The problem of environmental sustainability in Nigeria is exacerbated by the complex interplay of religious and political influences. Religious doctrines and political frameworks often clash or fail to adequately address environmental issues, leading to ineffective policies and practices. This paper therefore examined the impact of religion and politics on environmental sustainabilty in Benue State, Nigeria. The study was guided by two research questions and hypotheses. The study employed a correctional survey research design. The study population comprise of 1,454,303 members of all registered religious bodies in Benue State out of which 400 respondents were randomly sampled for the study. The study employed structure questionnaire as instrument of data collection. Data collected was analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer research questions. Hypotheses were tested using chi-square statistical tool. The findings revealed that religion has positive impact on climate change. The study further revealed that religion also has impact on environmental sustainability in Benue State. Tapping into these motivations and combining them with religious teachings about climate change and environmental sustainability could provide a powerful story line to enable the desired change. It was therefore recommended, among other things, that the religious leaders should endeavour to adopt appropriate measures in motivating their members to change their behaviours towards enhance environmental sustainability in the state.
This paper is a shortened version of the full paper that was published in the journal Frontiers of Psychology in May 2022. In recent decades, the scientific study of consciousness has significantly increased our understanding of this elusive phenomenon. Yet, despite critical development in our understanding of the functional side of consciousness, we still lack a fundamental theory regarding its phenomenal aspect. The phenomenal aspect of consciousness is the first-person answer to what it is like question, and it has thus far proved recalcitrant to direct scientific investigation. The question of how the brain, or any cognitive system, can create conscious experience out of neural representations poses a great conundrum to science. Naturalistic dualists argue that it is composed of a primitive, private, nonreductive element of reality. Illusionists, on the other hand, argue that it is merely a cognitive illusion. We contend that both the dualist and illusionist positions are flawed because they tacitly assume consciousness to be an absolute property that does not depend on the observer. We developed a conceptual and a mathematical argument for a relativistic theory of consciousness in which a system either has or does not have phenomenal consciousness with respect to some observer. According to the theory, Phenomenal consciousness is neither private nor delusional, just relativistic. In the frame of reference of the cognitive system, it will be observable (first-person perspective) and in other frame of reference it will not (third-person perspective). These two cognitive frames of reference are both correct, just as in the case of an observer that claims to be at rest while another will claim that the observer has constant velocity. Neither observer position can be privileged, as they both describe the same underlying reality.
Muhammad Salman Arrosyid, Marzuki Marzuki, Widihastuti Widihastuti
et al.
This study aims to examine the relationship between religiosity and quality of life through a comprehensive meta-analysis, motivated by inconsistent findings in previous research that range from strong positive correlations to weak or non-significant associations. Understanding this relationship is crucial for clarifying the psychological and social functions of religiosity in contemporary societies. This research employed a quantitative meta-analytic design by synthesizing 31 Scopus-indexed empirical studies published between 2015 and 2024. Data were extracted in the form of correlation coefficients and analyzed using a random-effects model, accompanied by heterogeneity tests, publication bias assessments, and robustness checks. This methodological approach ensured systematic data integration without presenting technical details excessively. The findings show a significant positive correlation between religiosity and quality of life (r = 0.32; 95% CI [0.20, 0.44]; p < 0.001). Substantial heterogeneity (Q = 656.535; p < 0.001) suggests that cultural, demographic, and methodological differences may moderate this relationship. The absence of publication bias and a high fail-safe N value (5,109) further confirm the stability of the results. These findings imply that religiosity functions as a meaningful psychological, social, and spiritual resource capable of enhancing individual well-being across diverse populations. The results contribute to the development of resilience- and spirituality-based interventions in psychological, health, and community settings. The originality of this study lies in its synthesis of a full decade of empirical evidence, offering the most updated meta-analytic confirmation of the religiosity–quality of life relationship. This research provides new value by integrating large-scale data, addressing inconsistencies in prior findings, and strengthening theoretical and practical understanding of how religiosity contributes to human well-being.
Philosophy. Psychology. Religion, Philosophy of religion. Psychology of religion. Religion in relation to other subjects
W Mt 5, 22 zostają skierowane niezwykle surowe słowa przeciwko gniewowi, w których zostały nałożone pewne sankcje za gniew, w zależności od jego trzech różnych przejawów. Autor artykułu stara się usystematyzować zebrane odniesienia ojców greckich i łacińskich do Mt 5, 22bc, w których gniew zostaje poddany moralnej kwalifikacji. Artykuł stanowi przegląd myśli patrystycznej na ten temat.
Early Christian literature. Fathers of the Church, etc., Philosophy of religion. Psychology of religion. Religion in relation to other subjects
Simon Simon, Auw Tammy Yulianto, Elsyina Rode Pararem
et al.
This study delves into the ethical considerations of phone sex within long-distance marital relationships (LDRs) from a Christian ethical perspective. Employing qualitative methods, including scriptural analysis and literature review, the research aims to ascertain the compatibility of phone sex with Christian doctrinal teachings concerning marital intimacy. The findings suggest that phone sex is perceived as diverging from the Christian ethical norms which advocate for physical and personal marital interactions, categorizing it as a form of sexual perversion akin to masturbation. The study contributes to theological discourse by providing a framework for understanding modern challenges in marital intimacy within the Christian context. It emphasizes the importance of maintaining physical intimacy as prescribed by scripture and highlights the potential spiritual and ethical pitfalls associated with phone sex in LDRs. Recommendations include fostering educational and counseling initiatives within church communities to guide couples in navigating these issues. This study enriches the dialogue on integrating technology into marital practices while adhering to Christian ethical standards.
Philosophy. Psychology. Religion, Philosophy of religion. Psychology of religion. Religion in relation to other subjects
Nigeria is socio-culturally multi-ethnic and religiously pluralistic. Religion has been a very singular but very strong factor that is affecting negatively the electoral system in Nigeria. The following key terms were used in this study: religion, election, politics, political party, electoral system, and franchise/suffrage. Political aspirants would always make use of their religious affiliations to achieve cheap political popularity. The electorates tend to vote for a given political aspirants based on religious sentiments and not on verifiable objective good human attributes. The aim of this paper among others is to attempt to find out whether religious affiliations of the political spirants enhance or hinder their successes during general election in Nigeria. The study is qualitative in character. It interviewed a cross-section of Nigerians and also made use of secondary sources of information such as library books, journal articles, newspapers, magazines, etc. The study is very significant in a good number of ways including that it makes the electorates to cast their votes based on good quality political aspirants rather than on sentiments. The findings of the paper, among others, include the fact that the electorates in Nigeria generally cast their votes in line with their religious affiliations. It is recommended, among others, that the electorates should not cast their votes during general election on the basis of religious affiliations but rather on verifiable and objective good quality human behaviour.
This article presents the most interesting philosophical issues as they arise in causal set theory. The first concerns the apparent disappearance of spacetime at the fundamental level. It shows how the looming empirical incoherence is averted if we adopt spacetime functionalism. Second, classical sequential growth dynamics rekindles hope for a fundamental passage of physical time compatible with relativistic physics. The article argues that this hope is faint at best, as a block view offers the most natural interpretation of dynamical causal set theory. Third, causal set theory admits a very natural structuralist interpretation, enabling a fruitful interaction between debates in philosophy of science concerning structural realism and the metaphysics of causal sets.
We discuss the influential role of Niels Bohr's work in the anti-realist realist re-foundation of physics that took place during the 20th century. We will focus in how, developing the modern co-relational matrix of scientific understanding, his essentially anti-realist scheme was able to capture, subvert and defeat the realist program of science through the establishment of a weakened impotent form of "religious realism" grounded on faith instead of scientific conditions. Finally, we will focus in how, still today, anti-realist realism continues to rule the contemporary post-modern research in both (quantum) physics and philosophy.
Large language models have recently made tremendous progress in a variety of aspects, e.g., cross-task generalization, instruction following. Comprehensively evaluating the capability of large language models in multiple tasks is of great importance. In this paper, we propose M3KE, a Massive Multi-Level Multi-Subject Knowledge Evaluation benchmark, which is developed to measure knowledge acquired by Chinese large language models by testing their multitask accuracy in zero- and few-shot settings. We have collected 20,477 questions from 71 tasks. Our selection covers all major levels of Chinese education system, ranging from the primary school to college, as well as a wide variety of subjects, including humanities, history, politics, law, education, psychology, science, technology, art and religion. All questions are multiple-choice questions with four options, hence guaranteeing a standardized and unified assessment process. We've assessed a number of state-of-the-art open-source Chinese large language models on the proposed benchmark. The size of these models varies from 335M to 130B parameters. Experiment results demonstrate that they perform significantly worse than GPT-3.5 that reaches an accuracy of ~ 48% on M3KE. The dataset is available at https://github.com/tjunlp-lab/M3KE.
The critical field of psychology necessitates a comprehensive benchmark to enhance the evaluation and development of domain-specific Large Language Models (LLMs). Existing MMLU-type benchmarks, such as C-EVAL and CMMLU, include psychology-related subjects, but their limited number of questions and lack of systematic concept sampling strategies mean they cannot cover the concepts required in psychology. Consequently, despite their broad subject coverage, these benchmarks lack the necessary depth in the psychology domain, making them inadequate as psychology-specific evaluation suite. To address this issue, this paper presents ConceptPsy, designed to evaluate Chinese complex reasoning and knowledge abilities in psychology. ConceptPsy includes 12 core subjects and 1383 manually collected concepts. Specifically, we prompt GPT-4 to generate questions for each concept using carefully designed diverse prompts and hire professional psychologists to review these questions. To help to understand the fine-grained performances and enhance the weaknesses, we annotate each question with a chapter label and provide chapter-wise accuracy. Based on ConceptPsy, we evaluate a broad range of LLMs. We observe that, although some LLMs achieve similar accuracies on overall performances, they exhibit significant performance variations across different psychology concepts, even when they are models from the same series. We hope our work can facilitate the development of LLMs in the field of psychology.
Globalization that occurred in Palembang City in the XXI century, motivated scholars to formulate and contextualize the theology of civilization in Palembang City. The contextualization is plural and has distinction. This article aims to identify, reveal, and analyze the maps and characteristics of the theological thought of Palembang City scholars in the 21st century. The method used is development research. To develop the theory, a quantitative approach is used. The data collection tools used are questionnaires, documentation studies, and interviews. The data analysis technique used is quantitative data analysis consisting of simple linear regression analysis, instrument test, hypothesis test. Based on the methodology it was found that there are two maps and characteristics of the theological thinking of Palembang City scholars, namely: theocentric theology which is concerned with matters that are metaphysical in nature and anthropocentric theology which is concerned with matters that are practical reflections on teachings Islam: The contextualization of civilizational theological thought takes the form of theoretical civilization in the form of ideas and experimental civilization in the form of objects, buildings, religious activities, and social interactions.
Keywords: contextualization, theology of civilization, XXI century, Palembang scholars
Philosophy of religion. Psychology of religion. Religion in relation to other subjects
Bu çalışmanın amacı Türkiye’de sık sık gündeme gelen “kültürel iktidar” tartışmalarının mahiyetini anlamaktır. Kültürel iktidar tartışmaları özellikle 2013 yılı Haziranındaki Gezi Parkı olaylarından sonra gündeme gelmiştir. Bu tarihten günümüze doğru, konu hakkında farklı medya araçlarıyla önemli tartışmalar yürütülmüştür. Tartışmaların bir tarafında dini ve milli kimliğini öne çıkaran “sağ” entelektüeller bulunurken diğer tarafında kendini bu cephenin karşısında konumlayan “sol” entelektüeller yer almıştır. Çalışmada bu iki tarafın mücadelesi Pierre Bourdieu’nün kültürel alan kavramı çerçevesinde değerlendirilmiştir. Kültürel iktidar tartışması kültürel alan içinde gerçekleşen bir sembolik mücadele olarak ele alınmıştır. Tartışmaların yoğunlaştığı 2014-2019 yıllarında yayınlanmış farklı medya mecralarından seçilen seksen sekiz tane metin tematik analize tabi tutulmuştur. Sonuç olarak, sağ ve sol şeklinde iki karşıt konumu içeren kültürel alanda “meşru adlandırma tekelini” elde etmeye yönelik sembolik mücadelenin kültürel iktidar tartışmalarının özünü oluşturduğu görülmüştür. Bu sembolik mücadele, karşıt konumların farklı dışlayıcı stratejilerini içermektedir. Bunlar, özet olarak; niteliksizliğe vurgu, politik iktidarla özdeşleştirme ve ekonomik iktidarla özdeşleştirme şeklinde sıralanabilir.
Communication. Mass media, Religions. Mythology. Rationalism
یورگن مولتمان، الهیدان پروتستان، تحت تأثیر جنگهای جهانی و دیگر حوادث سیاسی و اجتماعی قرن بیستم، به این نتیجه رسید که خوانش سنتی از آموزة فرجام جهان نمیتواند بستر مناسبی برای تحقق امید مسیحی به این امر باشد، زیرا نسبت به سازوکار موجود حاکم بر جهان بیتفاوت است. بر اساس دیدگاه مولتمان، خدای پدر، فرزند خویش را برای اصلاح این سازوکار فرستاد ولی قدرتمندان جهان وی را به صلیب کشیدند. با وجود این، خداوند با رستاخیز مسیح، آنان را ناکام گذاشت. به باور مولتمان، با تکیه بر عهد جدید میتوان سازوکاری برای جهان (سازوکار موعود) در نظر گرفت که بستر مناسبی برای تحقق امید مسیحی برای فرجام جهان باشد. این سازوکار دارای مؤلفههایی است که با تکیه بر آنها میتوان به نیاز انسان معاصر پاسخ گفت. لذا فرجامشناسی مولتمان زمانمند، زمینهمند و شمولگراست. این فرجامشناسی در رویکرد خویش نسبت به نقد فرجامشناسی سنّتی، جامعیت متعلّق امید، شمولیت امید، صورتبندی اجتماعی پراکسیس امید و جایگاه مفهوم آینده در امید تاریخی، نوآوریهای منحصربهفردی در الهیات مسیحی قرن بیستم داشته است. با وجود این نکات، تردید در ایجاد امید روانشناختی، ناسازگاری میان آموزة روحالقدس و خصلت شگفتی امید مسیحی، تردید در توفیق روششناختی تخیل الهیاتی، ابهام در سازوکار درهم کنش زمان خطی و زمان ابدی و ابهام در چگونگی تأثیر این امید در رفتار مؤمنان، این تفسیر از امید مسیحی را در محل تردید قرار میدهد.
بررسی حاضر، حاصلِ تحلیل مقایسهای برای رتبهبندی46 منبع تأثیرگذار علوم قرآن از قرن اول تا معاصر بوده که به ضریبتأثیر عوامل تأثیرگذار در سیر تطورات نگارشهای جامع علوم قرآن هم پرداخته است. روش پژوهش حاضر، کیفی بوده و از روش کدگذاری و مقولهبندی در فرایند تحقیق و برای تجزیه و تحلیل اطلاعات از تکنیک روایت علی و مقایسهای استفاده شدهاست. با بررسی منابع و مولفان، شرایط و بسترهای موجود برای تغییرات، در نهایت حدود 75 مفهوم استخراج شد. پس از مرحله کدگذاری باز و محوری، 18 مقوله بهعنوان شاخص سنجش گزینش شد. پس از آن در مرحله کدگذاری گزینشی،10مقوله عمده با ضریبتأثیر بالا، سه مقوله با ضریبتأثیر متوسط و پنج مقوله با ضریبتأثیر کم یا بدون تأثیر استخراج شدند. سه رتبه اول مقولههای تأثیرگذار بر تطورات منابع جامع علوم قرآن متعلق است به: مقوله کارکرد(84 امتیاز)، تأثیر شخصیت و شأن فردی نویسنده بر نگارش(79 امتیاز) و محتوای کتاب(73 امتیاز).رتبه اول و سوم عوامل تأثیرگذار، مربوط به هویت و اصالت متن کتاب جامع بوده و رتبه دوم مربوط به عوامل درونی نویسنده(بخش مبانی) است.در نتیجه، محوریترین مقوله، شاخصِ «هویت و اصالت متن کتب» جامع علوم قرآن است. این تحقیق از طریق یک روند منظم و استقرای تحلیلی؛ نظام مفهومی و شاخصسازی را در مورد «رتبه تأثیرگذاری منابع جامع و مهم علوم قرآن» و «عوامل موثر بر سیر تطور منابع جامع علوم قرآن» برای مخاطبان تخصصی رشته علوم قرآن انجام دادهاست.رهاوردِ فهم این مطلب میتواند، تکمیل سرفصل دروس دانشگاهی رشته علوم قرآن برای بررسی تأثیرگذارترین منابع جامع علوم قرآن و عوامل موثر بر سیر تطورات آن باشد. همچنین این نتایج، کمککننده به فهم جریان علم(علوم قرآن) کرده و دانش و بینش کمّی و کیفی مخاطبان را نسبت به تاریخ منابع علوم قرآن تکمیل میکند.
Philosophy of religion. Psychology of religion. Religion in relation to other subjects
The first Kelvin relation that states the Peltier coefficient should be equal to the product of temperature and Seebeck coefficient is a fundamental principle in thermoelectricity. It has been regarded as an important application and direct experimental verification of Onsager reciprocal relation (ORR) that is a cornerstone of irreversible thermodynamics. However, some critical questions still remain: why Kelvin's proof that omits all irreversibility within a thermoelectric transport process can reach the correct result, how to properly select the generalized-force-flux pairs for deriving the first Kelvin relation from ORR, and whether the first Kelvin relation is restricted by the requirement of linear transport regime. The present work is to answer these questions based on the fundamental thermodynamic principles. Since the thermoelectric effects are reversible, we can redefine the Seebeck and Peltier coefficients using the quantities in reversible processes with no time derivative involved, which are renamed as "reversible Seebeck and Peltier coefficients". The relation between them (called "the reversible reciprocal relation of thermoelectricity") is derived from the Maxwell relations, which can be reduced to the conventional Kelvin relation, when the local equilibrium assumption (LEA) is adopted. In this sense, the validity of the first Kelvin relation is guaranteed by the reversible thermodynamic principles and LEA, without the requirement of linear transport process. Additionally, the generalized force-flux pairs to obtain the first Kelvin relation from ORR can be proper both mathematically and thermodynamically, only when they correspond to the conjugate-variable pairs of which Maxwell relations can yield the reversible reciprocal relation. The present theoretical framework can be further extended to other coupled phenomena.
The paper addresses the phenomenon of cross-cultural resonance, which arises when ideas coming from different cultures and view systems show mutual correlation, or coherence. We particularly dwell on the parallels between modern physics and Indian classical philosophy. The coherence in ideological, methodological, and ethical spheres is noted and exemplified. Interpretation of correlations in terms of the Jaspers 'ciphers of transcendence' is proposed. A brief survey of studies also dealing with coherence between modern science and ancient teachings is given. In conclusion, a broader perspective of interrelations between rational science and spiritual tradition is discussed.
We have investigated the toroidal analog of ellipsoidal shells of matter, which are of great significance in Astrophysics. The exact formula for the gravitational potential $Ψ(R,Z)$ of a shell with a circular section at the pole of toroidal coordinates is first established. It depends on the mass of the shell, its main radius and axis-ratio $e$ (i.e. core-to-main radius ratio), and involves the product of the complete elliptic integrals of the first and second kinds. Next, we show that successive partial derivatives $\partial^{n +m} Ψ/\partial_{R^n} \partial_{Z^m}$ are also accessible by analytical means at that singular point, thereby enabling the expansion of the interior potential as a bivariate series. Then, we have generated approximations at orders $0$, $1$, $2$ and $3$, corresponding to increasing accuracy. Numerical experiments confirm the great reliability of the approach, in particular for small-to-moderate axis ratios ($e^2 \lesssim 0.1$ typically). In contrast with the ellipsoidal case (Newton's theorem), the potential is not uniform inside the shell cavity as a consequence of the curvature. We explain how to construct the interior potential of toroidal shells with a thick edge (i.e. tubes), and how a core stratification can be accounted for. This is a new step towards the full description of the gravitating potential and forces of tori and rings. Applications also concern electrically-charged systems, and thus go beyond the context of gravitation.