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Currently viewing the tag: "religion"
Lucas was born into the Lunar Temple, a group of Americans, most from the Southwest, who believed that the Moon was a part of the Earth that was broken off in an ancient cataclysm, and that humans were devolved from more pure creatures who now lived in vast, spiral cities below the satellite’s surface. These beings were building monstrous engines two hundred miles across on the dark side of the Moon that, on the Day of Joining, they would use to bring the Moon hurtling back to Earth. -Brian Francis Slattery, Spaceman Blues: A Love Song
Writing Prompt: Write about a strange belief that one of your character’s holds.
Journaling Prompt: Write about the strangest thing that you once believed.
Art Prompt: Cult
Photo Credit: bilbord99 on Flickr
Distrust is the central motivating factor behind why religious people dislike atheists, according to a new study led by University of British Columbia psychologists.
“Where there are religious majorities — that is, in most of the world — atheists are among the least trusted people,” says lead author Will Gervais, a doctoral student in UBC’s Dept. of Psychology. “With more than half a billion atheists worldwide, this prejudice has the potential to affect a substantial number of people.”…
“This antipathy is striking, as atheists are not a coherent, visible or powerful social group,” says Gervais, who co-authored the study with UBC Associate Prof. Ara Norenzayan and Azim Shariff of the University of Oregon. The study is titled, Do You Believe in Atheists? Distrust is Central to Anti-Atheist Prejudice…
The religious behaviors of others may provide believers with important social cues, the researchers say. “Outward displays of belief in God may be viewed as a proxy for trustworthiness, particularly by religious believers who think that people behave better if they feel that God is watching them,” says Norenzayan. “While atheists may see their disbelief as a private matter on a metaphysical issue, believers may consider atheists’ absence of belief as a public threat to cooperation and honesty.” -Science Daily
Writing Prompt: Write a character sketch about your character’s religious beliefs. Include how he or she feels about people who hold different beliefs.
Journaling Prompt: Write about the biases that you have towards people who hold religious beliefs that are different from your own.
Art Prompt: Religion
Photo Credit: Life in Flintville on Flickr
The Pennsylvania Quakers initially introduced the concept of reforming criminals through time spent under confinement. The Quakers built a small prison, which was comprised of sixteen individual and fully isolated cells. This new concept was intended to achieve reform by forcing criminals to serve out their entire sentence in complete isolation and silence. The criminals were left only with a Holy Bible and the reformers believed that this would help them to achieve penance. It was from this practice that the word “penitentiary” was cast into modern society. Michael Esslinger, Alcatraz: A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years
Writing Prompt: Create a scene where your protagonist is placed in solitary confinement and/or is brainwashed.
Journaling Prompt: Could anyone force you to change your beliefs?
Art Prompt: Solitary
Photo Credit: Dawn Endico on Flickr
How would you choose?
Sunday was church again, and the sermon wasn’t too bad. It even made sense without having to rely on divine authority and grace. That kind of preaching — the kind that inspired human striving toward a better world—I could take, at least in small doses. Larger doses might have been harder, because I was definitely guilty of some significant sin, especially in the old sense of the word, and it didn’t make that much difference to my own feelings of guilt that I really hadn’t had much choice in the matter. I suppose that was one of the things that bothered me about the moralists—either the secular or the religious kinds. They both had lists of immoral acts, but no one talked about the structures in society and religion that often put people like me in a situation where the only “moral” course was to get killed or take great abuse, or both. I had both personal and philosophical objections to any system where martyrdom was the most moral course. -L.E. Modesitt Jr., Flash
Writing Prompt: Write about a character who is in a no win situation. What does he or she choose?
Journaling Prompt: What would you choose? Ethics or survival?
Art Prompt: Preaching
Photo Credit: Garrette on Flickr
This quote is almost prescient, isn’t it?
The best doctrine may become the worst, if imperfectly understood, erroneously interpreted, or superstitiously followed. -Anna Harriette Leonowens, “Memoirs of an English Governess at the Siamese Court – (The King and I)” [Illustrated]
Writing Prompt: Create a world where a good doctrine has gone bad.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a doctrine that you think was originally good but has been stretched by extremistes.
Art Prompt: Mind Control
Photo Credit: AZRainman on Flickr
You’ve heard the proverb, “Fences make good neighbords.” It turns out there is more to that proverb than meets the eye.
‘People often turn to aesthetic boundaries in their environment to give them a sense that their world is ordered and structured as opposed to random and chaotic,’ writes author Keisha Cutright (University of Pennsylvania).
Cutright’s research indicates that people who feel a lack of control seek tangible boundaries, such as frames around paintings, fences around yards, or prominent borders surrounding a firm’s logo. “When individuals no longer feel in control of their lives, they seem to seek the sense of order and structure that boundaries provide — the sense that ‘there’s a place for everything and everything is in its place,’” Cutright explains.
The author also found that individuals who have other places to turn for a sense of structure had less need for physical boundaries. “Individuals who rely on God for a sense of order and structure were less likely to heighten their preference for boundaries in the face of low personal control than individuals who do not,” Cutright writes.
In a world where consumers face natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and everyday chaos at home, they will seek whatever small comfort they can. ‘In other words, don’t be alarmed if you find yourself craving thicker picture frames and a new fence for your yard. You may just need a little control in your life,’ Cutright concludes. -Science Daily
Writing Prompt: Write a character sketch showing how your character feels a lack of control and how he or she tries to get it back.
Journaling Prompt: How do you respond when you feel a lack of control.
Art Prompt: Fences
Photo Credit: guzzphoto on Flickr
Spoiler alerts abound on the Internet, but do spoilers really spoil the enjoyment?
“Spoilers don’t spoil stories. Contrary to popular wisdom, they actually seem to enhance enjoyment.
“Even ironic-twist and mystery stories — which you’d be forgiven for assuming absolutely depend on suspense or surprise for success — aren’t spoiled by spoilers, according to a study by Nicholas Christenfeld and Jonathan Leavitt of UC San Diego’s psychology department, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science…
“Why? The answers go beyond the scope of the study, but one possibility is perhaps the simplest one: that plot is overrated.
“‘Plots are just excuses for great writing. What the plot is is (almost) irrelevant. The pleasure is in the writing,’ said Christenfeld, a UC San Diego professor of social psychology…
“It’s also possible that it’s “easier” to read a spoiled story. Other psychological studies have shown that people have an aesthetic preference for objects that are perceptually easy to process.
“‘So it could be,’ said Leavitt, a psychology doctoral student at UC San Diego, ‘that once you know how it turns out, it’s cognitively easier — you’re more comfortable processing the information — and can focus on a deeper understanding of the story.’
“Stories are a universal element of human culture, the backbone of the billion-dollar entertainment industry, and the medium through which religion and societal values are transmitted,” the researchers write. In other words, narratives are incredibly important. But their success doesn’t seem to hinge on simple suspense. -Science Daily
Writing Prompt: How important is surprise to your story? Do you let your readers in on the surprise? Do you use foreshadowing as a spoiler? Do you agree or disagree with this study? Will it change how you structure your stories?
Journaling Prompt: How do you feel about spoilers?
Art Prompt: Spoiler alert
Photo Credit: G. Turner on Flickr
I was baptized as an infant, but then made the choice to be baptized as an adult. I wanted to do it mindfully, as a sacred choice. This reading touched me.
Pilar and Daniel Weinberg’s son was baptized on the coast. The baptism taught him what was sacred.
They gave him a sea shell: “So you’ll learn to love the water.”
They opened a cage and let a bird go free: “So you’ll learn to love the air.”
They gave him a geranium: “So you’ll learn to love the earth.”
And they gave him a little bottle sealed up tight: “Don’t ever, ever open it. So you’ll learn to love mystery.” -Eduardo Galeano, Walking Words
Writing Prompt: Write a scene where your character is baptized. What gifts is she given, and what are the lessons they carry?
Journaling Prompt: Write about a baptism experience, yours or that of your child or family member.
Art Prompt: Baptism
Photo Credit: mikebaird on Flickr
Religion is purported to have a lot of benefits, but it turns out that the individual’s conception of and relationship with God determines whether they will receive those benefits or not.
“…certain spiritual beliefs are tied to intolerance of uncertainty and worry for some individuals,” the paper concludes.
“‘We found that the positive beliefs of trust in God were associated with less worry and that this relationship was partially mediated by lower levels of intolerance of uncertainty,” it added. “Conversely, the negative beliefs of mistrust in God correlated with higher worry and intolerance…’” -Science Daily
Writing Prompt: Does your character believe in a higher power? If yes, how much does he or she trust the higher power? How is this expressed in behavior?
Journaling Prompt: How much do you worry? How does your level of worry relate to your trust or mistrust of a higher power?
Art Prompt: Worry
Photo Credit: pedrosimoes7 on Flickr
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