table & NATO; Goal: to be a
forum to discuss future world system; main concern, world population; 1973
– organized the world into 10 regions; 1976 – agenda, redistribution of
wealth
 Trilateral Commission (1972)
 Offshoot of CFR, Bilderberg; Rockefeller instrumental (Jimmy Carter,
Zbignieu Brzezinski); Called for management of America’s future (take
over key policy positions), community of nations, socialist world
government.
And, of course, the UN.
What is sustainable development?
 . . . Development that will not erode the world’s resources over time
to the point that they cannot be replenished.
 . . . A plan to eliminate as much as 85% of the world’s population
 . . . Outlined in United Nations Agenda 21
Traditional American Perspective
 Freedom from Government Oppression
 Small government/low taxes
 Vs large government/high taxes
 Rule of Law/Constitution
 Vs. rule by those in power
 Personal freedom & responsibility
 Vs. government dependence
 Patriotism/nationalism
 Vs. globalism
 Government exists to serve the people
 vs. the people existing to serve the government
Assumptions of Socialism
People exist to serve the government. Government has the
right to control the people.
People need little personal responsibility or freedom and (in
fact) are not capable of handling it.
Rule of the people by the powerful rather than rule of
law/constitution is acceptable.
Socialism
 Government regulation/control of private enterprise
 Government provision of services to citizens
(entitlement)/government control of those services
 (Affordable Care Act)
 Big government/ high taxes
 Redistribution of wealth (social justice)/few opportunities
Communism/Socialism
 What are the similarities?
 One leads to the other. Lenin said that the end goal of socialism was
communism.
 Progressive -> socialist -> communist
 All agree that people need to be ruled, and do not have any rights other
than what the government offers them. This is oppression.
 All tend to lead to totalitarian dictatorships (Nazi Germany; Soviet Union,
China, etc.)
 Control the lives of their citizens
Communist/Socialist Governments
 Generally imprison those who openly disagree with them
(political dissenters)
 Have track records of murdering their own citizens,
sometimes into the millions
 Tend to have poor economies because there is no incentive
to work hard where income is redistributed
How about the Economy?
 “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it
is the merger of state and corporate power.”
Benito Mussolini
Fascism/Nazism (National Socialists)
 This was the form of government in Nazi Germany when Adolph Hitler
was in power.
The “Third Way” currently being advocated by former
President Bill Clinton and former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair advocates an interlocking type of
cooperation between government and business
(nationally or internationally) that fits the definition of
fascism.
Historical Relation to America
 Communism did not really get a foothold politically until the
early 20th Century
 (Marx & Engels did not publish the Communist Manifesto until 1848.)
 The United States spent much of the 20th Century trying to
stop the spread of Communism.
 Cuba/South America
 Korean War
 Vietnam War
 Cold War
 Ronald Reagan/Berlin Wall
 And Nazism (National Socialism)
 WWII
What is infiltration?
 Working to get people of your worldview/political philosophy into key
positions in government, media, education, and business
 Using these institutions to indoctrinate the remainder of the citizens into
agreeing to your rule
 Tactics: control of information, creation of dependency upon the
government through giveaways and promises; creation of crises and
fear causing people to give power to the government in exchange for
protection; creation of discontent among some groups
 These are tactics of Fabian or Gramscian Socialists
Sociocultural Influences
Tactics to Destroy a Culture
Destabilization of the family
Issues with Religion
Censorship of information in education
Bias and withholding of information in the media
Emphasis on social rights rather than
responsibilities
Rapid and uncontrolled immigration