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This qualitative research highlighted the lived experiences of individuals transitioning from believers to atheists in the Philippines, a country deeply influenced by religious perspectives. The study employed a phenomenological approach and had six participants who were residents of Quezon City, Rizal, Cavite, Pasig City, Cavite, and Makati City. The study identified 10 superordinate Themes using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), highlighting the intricate nuances of the participants' experiences. These themes included: Religious Influences of Schooling, Family, and Personal Curiosity; Influence on Personal Morality and Skepticism; Experiencing Dissonant Texts, Actions, and Conversations; Inward Dilemmas due to Social Fear, Rationality, and Moral Ambiguity; Intersecting Influences from Local, Global, and Digital Environments; Sexuality, Hypocrisy, and Personal Beliefs; Contradictions in Religious Teachings Lead to Atheism; Shared Viewpoints Affirmed Personal Views; Disputations in Shared Circles Lead to Personal Discovery; Unfolding of Identity through Personal and Social Dynamics. The process of moving away from religious beliefs and embracing atheism was a multifaceted journey that involved numerous factors. One's upbringing in a particular religion, combined with personal exploration, societal pressures, and exposure to a variety of viewpoints, all played a role in shaping individual convictions. The study explored the process of how Filipino atheists converted from believers to atheism, and what factors influenced their journey towards atheism. The study emphasized the role of cognitive dissonance, interpersonal contacts, societal support, and social dynamics in shaping individuals' belief systems. The study also highlighted the challenges faced by Filipino atheists, including those related to sexuality and hypocrisy within religious contexts. Overall, the study shed light on the complexities of religious conversion and de-conversion and the importance of social support in shaping individuals' beliefs and identities. Ultimately, becoming an atheist required a thorough introspection that was shaped by internal and external variables, resulting in a redefinition of one's identity and a change in beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demonstrable rise in self-generated asylum evidence—most typically via social media—is in need of explication. Drawing on cases from ethnographic research in Sweden this article sets out to understand why asylum seekers turn to extreme forms of activity such as filming themselves burning the Quran. It appears that such 'staged' evidence is most often born out of a sense of emotional desperation in the face of a stone-wall assessment system which leans heavily towards rejection. To reach this conclusion, however, the article first engages with more traditional asylum 'scripts' and roadmaps endorsed and shaped by NGO's and legal practitioners. The 2015 Migration Crisis in Europe has fundamentally altered the assessment process, not only in its 'bar-raising' aspects for positive decisions, but also by reconfiguring the very form and structure of evidence presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'multispecies turn' in the social sciences and humanities is informing many disciplines including animal studies, anthropology, Indigenous studies and, more recently, sociology of religion. Scholars working on multispecies relations employ various methods and methodologies, many of which are challenging modern, Western, Christian paradigms and practices that are anthropocentric and focus on logos/words/texts/beliefs. This discussion examines new and multiple ways of conducting multispecies focused research, that is critical, reflexive, embodied, affective and intuitive. It begins with an overview of the methods applied by notable scholars – Kimmerer, Tsing and Beaman – researching multispecies relations, and then includes four personal 'riotous' reflections by this article's co-authors, on their own positionality and experiences of conducting such research. The discussion concludes by identifying key challenges in research on diverse worldviews and multispecies relations, and aims to generate creative and scientific responses to further decenter anthropocentrism in academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how sociologists of religion can respond to 'the animal turn' in studies of lived religion and nonreligion. We begin by considering how sociology has neglected the place of non-human animals and the 'more than human' in social life. We then turn to the sociology of religion, where animals have often been devalued or ignored as irrelevant to understanding religion in society. We argue that it is necessary to consider the ways in which human activities are shaped by non-human animals. This does not mean that animals should be thought of as nonreligious or religious. We contend that the failure to incorporate non-human animals in sociological considerations of religion and nonreligion replicates a hierarchical model, which sees human life as above or higher than non-human life and calls our attention to the place of sociological research amid the climate crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contemporary food system relies on a paradigm of human exceptionalism. But living well together with all forms of life would require that we imagine humans' place in the world as embedded, not as separate. This study explores food waste as a case for how to reimagine humans' place in the world. Drawing from individual and group interviews conducted in Canada and Finland, I trace the roles that ordinary people assign for themselves when talking about food waste. Humans see themselves as both creators of food waste and as saviours of food that is in danger of going to waste. These images uphold the division between humans and the nonhuman world. As a way of troubling these anthropocentric notions and re-embedding the human in the analysis in a way that transcends hierarchical subject positions, I identify a third role: that of the garburator. This role takes humans seriously as material, embodied, and eventually decomposing beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirical study investigates the transformation of religiosity in Spain over the two decades from 1998 to 2018, with a focus on social changes in belief, religiosity, and religious controversies, as well as the evolution of religious socialization. By incorporating the concepts of religious socialization and religious controversy into the theoretical framework, the study analyzes data from three waves of surveys on religious topics conducted in Spain during this period. The descriptive findings reveal a clear trend towards a decline in religious belief, religiosity, and practice, coupled with a significant rise in atheistic and non-religious attitudes. Moreover, the explanatory analysis indicates a reduction in the impact of primary religious socialization during childhood, while sociodemographic variables such as age and ideology have either maintained or increased their influence in shaping religious or non-religious positions. The study identifies religious polarization, driven by a marked increase in atheism and non-religion, and suggests that intergenerational and ideological shifts are more critical in explaining changes in religious beliefs than traditional religious socialization processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Ilahiyat Researches / Ilahiyat Tetkikleri Dergisi is the property of Ataturk University Coordinatorship of Scientific Journals and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Non-religious affiliation is rising in the United States. Non-religious people are viewed as immoral, which fuels stigmatization. I argue that the television show The Good Place challenges such assumptions by conceptualizing ethics outside a religious framework. Through an analysis of three episodes in the series, I argue that the show demonstrates the importance of having non-selfish motivations when doing good for others and the limits to a self-sacrificial approach to ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article traces the hypothesis on atheism in Robert Greene's drama "Selimus" to the Sisyphus fragment which was attributed in the ancient doxographic tradition to Critias of Athens. It suggests the potential of "Selimus" to outpace Christopher Marlowe's "Tamburlaine" given its debunking of religion. It discusses Sextus Empiricus's preamble to the fragment focusing on the irreligion of Critias, his role in the Thirty Tyrants regime and the anthropological theory on the origins of religion.

How important is atheism for Jewish history and Jews for the history of atheism? Modern Jewish histories have tended to focus on Jewish secularization rather than atheism, and historical surveys of atheism in the West have tended to neglect the Jewish experience which is subsumed in the Judeo-Christian tradition. It is possible to make the case that the secularization narrative privileges social change over Jewish intellectual engagement with non-belief, and that just as Jewish and Christian conceptions of theism differ, so do their atheisms. Jewish historical attitudes towards atheism are complicated and have shifted over time. Here, skeptical tendencies, that is, attitudes and ideas that would be associated later with atheism, will be considered alongside claims about atheism per se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The argument from divine hiddenness (ADH) requires accepting that nonresistant nonbelief has existed or does exist. Yet some reasons for accepting nonresistant nonbelief are also reasons for accepting theistic-supporting and naturalism-falsifying evidentially compelling religious experiences (ECREs). Additionally, any reasons for rejecting ECREs can be used to reject nonresistant nonbelief, thus creating parity (at the very least) of epistemic warrant between the two claims. Consequently, accepting nonresistant nonbelief should lead to accepting ECREs. Accepting nonresistant nonbelief therefore indirectly threatens naturalism, atheism and even the ADH itself. To any reason that can be given for rejecting ECREs there corresponds a parallel reason for rejecting nonresistant nonbelief. So it is irrational to accept the ADH while refusing to accept ECREs. Yet the existence of ECREs contradicts the ADH's conclusion. So the ADH is self-defeating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Aufklärung: Revista de Filosofia is the property of Aufklarung: Revista de Filosofia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

From ancient times to the present day, the question of faith and unbelief has troubled all mankind, from the common man to his greatest geniuses. In expressing belief and/or non-belief, the notion of „atheist“ is frequently used, which has many different meanings. There are frequent cases in which, in a conversation, people use, each distinctly, the notion of „atheist“, (1) either with the most different meanings, (2) or with ambiguous, unclear meanings, and in one case and in another, reaching the situation of „talking together and understanding each other separately“. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is scholarly consensus among theologians and their disciplinary partners that religion closely links with identity formation, unmatched by identification with any other social group. However, detachment from organised religion in Western cultures among young people is increasingly evident. This paper presents research findings for theological reflection derived from an empirical sequential mixed-method, ethnographic Gadamerian doctoral study exploring Ireland's rapidly changing religious landscape. Survey findings (n = 178) and follow-up interviews (N = 22) of a random sample of 18–39 year olds suggest that while Irish Catholicism remains culturally important there is increasing disconnection from the institutional Church. It appears that privatised, self-referential forms of spirituality related to a wellness culture are growing. However, this paper suggests that a positive benefit may also accrue from these trends, specifically that sectarianism as a historically pernicious form of racism may diminish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

J.L. Schellenberg and likeminded philosophers have offered a compelling argument against the existence of God known as the hiddenness argument. The idea that a loving God would not permit nonresistant nonbelief seems intuitive at first. Many theists have provided strong rebuttals to the hiddenness argument, attacking one or more of its controversial premises. I attempt to provide a new way forward in rebutting the hiddenness argument by challenging the assumed understanding of love that motivates many of the intuitions behind the hiddenness argument. I offer objections to the account of love that Schellenberg uncritically assumes and applies to divine-human relationships, and then go on to reconstruct the hiddenness argument with other accounts of love that are offered in contemporary philosophical literature discussion. In each case, the hiddenness argument is rendered unsuccessful. Throughout the essay, I comment on the theological merits of these various accounts of love as they are applied to divine-human relationships in order to show that, while not all of them are equally viable, Christian theists have several plausible ways of avoiding the conclusion of the hiddenness argument by adopting a different account of divine love. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicide is a public health problem and one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Research exploring the linkages between religion and spirituality has received intermittent attention. Data was derived from the Nashville Stress and Health Study (2011–2014), a cross-sectional probability survey of black and white adults from Davidson County, Tennessee (n = 1252). Results indicate that those with no perceived belief in divine control had a higher likelihood of suicidality. This study provides a fresh perspective on the links between religious factors and suicidality by (a) considering multiple religious and spiritual domains and (b) focusing on the association between irreligion and suicidality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most commentators on the argument from divine hiddenness agree that there exists non-resistant non-belief. This article challenges this orthodoxy by arguing that on closer inspection, this premise is problematic. The putative categories of non-resistant non-belief are really instances of resistance, or non-resistant non-belief of the sort that is not incongruent with what a good and loving God would allow (or could prevent). One of the central critiques offered here is that Schellenberg's argument against the veridicality of religious experience, if true, calls into question the importance of having conscious apprehension of God. The absence of conscious apprehension of God is taken by Schellenberg as evidence of hiddenness. But if religious experience is as epistemically tenuous as he argues it is (as against the veridicality of religious experience) then God would not be interested in bequeathing it. So, there is an internal tension within the hiddenness argument that defeats one of its key premises. Non-belief is either resistant or non-resistant, but not of the sort incompatible with what a loving God would allow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores non/religious emotions and experiences among a group of high-cost Christian charismatic disaffiliates in Norway. It is a case study of members of the Facebook community "The Journey" (no. "Reisen"). With a qualitative approach, it uses lifestory interviews from 24 ex-Charismatics to describe their experiences of what I call phantoms of faith. The article gives thick descriptions of the disaffiliates' negotiations between current and past emotions and experiences and the explanations they have for these. It uses the metaphor of phantom to explore embodied and emotional religiosity, for which the analysis is inspired by the conceptual framework of Pagis and Winchester's somatic inversions. The analysis shows how phantom faith experiences create ruptures and dissonance in the disaffiliates' everyday lives and thus produce interpretative demands. The article argues that leaving charismatic Christianity, in this material, on an embodied and emotional dimension is much more complex than the cognitive and social dimensions of disaffiliation. Scholarly understandings of this phenomenon have implications for the disaffiliates who experience them, as well as the scholarly constructions of the spaces and categories between religion and non-religion. It argues that such experiences have been somewhat understudied in the literature and that current conceptualizations should be further developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have long recognized the significance of the concept of 'enthusiasm' in eighteenth‐century British culture. Its association with melancholy made it a powerful tool for dealing with religious and political dissent by dismissing enthusiasts' claims to divine inspiration as the delusions of their troubled minds. However, the medicalization of enthusiasm also meant that many Christians felt the need to defend their own faith against accusations that it caused melancholy. By examining and contextualizing Robert Blakeway's essay on religious melancholy, this article explores this latter concern. It suggests that such a preoccupation was related both to the fear of enthusiasm and to the fear of irreligion. Blakeway's essay is presented as an example of a broader effort by Anglican clergy to define an 'orthodox sorrow' as a middle way between enthusiastic melancholy and lukewarm indifference. Finally, the article emphasizes the polemical dimension of the vocabulary of sorrow in eighteenth‐century England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annals of Philosophy / Roczniki Filozoficzne is the property of John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Philosophy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the worldview-based approach to studying religious and non-religious perspectives, avoiding the need to define religion and non-religion. This allows for comparison between cultures and the analysis of worldviews without bias towards religion. The text also addresses the importance of considering the so-called "existentially indifferent" and proposes the use of an evolutionary perspective in constructing meaning. Additionally, the text presents a list of bibliographic references related to the study of religious changes, world studies, psychology of meaning, and other related topics. [Extracted from the article]

The theological significance of individual lament songs lies primarily in their giving voice to suffering. Despite the complaint, the sufferer does not turn away from God since the centre of human existence is God. Suffering does not rule out the connection with God but rather confirms it. The lament has by now lost its original meaning and has received a negative report, as in the eyes of today's humanity complaint is an expression of unbelief and a distrustful attitude. This aspect, the importance of lament songs, has been ignored by scholars until now. However, the predominance of lament songs in the Book of Psalms means that the issue of complaint is not something marginal or unusual but an important element of faith. One of the most important characteristics of this genre is the sudden change of mood, when the complaint unexpectedly turns into praise. This poetic form involves the transition from hopelessness to joy, for the form not only contains a description of the problem but also the solution to it as well. In a world that has become desensitized, it is important to use these psalms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cumhuriyet Ilahiyat Dergisi / Cumhuriyet Theology Journal is the property of Cumhuriyet Universitesi, Ilahiyat Fakultesi / Cumhuriyet University, Faculty of Theology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

For centuries after his death in the late twelfth century, Simon of Tournai, a master of theology in the Parisian schools, had a reputation for being an unbeliever punished by God with a stroke. This article gathers the eight known medieval sources for his stroke and examines them from a mythogenetic perspective to demonstrate how different authors writing with different purposes, genres, and biases recast the image of Simon as an unbeliever for their own moral or polemical programs. I argue that since Simon's stroke was interpreted as divine action, presenting him as sinful was required to preserve divine goodness. The article also discusses the representation of Simon as irate as an element of didactic intent against unbelief, blasphemy, pride, anger, and luxuria. The article revises the date of Simon's stroke from c. 1201 to the 1180s or very early 1190s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term nothingarian suggests an under-studied presence in the history of the early republic: the religiously unaffiliated. Scholars routinely mention the term nothingarian , but few have examined its origins, uses, or significance in American history. Although it seems to have originated much earlier, as a term for members of the little-known Gortonist sect in Rhode Island, "nothingarian" would come to connote the irreligious, ambivalent, or unaffiliated person, one whom pollsters of religion today might call a "none," or a person of no organized religion. The fear of nothingarians was especially acute in the early republic because of the widespread disestablishment of official denominations, rapid spread of settlement on the frontier, and deep uncertainties about American national cohesion after independence. Many observers in early national America feared that disestablishment and religious choice would lead not to massive numbers of conversions, but to masses of indifferent, skeptical, or unaffiliated people. The term nothingarian is important because it was widely used (if poorly defined), and because it reflected widespread fears about preserving religious affiliation and building a new American nation in the absence of state churches or a national establishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay reflects on the history of the origins of atheism in the late sixteenth century through an analysis of the Inquisition proceedings against Flaminio Fabrizi, which began in Siena in 1587 and ended in Rome in 1591 with the accused being sentenced to death at the stake. This is a very intriguing case because Fabrizi, not a learned man, mixed different forms of heterodoxy and unbelief that surprised and disturbed the judges of the Holy Office. This essay aims to contribute to the history of religious nonconformism in Counter-reformation Italy and in Europe during the so-called "confessional era". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern times many militant atheist thinkers and activists have tried to promote the idea that religions, as well as religious ways of life, are one of the main, if not the main source of evil in the social arena. Some other nonbeliever scholars, while taking a respectful approach towards religions and religious people, maintaining that it is more rational for people and communities to adopt a non-religious outlook on life and become members of the community of non-believers. In this paper, I do not take issue with the militant non-believers. The reason is that their approach to religion is so ideologically driven that it leaves not much room for proper rational discussions; it only invites some polemical replies. My aim here is, instead, to enter into a dialogue with those non-believer scholars who view religion in a measured and rational way. My intention is to critically assess the claims of this latter group of scholars and explain why, contrary to what they suggest, certain interpretations of religion, and in particular, the Islamic faith, can provide them with better alternatives than their atheist outlooks. The arguments of this paper are mostly in reply to the views expressed by Professor Shearmur in his paper on critical rationalism and religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Larq Journal for Philosophy, Linguistics & Social Sciences is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Twelver Shi'ite space has recently witnessed contradictory theses and theories about the doctrine of the absent Imam - the Awaited Mahdi - so this research was a study of these theses and a liberation of the differences between them. In this research, I relied on the inductive method, so I followed up on it the views of Imami scholars and thinkers on the doctrine of the Awaited Mahdi. Also, I concluded in this research the following: that the doctrine of the absent Imam - the awaited Mahdi - was invented to complete the image of the Twelver Imami creed, and help it to hold together in the face of the challenge imposed by the death of the Eleventh Imam, Hasan al-Askari, without an apparent consequence. Whereas, one of the most important results of saying this doctrine was the cracking of the Shi'ite ranks, the weakening of faith in the souls, the deepening of confusion and doubt about its existence, which necessitated the creation of books from their symbols urging followers to be steadfast, and heralding them with the imminent appearance of Awaited Mahdi, fearing them of the consequences of unbelief and denial. Despite all these efforts, the Twelver Reformist current proved the invalidity and corruption of the doctrine of Mahdism and backbiting - saying that there is an infallible absent imam - rationally and transmission. Among the recommendations of the research: Continuing dialogue with Shi'ites in the world, whether common people, scholars or intellectuals; Because this dialogue has important and great results. For those who follow the refutation of the reformist movements and their critique of the Imami creedal inheritance, it will become clear to see the impact of this refutation and these challenges by the criticism of the Sunnis on those beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Abant Social Sciences / Abant Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi is the property of Journal of Abant Social Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

"The Drama of Serial Conversion in Early Modern England" is a book review that explores the concept of serial conversion in early modern England. Serial converts were individuals who moved back and forth between Protestantism and Catholicism, challenging religious and political order. The author, Holly Crawford Pickett, examines the dramatic potential and uncertainties of conversion by analyzing theatrical depictions of conversion and works authored by serial converts. The book highlights the search for sincerity and the reflection on the meaning of conversion among seventeenth-century serial converts, shedding light on the relationship between performance and sincerity. [Extracted from the article]

Premodern Muslim juristic discussions on religious innovation (bidʿa) frequently invoke a distinction between religion and its other: the irreligious and/or non-religious secular. This demarcation disrupts accounts of the unavailability of the secular beyond the precincts of the modern West, even as the imperfect translation of premodern Islamic non-religion as secular discloses the ethnocentric provincialism of the master categories of European thought that continue to facilitate European colonialism. An alternative, premodern, Islamic account of the secular is found in the thought of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328), al-Shāṭibī (d. 790/1388) and their intergenerational interlocutors who summon an opaque and shifting, yet real, boundary between religion and the irreligious and/or non-religious secular, which they posit as distinct, oppositional, yet also co-constitutive terms. The distinctions between religion and the secular, for these scholars, arise out of their (i) purposive account of divine law, (ii) compartmentalization of religious 'worship' from secular 'custom', and (iii) creation of distinct orders of religious and secular spatio-temporality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annals of Philosophy / Roczniki Filozoficzne is the property of John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Philosophy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Annals of Philosophy / Roczniki Filozoficzne is the property of John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Philosophy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Metaphor has long been considered a 'way in' to people's experiences, with metaphor analysis being used to gain insights into a range of psychological and physiological phenomena. However, a number of challenges arise when analysing metaphor in such contexts. We reflect on the challenges we have encountered in our research into intensely emotional and/or personal experiences related to bereavement and religious belief. Both areas showcase metaphor operating in the 'liminal spaces' of human experience. The spaces between life and death, personhood and non-personhood, and belief and non-belief prove rich ground for metaphor, but the qualities of these metaphors are as complex and elusive as the concepts they are being used to describe. We explore how metaphoricity in general, and creative use of metaphor in particular, in these contexts are flexible phenomena, opening up new questions as to what 'counts' as a (creative) metaphor. We propose three levels at which people use or experience metaphor, show how these interact, and propose a number of methodological factors to be taken into consideration when conducting metaphor research in such complex areas of human experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Lettre Clandestine is the property of Classiques Garnier and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper will focus on the different ways in which being secular or nonreligious is represented in contemporary US television seriality. The paper will examine three cases, showing how they manage to depict different ways of being religious and nonreligious and how these differences are represented and mediated. Conceptually the focus will be on nonreligiosity as a relational concept, while the more general frame is the role of television and specifically seriality in representing, reflecting, and promoting (or not) different forms of religion, nonreligion, and secularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contemporary Islamic Studiens Magazine is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Some of our researchers present an academic article that demonstrates a scientific approach to the issue of freedom of religion and non-religion, consider the history, values, features and roles of traditional religions in a different way, and study the experience of foreign countries that regulate this issue, such as government policy on religion and related legal issues. the importance of reflection in document development. In this article, we highlight the importance of relying on scientific research in religious studies when the government approaches the issue of freedom of religion or non-religion, the consequences of the repression of Mongolian traditional religion, the loss of spiritual traditions of Mongolians, and the fact that the government supports traditional religion and develops a strong society without violating the universal human right declarations on the example of Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the Qur'an, man has been created as a being capable of both good and evil. However, Allah, whose grace and generosity is endless, has not left people confused and devastated between these two opposite abilities, and given people a power like "reason" to distinguish good from bad. In his Holy Book, God showed people the divine truths and called them to use their minds constantly. While those who do not use their mind are vilified by Allah, those who use the real blessing of reason are also praised. There are many verses in the Qur'an that guide people to use their minds, and there are many verses that indicate that the heart has a sense of feeling, and that the place of faith and unbelief is the heart. Because the heart is a source that leads people to real knowledge. Faith, unbelief, goodness, evil are among its actions. That is why the heart is the essence of man and the true place of sin. All the senses are servants of the heart. In the Qur'an, there are very close ties between the senses and the heart, which is considered the center of understanding and reasoning. In the Qur'an, it has always been questioned why those who do not have senses cannot think and why people who are given senses cannot think. It is stated that the senses should be used in order to think correctly, and people's lack of understanding is mentioned when the senses and the heart do not fulfill their duties. People who are not actually deaf and dumb are characterized as deaf and dumb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Strategic Universe Journal / Univers Strategic is the property of Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University, Institute for Security Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

I argue that philosophers of religion should not merely focus on religions but should pay much more attention to the secular outlooks on life emerging in contemporary society. To compare these outlooks, I suggest that we use the notion of worldview, and contrast religious worldviews with secular worldviews − rather than contrasting religions with nonreligions, which scholars of religion have recently tended to do. Accordingly, religious people should be contrasted with secular people and not with religious 'nones'. I also explore the specific contribution of philosophy of religion to worldviews studies, and discuss why such a contribution is considered controversial within religious studies circles. I contend that it should instead be a legitimate and essential part of the academic study of worldviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While historians have explored the links between first‐wave feminism and religion, particularly Christianity, in considerable detail in both Canada and the United States, the nature of the relationship between religion, irreligion and second‐wave feminism has received little scholarly attention. This forum explores the complex and troubled intersections between second‐wave feminism, religion and irreligion among Jewish women, both feminist and non‐feminist, a Christian Pentecostal female politician and nonbelieving women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]