Unit 3 Portfolio SRF PDF

Dentistry Science, reason and Faith Portfolio U3 U3. The “reason” of the faith. The religious knowledge 1. Introduction: science and religion, di...

Dentistry Science, reason and Faith Portfolio U3 U3. The “reason” of the faith. The religious knowledge 1. Introduction: science and religion, differentiating fields of knowledge Analyze: Try to define the “objet of knowledge” of sciences. Is it different from religion’s “object of knowledge”? Where is the difference rooted? Do these perspectives interfere with each other?  Science: “A human activity aimed at organised knowledge of nature, based on observation and experiment and expressed in laws and theories, by means of an unambiguous public language (ideally mathematical), endorsed by the controls of the scientific community”. (John Ziman)  Religion: A belief system based on the experience of a Supreme Being who is beyond the material world, but who constitutes its ultimate foundation. Through religion, human beings come into contact with and come to know this ‘divinity’ or absolute Mystery, and that belief is a source of meaning and values that guide personal and social behaviour. It is usually expressed in rituals and can be the foundation of communities. This Mystery is known in different ways according to different religious traditions, but it constitutes their raison of being. Discipline Object of Knowledge / Question Process of knowledge / Attitude Natural sciences Religion 1  Dentistry Science, reason and Faith Portfolio U3 2. Reasoning religions a) Different types of religion exist according to how the transcendent foundation of reality is understood (according to how God is understood). 1) Naturalistic religiosity: It seeks to find the meaning of reality from pure naturalness, from the acceptance of the reality of the sensible world as the only reality. -It can be materialistic if it only admits the existence of matter, or spiritualistic if it admits the existence of spiritual realities but without connection to anything supernatural. This attitude is found in some environmental movements. 2) Religion of mystery: This includes the attitudes of some scientists who see in the rationality of the universe the presence of a sense of the mysterious, inexplicable by science itself. -It is based on the recognition of a mystery that is intuited and revealed in the universe, beyond our understanding, which is not identified with the world itself, but which does not have the characteristics of a personal creator God. 3) Pantheism: Accepts the existence of a God as the foundation of all existence whom it identifies with all reality, therefore, there is no separation between God and the world. -It holds an immanent and impersonal conception of God. The great religious traditions of the East, such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism, have a strong pantheistic character. 3) Deism: Accepts the existence of a transcendent God, i.e. a God who is beyond the world, separate from the world He has created. But He is not a personal God, since He does not intervene in the world once He has created it. This current was in vogue among the Enlightenment of the 18th century. 4) Theism: Accepts the existence of a transcendent creator God with a personal character, i.e., intervening in the world and relating to humans. -The three great traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam are theistic religions and are based on the ‘revelation’ of God to Israel (Judaism), the ‘revelation’ of God in Jesus (Christianity), the revelation of an angel (of God) to Mohammed (Islam). 2  Dentistry Science, reason and Faith Portfolio U3 a) Differentiating terms: “Religion” as a pure conceptual system of beliefs / “Religion” as an experience of faith, from which a second conceptual moment emanates: this faith is philosophically reasoned (theology). Faith is at the heart of all religion. Faith: is a personal experience which consists in the grasping, as far as humanly possible, of the absolute Mystery: This religious experience is not about the purely rational knowledge of grasping an object, but about contact with what is perceived as a subject with whom the human being can enter into a personal relationship. God is perceived not as an object but as a ‘you’ with whom the believer relates, knows and loves and feels known and loved by him. It can be explained as: - ‘Mysterium tremendum et fascinans’: the human being experiences in the presence of the divinity the feelings of the tremendous and fascinating. […] However, this contemplation of the tremendousness of the absolute Mystery does not provoke in the human being a feeling of flight, but of trust, peace and security. The human being is thus attracted in a second moment by the fascination of the contemplation of the divine’ (by Rudolf Otto in his work The Holy). Following the difference mentioned: which kind of religion can be, properly, called “religion”? 3  Dentistry Science, reason and Faith Portfolio U3 b) Analyzing the reasons for worldviews (conceptual systems) *Debate: read the text (the introduction and your own view). Defend the main thesis by giving arguments and criticise the other views with reasons coherent with your own defence. Text: LORDA, J.L., “The four current worldviews”, Rialp, Madrid 2001 (2nd chapter) 83-107. Activity: debate synthesis What is a “worldview”? Do its claims arise from scientific findings? What is the basis of each worldview? Where does its “rationality” lie? How the text criticise the three firsts “worldviews” and why it defends the last one as the “more reasonable” one? 4  Dentistry Science, reason and Faith Portfolio U3 3. Religion and its implications on the cultural concept of "person". A Brief history of the concept of dignity Mesopotamian cultural conception: Brought attributions of image of God on Earth, like Egypt: pharaoh was God, enjoying aristocratic lordship. The gods are anthropomorphic: they have human form and do the same as humans). For example, the Homeric conception (1800 BC). Conception during the res publica and the Roman Empire: For the classics, dignity was above all a social concept, a contingent and individual title given to those who, because of their belonging to a noble family or because of their lifestyle, deserved specific recognition and treatment. ‘Dignus’ means “worthy of honour and esteem”. However, Pannenberg points out that in pre-Christian times the idea of dignitas was already applied in some form to man in general. Cicero, in particular, considered the dignity of the human person in his rational behaviour, although his idea did not incorporate the principle of the inviolability of human life (Pannenberg, cit. Burguete, 2016). Judeo-Christian conception: Hebrew culture: “And God said, ‘Let us make man (Adamah= humanity) in our image, after our likeness.’ (Gen 1,26). The human being is created in the image of God the Creator. The human being is self-understood from the grasp of the divine. The origin of the ‘person’ is to be found in the field of religious experience’. The Bible does not have the term ‘person’ but describes man by means of a threefold anthropological relationship: Relationship of absolute dependence before God, Relationship of superiority to the world; Relationship of equality to the human you (Ruiz de la Peña, 154). This means that the created human being belongs to God, and to no one else, that he must take care of the rest of the creatures or govern them (assuming a state in which evil has not yet appeared), and that he is in a state of equality with respect to the other individuals of the human species. This relation of man's dependence does not demean anyone; on the contrary, it constitutes the foundation of his dignity (...) because he depends on God, he does not depend on anyone or anything else, not even on another man. (p. 45). Moral consequences: A human being cannot with impunity attack his neighbour who is, like himself, the image of God. [...] Slavery was forbidden to the people of Israel because they considered themselves ‘equals’ among themselves. Whereas the surrounding empires had a natural conception of slaves. The basic anthropological statement is not limited to the first human being; the bible extends it to each and every human being. Wherever a personal human existence arises, the miracle of the first creation takes place again’ (p. 48). (p. 48). What does Jesus add to the anthropology of the Old Testament? Lk 10, (25-28): The great commandment: A lawyer stood up and asked him, to test him, ‘Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? How do you read?’ He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘You have answered rightly. Do this and you will live.’ 5  Dentistry Science, reason and Faith Portfolio U3 a) Activity: 1) What is the difference in the cultural consideration of dignity between Mesopotamian and Roman cultures and Hebrew culture? 2) What is the root of this difference? Where “religious” experience begins? Expression of Christian “commitment” as a meaningful experience: Text: ROSINI, F. (2022), The art of healthy living. Haemorrhoea and the path to healing, Madrid: Paulinas, pp. 44-66. - How does the next text express the experience of inherent dignity and what are the consequences if it ceases to be experienced as such? There are relational wounds that affect the world of affectivity, and one's own identity. [...]. It is an unconfessed thought, which becomes an intimate contempt for oneself because of one's own inadequacy [...] Things have happened that still make one bleed. The text suggests that affective and relational problems have their origin in deep fears that must be healed in order to be able to love freely and authentically. It addresses the problem of relational and affective wounds that affect many young people today [...] they are ‘asleep’, but they have a lot of beauty inside them that can be awakened. The author points out that these affective problems manifest themselves through various symptoms or ‘haemorrhages’ that are signs of an underlying illness. He warns against two common mistakes: trivialising the symptoms or absolutising them without going to the root of the problem. The key is to understand that behind these symptoms lies fear, which is the real enemy of love. The fear of disappointment, of losing control, of not being perfect, of not being important, of suffering, etc. are the fears that distort our behaviour and prevent us from loving freely. Therefore, the real healing is not in eliminating the symptoms, but in addressing those underlying fears that prevent us from being able to open ourselves to love. Only then can we regain our freedom and be fully ourselves. But, also, only an unconditional and pure experience of being love can save us from deception and heal us. And the real source of this Love is God. 6  Dentistry Science, reason and Faith Portfolio U3 -REVIEW OF KEY CONCEPTS U3- 7