Module 12 Lecture Transcript PDF

HIST 3751: Science and Religion 1 Module 12 Lecture Transcript Welcome to the 12th and final module for History 3751. In this module we’ll be looking at American psychology and neuroscience and the human person. After successfully completing thi...

HIST 3751: Science and Religion 1 Module 12 Lecture Transcript Welcome to the 12th and final module for History 3751. In this module we’ll be looking at American psychology and neuroscience and the human person. After successfully completing this module you should be able to offer examples of how religion has incorporated ideas and practices from psychology and vice versa, explain relationships between neuroscientific theories and religious concepts, and discuss intersections and conflict between the new religious movement scientology and psychology and psychiatry. Following this lecture please read the following. Matthew S. Hedstrom’s chapter, “American Psychology,” which can be found in the Science and Religion text. Alan C. Weissenbacher “Neuroscience and the Human Person” which can also be found in the Science and Religion text. And finally Stephen A. Kent & Terra A. Manca’s “A War Over Mental Health Professionalism: Scientology versus Psychiatry” which can be found online. Once again, let us begin with a pen and paper reflection. So grab your writing instruments and writing surfaces. What is psychology? According to Hedstrom psychology is the science of the human mind and human behaviour. “The questions it probes about the inner life of human beings,” he writes, “are as old as humanity and have always been entangled with religion.” Let’s go back to Noah’s flood. So as mentioned after Cain killed Abel, and these were Adam and Eve’s children, there was an escalation of violence on the earth. “The Lord,” it says in Genesis, “saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth. And that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.” Note this idea: the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. It’s a psychological probe of humankind in general. But Noah found favour in the sight of the Lord, the scripture reads. Genesis continues, “After the flood Noah built an alter to the Lord and offered burnt offerings on the alter. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odour the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of humankind. For the inclination of the human heart is evil from TRU Open Learning 2 Module 3 Transcript youth.’” Note again this idea that the human heart, this can be read as the human mind, is evil from youth. People are inherently evil. Another book of the Hebrew Bible that offers fascinating insights into the human psyche is the Book of Job. There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright. One who feared God and turned away from evil. In the story the Lord allows Satan, or the heavenly adversary, to persecute Job in order to test his faithfulness. With hardships piled upon him Job laments his situation. “Terrors are turned upon me. My honours pursued as by the wind and my prosperity is passed away like a cloud. And now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me. The night wracks my bones and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest. I cry to you and you do not answer me. I stand and you merely look at me.” Here we have a troubling and fascinating insight into the human feeling of despair. Of course, it is not all doom and gloom in the Hebrew Bible. There are admittedly rare instances where the idea of happiness and what it takes to become happy are mentioned. For example, in the Book of Psalms, Psalms being a book of songs which may have been performed in a ritual context, it says, “Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path that sinners tread or sit in the seat of scoffers. But their delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law they meditate day and night. In all that they do they prosper.” As you read through Matthew Hedstrom’s chapter, consider these questions. How did ideas of the soul relate to relationships between religion and psychology? Do you recognize analogues to mind cure or new thought teachings in contemporary culture? What were arguments for and against combining religion and psychology? Moving on from psychology to neuroscience, what is neuroscience? Weissenbacher describes neuroscience as the scientific study of the nervous system and the brain. Neuroscience, he continues, is discovering the areas of the brain correlated with many aspects of the human personality, once attributed to the soul that lead to a view of the human person as entirely physical. As you read through Weissenbacher’s chapter, consider these questions. Do you agree with his claim that neuroscience does not falsify religion? How have materialistic reductionist approaches understood religion? What are Weissenbacher’s issues with the concept of nature or nurture? TRU Open Learning HIST 3751: Science and Religion 3 Time for another pen and paper reflection. What does the word “scientology” bring to your mind? Scientology is often pejoratively labeled a cult due to widespread concerns about its practices, beliefs, and its secrecy. Academically, however, scientology is better understood as a new religious movement. A concept that does not carry inherent negative connotations. The Church of Scientology was founded by L. Ron Hubbard who died in 1986. Hubbard had found some success as a science fiction writer. Now this previous career of Hubbard’s intersects with the organization’s esoteric or secretive teachings about Xenu, an extraterrestrial ruler who purportedly executed millions of his subjects on Earth millions of years ago. According to the esoteric theology of scientology, after their execution these beings, thetans, a concept which can be considered analogous to the soul or the spirit were released. They were implanted with false information and then attached to humans. Each of these body thetans, as Bromley points out, retains traumatic experiences that negatively impact the individual to whom the body thetan is attached. As David Bromley points out the core scientology ritual is auditing which aims at clearing away traumatic incidents from the preclears, that is a person who has yet to reach the desired state of clear, traumatic incidents from the preclear’s past and present lives. Using an e-meter which purportedly measures negative memory records an auditor helps a practitioner work through negative experiences via questioning and discussion. Despite its controversial esoteric theology scientology has very practical aims. Consider this scientology definition from the official scientology website. “Although modern life seems to pose an infinitely complex array of problems, scientology maintains that the solutions to those problems are basically simple and within every man’s reach. Difficulties with communication and interpersonal relationships, nagging insecurities, self-doubt and despair, each man innately possesses the potential to be free of these and many other concerns.” Consider how scientology’s practical aims intersect with something like this. This can be found under the heading of psychology on the website for the Rutgers University Newark Counseling Center. “Providing a safe and respectful atmosphere where students have an opportunity to explore their thoughts, feelings, behaviours TRU Open Learning 4 Module 3 Transcript and experiences of themselves and others in their lives, can positively impact a student’s academic experience. Individual counseling gives the student a place to organize their thoughts and learn new skills and ways of thinking that may benefit them throughout life. Our goal is to help empower students with an enhanced ability to effectively solve problems on their own.” Here, as with the scientology mission statement, we have a focus on a therapeutic solving of problems. Now before we turn to Kent and Manca’s article, we should differentiate between psychology and psychiatry. Unlike psychologists, psychiatrists are trained as medical doctors and are ale to prescribe medications. As Tony Rahagan [?] writes, “Both psychiatrists and psychologists are typically trained to practice psychotherapy. Talking with their patients about their problems.” Now as you read through Kent and Manca’s article, “A War over Mental Health Professionalism: Scientology vs. Psychiatry” consider these questions. What is a pseudo science? How were L. Ron Hubbard’s theories and practices similar to and/or different from psychiatry/psychology? What were scientology’s tactics in this quote/unquote war? TRU Open Learning