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Beliefs: - Coggle Diagram
Beliefs:
What is a belief system:
Includes a range of activities that fall outside of the framework of the world's established mainstream religions.
Religious beliefs differ from two concepts with which they have, at various times, been entangles: ideology and science.
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CUDOS norms:
CUDOS norms are the 'ethos' that make scientists act in ways that serve the goal of increasing scientific knowledge.
Communism: Knowledge is not private property -> must be shared with scientific community
Universalism: Knowledge is judged by universal, objective criteria.
Disinterestedness: Discover knowledge for its own sake.
Organised Scepticism: no knowledge is regarded as 'sacred'.
Merton says science can only thrive as a major social institution if it receives support from other institutions and values.
Definitions:
Functional: A religion is defined by the functions it performs for society.
Evaluation: Can't generalise about the nature of religion but is inclusive.
Constructional: How individuals define religion.
Evaluation: Just because an institution helps to intergrate doesn't make it a religion but it has no bias against non-Western religions.
Substantive: Content of a religion includes strict practices and a belief in a higher power.
Evaluation: No room for beliefs that do not have a God, has Western bias but does have a distinctive definition.
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Open belief system:
No theory is sacred or absolute truth, it can always be questioned, criticised, tested and potentially shown to be false.
Popper says that science is an open belief system where every scientists theories are open to scrutiny, criticism and testing by others -> falsification.
Closed belief system:
Claim to have special, perfect knowledge of absolute truth, iot is sacred and religious organisations claim to hold it on God's divine authority. It cannot be challenged or changed.
Self-sustaining beliefs:
All beliefs systems have three devices to sustain themselves in the face of apparently contradictory evidence:
Circularity: explained in terms of another idea within the system
Subsidiary Explanations: inncorrect use of the benge
Denial of legitimacy to rivals