Review of Understanding interreligious relations, by D. Cheetham, D. Pratt, & D. Thomas.

In the current context of globalization, people from different cultures and religious faiths have to learn how to live together. This is probably the main reason why theological studies and interreligious issues encounter an increasing popularity among scholars but also in the public Media. Through their edited volume Understanding interreligious relations, Cheetham, Pratt, and Thomas propose a theological, historical, and socio-political perspective on interreligious relations. The editors did a great job in gathering philosophers, theologians, and historians who are experts in their domain, and provide us with a thorough perspective on this key issue in our age of increased global religious diversity. The volume includes a collection of 16 chapters written by experts in their field of study that can be divided into two main parts

Is Buddha tolerant? East Asian religions, prejudice and prosociality

The link between religion and prosociality but also, paradoxically, many kinds of prejudice has been established for decades. However, researchers in that field conducted their investigations only in Western cultural and religious contexts. Do these findings also hold for Eastern religions and Asian cultures? Across ten studies, we demonstrated that the paradoxical relation between religion and both prosociality and prejudice is not universal. We consistently found that East Asian religiosity and religious concepts promote not only prosociality but also tolerance (low prejudice) toward ethnic and religious outgroups. A greater tolerance of contradiction and compassion seem to explain the positive impact of East Asian religions. It is our impression that this dissertation contributes significantly to the body of research in cross-cultural psychology as well as in psychology of religion. It reminds us the importance of a better understanding of how prejudiced attitudes emerge across and between religious and cultural contexts.(PSYE - Sciences psychologiques et de l) -- UCL, 201

Intercultural non-conscious influences: Prosocial effects of Buddhist priming on Westerners of Christian tradition

Prosocial concepts and behavior are often found to be activated when participants are primed with concepts of their own religious cultural tradition. We investigated whether similar effects can be found when people (Westerners of Christian tradition) are primed with concepts of a different from their own religious cultural tradition (Buddhist and Islamic). Participants (104 young Belgian adults) were randomly assigned to three conditions. They were supraliminally primed with either Buddhist or Islamic images; or they were not primed (control condition). Priming Buddhism increased prosocial intentions (spontaneous sharing of hypothetical gains), and decreased, among participants highly valuing universalism, implicit prejudice toward an ethnic outgroup. Priming Islam had no effect on prosociality or prejudice. The findings suggest that concepts from one religious and cultural context are transposable, under some conditions, to another religious and cultural context and can influence even implicit social cognition

Religion, paranormal beliefs, and distrust in science: Comparing East versus West

Studies in Western contexts suggest that religiosity is in conflict with rationality since it relates to paranormal beliefs and distrust in science. East Asian cultures, known to be holistic and tolerant of contradictions, may however not experience this conflict. Using the International Social Survey Program, we analyzed data from Buddhists, Protestants, and Catholics in South Korea (Ns = 358; 391; 135), as well as Catholics and Protestants in Austria and Denmark (Ns = 715; 1,545). Results confirmed a positive association between religiosity and paranormal beliefs among dominant religious group but not among Korean Christians. Moreover, whereas religiosity in the West correlated positively with distrust in science, the opposite held for religious Korean groups. Religiosity mediated the relationship between paranormal beliefs and distrust in science among all dominant religious groups but in opposite directions in East and West. These findings bring a new cross-cultural perspective on the religion-science relationship

Are atheists undogmatic?

Previous theory and evidence favor the idea that religious people tend to be dogmatic to some extent whereas non-religious people are undogmatic: the former firmly hold beliefs, some of which are implausible or even contrary to the real world evidence. We conducted a further critical investigation of this idea, distinguishing three aspects of rigidity: (1) self-reported dogmatism, defined as unjustified certainty vs. not standing for any beliefs, (2) intolerance of contradiction, measured through (low) endorsement of contradictory statements, and (3) low readiness to take a different from one’s own perspective, measured through the myside bias technique. Non-believers, at least in Western countries where irreligion has become normative, should be lower on the first, but higher on the other two constructs. Data collected from three countries (UK, France, and Spain, total N = 788) and comparisons between Christians, atheists, and agnostics confirmed the expectations, with agnostics being overall similar to atheists

Who turns to acupuncture? The role of mistrust of rationality and individualist success

Objective: In our postmodern society, people tend to abandon conventional medicine for alternative medical systems such as acupuncture. What are the reasons for this defiance regarding modern rationality and individualist success? Who turns to acupuncture? Method: In this study (N = 89), we examined whether world views opposed to the predominance of rationality (i.e. mistrust of science, spirituality, paranormal beliefs) and individualist success or consumerism (i.e. power, achievement, and materialism), typically associated with the postmodern era, might explain this attraction toward acupuncture. Participants were recruited through forums on the internet interested in CAM and completed the questionnaire voluntarily. Results: Attraction to acupuncture related negatively with materialism and achievement as well as positively with spirituality, paranormal beliefs, and mistrust in science. Spirituality, paranormal beliefs, and low achievement were the main predictors of attraction to acupuncture and explained 44% of the variance. The mistrust in science mediated the relationship between spiritual and paranormal beliefs and the attraction toward acupuncture. Low achievement explained the link between low materialism and positive attitudes toward acupuncture. Conclusion: The general mistrust of our rational and individualist modern society is indeed an important predictor of attraction toward acupuncture, besides demographic variables