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Adaptive Styles or Coping Styles - psychology (cont)

Locus of Control -    To what do I attribute the cause (or control) of an outcome?  Is control internal or external?  Those who attribute outcomes to their own efforts are greater information seekers, highly achievement orientated, resist undue social pressure, engage in greater health enhancing activities, are less anxxious and less likely to be diagnosed as having psychiatric illness.  Locus of Control depends on situations.  Externals are better at adjusting to situations over which they have no real objective control such as elderly in a nursing home.  Those seeking treatment for alcohol abuse sought out others, earlier for help and stayed in AA longer.     Thus to be internal or external may be correlated with certain behaviour patterns whether, orientation -- internal or external -- is better depends on situational factors as well. 

Personality - definitions cont...psychology notes

   Allport's Definition  -  Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychological systems that determine his/her characteristic behaviour and thought.

   Mischel's Definition -  Personality is a set of distinctive patterns of behaviour thoughts and emotions that characterize each individual's adaption to the situations around each person's life.  Thus, personality is a unique and consistant pattern of adaptive behaviour exhibited over time.

Concept of Adaption:  means adjustment to changing circumstances in the environment and within the self.  People adapt by changing the self, the situation, or both.  Adaption shows continuity.  People adopt various strategies which are repeated across situations.

Yesterday I talked to a Catholic youth club

More correctly, last night I addressed a Catholic Youth group.  I focused around two questions.  The first, who is God?  The second question, what is faith?  It lasted 45 minutes.  It had been awhile since I addressed children/teens, rather than adults.  Asking questions and listening to teens is important.  They are our future.  What do you think?          

Original Sin - (theology)

Original Sin - A Muslim’s Perspective

     Augustine’s theme of the universality of sin is not the only perspective for Christians.  The Eastern Fathers such as Iraneous and other Theologians have a different interpretation. Christians believe that Jesus died to atone for our sins.  Muslims reject this notion.  Reconciliation is for repentance and not through atonement as in Christianity.  Muslims do not believe that Jesus died to suffer for us and went miraculously to heaven.  Muslim’s believe Jesus was ready to die for God and that is an indication of a good Muslim.

     This paper will present the Qur’anic view of Jesus, the Islamic denial of Jesus’ divinity,

death and resurrection as well as the concept that Adam and Eve did sin but this did not result in

the condemnation of every person born into this world.   It will be argued that the view of the

Eastern Fathers is more compatible with modern science because of evolution rather than the

static view of the world put forward by Augustine.

     Muslims and Christians have roots dating back to Abraham.  According to the book of Geneses, God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation (Gn 12: 1-3) and that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky (Gn 15: 1-6).   Not being able to conceive Sarah brought her maid Hagar to Abraham and they had a child, Ishmael.  Sarah became jealous of Hagar when she was pregnant and persuaded Abraham to banish the woman into the desert. Sarah did have a child afterwards who was named Isaac.  Through Isaac and Ishmael there are two parallel lines of Abraham’s descendants, Isaac to Jerusalem and Jesus and Ishmael to Mecca and Muhammad. In the Qur’anic version of the story of Abraham there is no mention of Hagar or Sarah, nor is there any mention that Ishmael was rejected in favor of Isaac.  Abraham was not a Jew, Christian, nor Muslim but each has claimed him as their spiritual ancestor. [1]

     To understand the concept of Jesus for the Muslim one must understand what the Qur’an is.   The Qur’an has no parallel outside Islam.  Christians have equated the Qur’an to the Bible.  The Qur’an in Islam is very nearly what Christ is in Christianity:  the Word of God.  The Bible derives its significance from Christ; but Muhammad derives his from the Qur’an.[2]  “There is no God except God” is counted in the Qur’an more than a hundred times (Norman, p 64).  This is very significant because it is an indication of how Jesus cannot be accepted as God.  The Qur’an is the record of the revelations received by Muhammad between his call in 610 and his death 632.   These revelations were collected and edited within a period of about twenty-five years into more or less the form in which they are found today (Mohammed, p 7).  It is important for Christians to be aware that according to the Christian faith the fullness of revelation is not the written word of the New Testament but the person of Jesus Christ.  The New Testament is the human record, the authentic memoir of the self communication of God in Christ.  The New Testament itself admits that it reports the fullness of revelation through Christ only incompletely (Jn 20:30; 21:25).  This is the understanding of Vatican 11 (Mohammed, p 54).

      The Qur’an makes it clear that it not only confirms, but corrects, the Laws of the Gospel (Injil) and the Pentateuch (Tawrat) meaning that the Jews and the Christians misrepresent the revelations entrusted to them (Norman, p 67).  The three verses of the Qur’an indicate the evolution of the ordered world.  God created the heavens and what is between them in six periods (Qur’an 50:38).  The six days represent a metaphorical period.  A day in the sight of God can range from 1000 to 50,000 years of our reckoning (Qur’an 70:4).[3]  The Qur’an also reveals that life began in water.  This too has been confirmed with modern science (Katerrenga and Shenk, p 10).            

Who is Jesus?  A Muslim’s perspective

          Like Catholic Christianity, the Qur’an teaches the doctrine of Mary and Jesus being without sin (Q 3:36).  It affirms that Jesus could work miracles (Q 5) and it recognizes Jesus as the Messiah (Q 3:45), who will return at the end of time (Q 4:159) but it denies his death and resurrection.  Muslims maintain that at the crucifixion Jesus was miraculously taken to heaven and another was substituted for him on the cross (Mohammed, p 62).  When the Jews gathered to kill Jesus, God informed Jesus that he would take him up to heaven.  Jesus than asked his disciples which of them would be willing to have his likeness and be killed and enter heaven.  One, accepted and he was crucified.  It is said that he was the one who betrayed Jesus.[4]

     Muslims have great respect and love for Jesus [Isa] the Messiah.  They consider Jesus as one of the greatest prophets of Allah [God].  To deny the prophet hood of Jesus is to deny Islam.  Muslims believe that Jesus was born of a virgin mother, Maryam (Mary), by Allah’s Devine decree.  Jesus is referred in the Qur’an as the son of Mary.  Though the Qur’an teaches the coming of the Messiah, Muslims do not believe and are opposed to the belief that Jesus was divine or the son of God. “It is not befitting to (the Majesty of Allah) that He should beget a son.  Glory be to him, when he determines a matter, He only says to it “”Be”” and it is there” (Qur’an 5:75) (Katerrega and Shenk p 131).  Although Muslims believe that Moses and Jesus are true prophets, the Jews and Christians are claimed to have distorted the authentic revelations received by their prophets.  Therefore, the Qur’an remains the only reliable sacred text, and Muhammad is the greatest and final prophet of God.[5]  Muhammad is blessed for Muslims.  He is blessed among men, as Mary is blessed among women.  The annunciation to Mary, a virgin, produced a son [Jesus], while Muhammad, produced a Book [Qur’an] (Mohammed, p 7).

     In a rare reference to the Qur’an, Pope John Paul stated: 

     As I have of often said in other meetings with Muslims, your God and ours is one and the     

     the same, and we are brothers and sisters in the faith of Abraham…All true holiness

   comes from God, who is called “”The Holy One”” in the sacred books of the Jews, Christians

   and Muslims.  Your holy Koran calls God “”Al Quddus,”” ( Sherwin and Kasimow, p 19).

Irenaeaus

     Irenaeus (c. 130 – c. 202) believed that man’s basic nature in distinction from other animals

is that of a personal being with moral freedom and responsibility.  He is made in the image of God, capable of a personal relationship with God but only potentially to evolve into the perfected being who God is seeking to produce.  He is only at the beginning of a process of growth and development in God’s continuing providence to culminate in the finite likeness of God.  Man is an immature being whom God could not yet profitably bestow his highest gifts.  This concept is in line with evolution.  [6]  The Irenaean view is that God is gradually forming perfected members of humanity whose fuller nature we glimpse in Christ (Hick, p 339).   Clement of Alexandria (died c.220) confronted the Gnostics’ challenge, “If man was created good, how has he sinned; but if he was not, how can his Creator have been good?”  He thus shared the Irenaean point of view that man was created immature (Hick, pp 215, 216).  Methodius (died c. 311 and St. Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329- c. 389) apparently accepted the picture of Adam as immature and infantile.  Therefore, man was not created perfect but his perfecting lay in the future (Hick, p 216).  

                                                         St Augustine

     Since the fifth century the Augustinian tradition of the fall of “man” and of the subsequent participation of sin has become deeply entrenched.  Man was created finitely perfect, but in his freedom he rebelled against God and has existed ever since under the righteous wrath and just condemnation of his maker.  The descendants of Adam and Eve stand in a corporate unity and continuity of life with the primal pair and have inherited both their guilt and a corrupted and sin-prone nature.  We are born as sinners and we are bound to be lead daily into further sin.  It is only by God’s free grace that some but not all will eventually be saved (Hick, pp 201, 202).

Until comparatively recent times the ancient myth of the origin of evil in the fall of man was assumed to be history.  First it was comprehensively developed by St Augustine and has continued substantially unchanged within the Roman Catholic Church to the present day.  It is not unheard of to hear it in a Sunday sermon in the literal sense.  It was adopted by the Reformers of the sixteenth century and has been virtually unquestioned as Protestant doctrine until within approximately the last hundred years (Hick, p 246).  We know today that the conditions that were to cause human disease and mortality and the necessity for man to undertake the perils of hunting were already part of the natural order (Hick p 249).

     The doctrine of original sin does not appear among the beliefs of the earliest Christians.  There is no mention of original sin in the New Testament. There is no concept that matches what was to become accepted as doctrine of original sin.  Augustine is the author of this enduring Christian teaching.[7]  St Augustine also contended that infants who died without being baptized because of original sin were condemned to hell.[8]  Gradually the doctrine of limbo took the place of hell for non baptized babies (Rondet, p 178).  How can one imagine God ever turning away from an innocent babe because she is not baptized, certainly not a Muslim.        

The Concepts of Adam and Eve - A Muslim and Christian Perspective

     The Qur’an is in agreement with the Christian view that man is created in God’s image.  Unlike Christianity it regards this image as innate in all men and permanent.  Islam regards every man at all times embodying the divine image.[9]  Islam holds that man is created innocent.  It repudiates every notion of original sin; of hereditary guilt (Crawford, p 215).  Salvation is an improper religious concept devoid of any equivalent term in the Islamic vocabulary.  Adam, the first man, committed a misdeed when he ate from the prohibited tree, but he repented and was forgiven.  His misdeed was an ordinary human mistake.  It was the deed of one man and therefore his own personal responsibility.  It had no effect on anyone else besides him.  Not only was it devoid of cosmic effect but even of any effect upon his children.  It did send Adam from Paradise to earth but it changed nothing in his nature (Crawford, p 218).  Adam and Hauwa [Eve] ate the fruit of the forbidden tree as a result of Satan’s deceit.  It was not a willful and deliberate disobedience.  When God called to them, they quickly realized their sinfulness and they prayed for forgiveness.  They did not turn away from God.” Our Lord! We have wronged ourselves.  If thou forgive us not and have not mercy on us, surely we are of the lost” (Qur’an 7:22).  Muslims can deduce from this event that man is imperfect, even if he lives in heaven.  Islamic witness is that Allah is always ready through his mercy and grace to forgive the sins of all who are sincere in their wanting to change for the better (Katerrega and Shenk, p 23).  Adam, the first man on earth was also the first prophet of Allah.  God revealed the religion of Islam to Adam which is submission to the one true God.  According to Muslims, all prophets are the same.  They teach or remind man of the unity of God, the reward of leading a good pious, and peaceful life, the day of judgement, and the terrible punishment for unbelievers (Katerrega and Shenk,

 p 36).   

     Irenaeus pictures Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden as children.  Their sin is seen as a calling of God’s compassion on account of their weakness and vulnerability.  This objective of God is that man passes through all things and acquires the knowledge of death and learns by experience what the source of his experience is, so he may love God ever more.  Contemporary life is gradual spiritual growth (Hick, pp 212, 213).  Jesus too treated the likeness between the attitude of God to man, and the attitude of human parents at their best, towards their children, as providing the most adequate way for us to think about God (Hick, p 258).  From a Muslim’s perspective Allah pardoned Adam and Hauwa as the Qur’an testifies, “Then Adam received from his Lord words (of revelation), and He relented toward him. Lo! He is the relenting, the Merciful” (Qur’an 2:37).  Adam and Hauwa were absolved of the sin of disobedience, and their future descendants were made immune from its effect.  Allah did not only accept man’s repentance but went ahead and appointed him as his messenger to give guidance to mankind (Katerrega and Shenk, p 23). 

     Scholars are positive in affirming that the revelatory content of Genesis is not an explanation of the origin of evil.  There is no portrayal of a “fall” from immortality.  Humanity has not been changed from how it was created.  Death, suffering and work are part of the human destiny, not divine punishment.  There is no justification in Genesis for the submissiveness of women or for the destruction of the earth’s resources for human purposes.  “The story of the ‘“fall”’ is human conduct in the face of temptation….In sum the doctrine of original sin is not to be found in Genesis…”[10] Catholic biblical scholars recognize that the origin stories in Genesis I-II are not meant to be understood as historical fact.  Therefore, we need not take as literal truth that human beings began their existence in a paradise, and had human knowledge and bodily control, and were without suffering and death.  Most important of all one need not conclude that there was an offense committed by the first humans so horrible that God demanded that they and their descendants be punished with suffering and death and declared guilty of eternal damnation (Korsmeyer,pp 120, 121).  

     The City of Wrong is a text based on an account of Good Friday during the days of Jesus written in Arabic by a Muslim surgeon and educationalist.  In his book Dr Hussein indicates that Christianity has not freed itself, and perhaps never shall due to the disciple’s failure to save Christ.  Dr Hussein claims that Christians have been destined to bear the reproach of the great sin of abandoning Christ to his prosecutors.  “It seemed to them that they were only commanded to withhold themselves from rescuing their prophet because they did not deserve to be his witness.  And thus a dread of falling into sin, an apprehensiveness about evil doing, has become a dominant feature of the Christian spirit.  And so it will always remain.  For Christians have no way of atoning for what happened on that day.”[11] Hussein continues along the same notion deeper into the text,  ”It is strongly established in their creeds that man is permeated with evil until he is cleansed, and it may well be that it goes back largely to what the disciples were made to do against their will on that fateful day.” (Hussein, p 123) 

     When Christians and Muslims talk about God they are talking about the same God, although their witnessing, concerning God may be rather different.  The Christian witness emphasizes the self disclosure of God (hence the Trinity), while in Islam it is the will and guidance of God which is revealed (Katerrega and Shenk p 88).  Islam acknowledges the second coming of the Messiah but they believe that the Messiah will return to earth to firmly establish the true religion of Islam before the final judgment ( Katerrega and Shenk, pp 168, 169).

     The human need to redemption, salvation or atonement through Jesus Christ is necessary because of what we are, selfish by nature and nurture.  The sins of the world flow from our genetic heritage which has evolved in a struggle for our survival.  New Testament reference to redemption, spell out its meaning in images and symbols.  Redemption is achieved through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and yet remains to be achieved (Korsmeyer, p125).  To redeem means to buy back.  Redemption signifies that God has set the relation between humankind and God right again.[12]

Evolution

     The first part of Geneses begins with questions of chaos.  From an evolutionary point of view this is a beginning.  A situation of chaos is one where there is no observable order of substance from any organized past.  Therefore the influence of the past on the present is minimal.  “God broods over the chaos, then utters a command:  Let there be light!” Creation is through a word, a call, a lure towards a particular form of becoming.  Creation responds.  The light is itself an introduction of difference and therefore definition into the chaos.  If there is light and dark, then there is some form of order.  We have a responsive God interacting with the world, calling it into being.  It is creation through call and response.[13]         

     Catholic biblical scholarship took a major step in 1943 when Pope Pius XII in his encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu encouraged the use of modern scientific methods in studying the Bible.  Vatican II’s Dei verbum strongly approved use of the historical-critical method of biblical analysis, which attempts to establish what the biblical authors intended to convey in their texts (Korsmeyer, p 48). 

     The difference between primates and humans is much less than once thought.  There is no need to insist that all humans can be traced to Adam and Eve.  All humans require the grace of God because they are human, the product of an evolving, self-seeking universe.  We don’t need the sin of the first parent to know that we sin (Korsmeyer, pp124, 125). 

Challenges and Benefits in Dialogue

     Christian-Muslim relations has since the beginning been one of ambivalence.  The major reason for this is that both faiths are intensely missionary-oriented.  Each claims to have an exclusive universal message of truth and salvation for all of humanity.  Each community considers the other to be in grave error in its basic understanding of God, God’s nature, and God’s relationship to humanity and its history.  There has been a deep mistrust of the aims and intentions of each community toward the other.  This mistrust stems from long-held distortions and misrepresentations of the faith and culture by both communities of one another.    Pope John Paul 11, first journeyed to a predominantly Muslim country to Turkey in November 1979.  The Pope called on both Muslims and Christians to collaborate on the basis of their common faith in God, in promoting peace and brotherhood “in the free profession of faith proper to each.”  Honoring Jesus and his mother is an essential part of the Muslim faith.  But to acknowledge Jesus as God is for Muslims to associate other gods with God, which is the only unforgivable sin.  These differences should not be ignored in efforts to promote better understanding through honest dialogue, but recognized and dealt with patiently and with sensitivity on all sides (Sherwin and Kasimow, pp 171, 172).      

     While Christians constitute the most populous of the religions, around 1.9 billion in 1998, Muslims occupy an impressive, and growing, second place with 1.2 billion.[14]  Therefore, it is important that we learn to understand and respect each other.  No matter how much we try, we are always going to view, hear and understand the other religious person from our own religious perspective (Knitter, p 217).  That is the challenge.  How open minded and respectful can we be towards the beliefs of the other.  The time has come when it is not only beneficial it is necessary.

     There has been no other Pope who has contributed so much and so widely to a greater

understanding of other religions as Pope John Paul 11.  The unprecedented meeting in Assisi on

 October 27, 1986, of religious leaders of a great number of faiths came to pray for peace in the

 world and to give witness to their dedication to the cause of reconciliation among people of all

 religions.  This has been followed up by similar events being organized almost yearly promoting

the cause of world peace and solidarity.  For Pope John Paul 11, every child born into this world

is formed in the image of God, is love by God, is respected by God.  God desires that each and

every one of God’s be brought to the joy of God’s Kingdom.  No Christian can say that he or she

loves God but despises those whom God loves (1 John 4:20) (Sherwin and Kasimow p xii).  Pope John Paul 11 addressed the President of the Sudan in 1993 when he was concerned with the unique situation facing the Christian community, “[t]he inalienable dignity of every human person, irrespective of racial, ethnic, cultural or national origin or religious belief, means that when people coalesce in groups they have a right to enjoy a collective identity.  Thus, minorities [that is Christians] within a community have a right to exist, with their own language, culture and traditions, and the State is morally obliged to leave room for their identity and self expression.” (Sherwin and Kasimow, p 191)

     Interfaith dialogue can be quite difficult.  Mary Boys who is in the process of writing a book with a Muslim and Jewish scholar said that “Dialogue has an altering effect.”  The three (David, Mary and Mohammad) wrote a blessing that all three could pray.  Boys said that “we need one another to understand ourselves.” Boys admitted that after the first week of getting together with the Muslim and Jewish scholar to write a book of the three religions she was prepared to leave the trio group because of the challenges of interfaith dialogue.  Ultimately she is pleased that she stayed.  Boys indicates that there are three types of particularisms in interfaith dialogue:

1.     advisory - one demonizes the other.  This gives religion a bad name.

2.     Superficial – lacking any knowledge of religion outside one’s own.  Without knowing we                                                                                             have false perceptions.

3.     Textual (rare) One has grown deep in one’s religion, divine presence, and faithful to the vision of God.   [15]       

     In today’s multicultural society and global village it is imperative that we understand each other as people, as religious and non-religious, and as a unit for our own survival and that of our earth.    Dialogue will be difficult and the more different others are to us, the more our tendency will be to distance ourselves.  Being an atheist is not excluded either. Vatican 11 explicitly taught that even avowed atheists who follow their conscience are really though unknowingly, following the voice of God and so are “saved” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium [LG] 16) (Knitter, p 76).

     No one can deny how much damage religion has done.  In religion’s name people have psychologically traumatized, groups have been exploited, wars have been fought.  Some of the worst sins of humanity have been carried out in God’s name (Knitter, p118).  It is no longer of primary concern or at least should not be that my religion is the fulfillment of yours, that my notion of God is superior to yours or that my Savior is bigger than yours.  What does matter is that people actually be helped, fed, educated and given medicine, that violence and war be avoided and that the environment be saved and protected (Knitter, p 140).  This is why we need to dialogue and unite as one people for the common good of all.  We have a responsibility to heal it and to recognize kinship in each of us.  So when Christians lift up Jesus as the universal Savior, they are also affirming the integrity and validity of Buddhist claims that Buddha is a universal Savior (Knitter, p 201).  It is important that we have a true understanding of each other’s religion.  It is more than knowing that the Jews follow the path of the Torah, the Hindus follow the Vedas and the Buddhists follow the Darma (Sherwin and Kaslimow p 4 ).  Buddhist argue that the idea of God is an attachment from which humanity must free themselves.  According to Buddhism the world in itself is not bad.  The source of our suffering is our own desires, our thirst, greed and clinging to a permanent self which is an illusion (Sherwin and Kaslimow, pp 10, 11). We need to begin knowing each other.

     Today some sixty nations are represented in the Muslim immigrant communities of North America.  Muslim immigrants who came to North America after WWII per capita constitute the most highly educated Muslims in the world.  There are about one half million black Americans who are Muslim.  Their history goes back to the 17^th century when many of the slaves were Muslim (Mohammed, p 83).  The actual number of Muslims in the U.S.A. is disputed.  It is between four and six million.  A 1991 census depicted over 300,000 Muslims in Canada (Mohammed p 84).  Today there are more than 750,000.  There are 21 Federal ridings with seven percent to fourteen percent Muslim population which can become an electoral force. [16]  The time for serious dialogue has arisen in North America.

     15 billion years ago the cosmic evolution began and the universe began. There is scientific evidence of first humans 2.6 million years ago.[17] The view of the Eastern fathers is more compatible with modern science because of evolution which is no longer a theory but a proven fact. The Muslims from the beginning realized that the universe was not created in seven days.  The Muslims are more open to the Iraneous point of view that we are moving towards God and we are not being punished with Original Sin because God forgives.  We may reconcile rather than atone for something we are not responsible for.  Regardless of our beliefs, we need to stand together and continue forward respecting our differences and acknowledging our similarities.  It is time that we unite in dialogue with others with our ultimate goal – to grow towards God with humanity.

---

[1] Mohammed, Ovey N. Muslim-Christian Relations, Past, Present, Future.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999. Pp 49, 50.  Further reference to the text will be indicated by the author’s last name and page number.

[2] Daniel, Norman. Islam and the West. Edinburgh: The University Press, 1960. P 53.  Further references to the text will be indicated by the Author’s name and page number.

[3] Katerrega, B.D and D. Shenk.  Islam and Christianity: A Muslim and Christian in Dialogue. Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1980.   P 9.  Any further reference to the text will be indicated by the Authors’ names followed by page number.   

[4] Parrinder, Geoffrey.  Jesus in the Qur’an. London: Sheldon Press, 1965. P 111.

[5] Sherwin, Bryon L and Harold Kasimow. Eds. John Paul 11 and Interreligious Dialogue.  Maryland, NY: Orbis Books, 1999. P. 13.  Further reference to the text will be indicated by the editors’ name and page number.

[6] Hick, John.  Evil and the God of Love.  London: Collins, 1968. Pp. 211, 212.  Further reference to the text will be indicated by the author’s name followed by page number.

[7] Thiel, John.  God, Evil and Innocent Suffering.  New York: Crossroad, 2002. P 106.

[8] Rondet, Henri.  Original Sin. Trans. Cajetan Finegan. Ireland: Ecclesia Press, 1972. P 176.  Further reference to the text will be indicated by author and page number.

[9] Crawford Cromwell Ed. World Religions and Global Ethics. New York: Paragon. 1989.  P. 216.  Further reference to the text will be indicated by author’s name and page number.

[10] Korsmeyer, Jerry.  Evolution and Eden.  New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1998. P. 51. Further reference to the text will be indicated by the author’s name and page number.

[11] Hussein, Kamel.  City of Wrong. Trans. Kenneth Cragg.  Rockport: Oneworld. 1994. P136. Further reference will be indicated by the author’s name and page number.    

[12] Wiley, Tatha.  Original Sin. Paulist Press: Mahwah, N.J, 2002.  P 66.

[13] Suchocki, Marjorie. Ed. Iersel, Theobald, and Herman Haring.  Evolution And Faith. “Process Theology and Evolution”, London: SCM Press, c2000.

[14] Knitter Paul. Introducing Theologies of Religions.  New York: Orbis Books. 2002. P 6.  Further references to the text will be indicated by the author’s name and page number.

[15] Boys, Mary C.  Seminar St Michaels College, Toronto, Ont.  October 16, 2009.  

[16] Mujahid, Abdul M. “A Profile of Muslims In Canada”. Toronto Muslims.Com. On-Line 14 Dec.  2009. Available www.torontomuslims.com/thinking/muslimsincanada.asp

[17] Swimme, Brian and Thomas Berry. The Universe Story.  New York: Harper Collins, 1992. (Time Line for the universe pp 269-278.

I am having technical difficulties. Sorry. I cannot post.

Sorry. Having difficulty posting.

Happy Family Day

     For some people celebrating Family Day is a wonderful time to be with the family, explore some sites and be with each other.  For others, family day is a reminder of how much "family" they lack in their lives.  There are also those, who suffered much in their families, and they are reminded of the horrors they have endured.  What does family day mean to you?  Are you happily married?  Are you feeling bored in your relationships?  Are you lonely?  Do you have anyone in your life, you consider family?  Are your pets your family?  Is it time to examine your definition of family?  Are you running away from your family?
     Why not take a bit of time today to examine where you are?  Ask yourself, who do I consider my family?  Do I make time for my family?  Why not?  Do I love my spouse?  What happened?  Do I nurture my children?  Why not?  The answer to ourselves, are within ourselves.
     The concept of family is changing.  We can not change other people, but we can change ourselves.  Why not get off the computer today or off the couch and go out and explore your town, country side or city.  Why not go for a drive with someone who is in your life?  Why not spend time with someone who you consider your family?  Your room mate may be your family.  Your dog may be your family.  You and your child may be your family.  Instead of thinking why the cup is half empty, try thinking that it may be half full.  What do you have in your life right now that inspires you; makes you happy?  Maybe today is the day, when you can begin to think of how important your mental health is?  What cost do you associate with it?  Who have you become?  Do you like yourself?  If you do not like what you see or who you are with, what can you do to change that?  You can be your own family, so be kind to yourself today.  How will you like to extend the family in you outward to someone else?  What do you really want to do today, on family day?  Maybe this is the first step in discovering what the people in your life really mean to you?  Are they important?  Are you spending enough time with the people you think are important?  What do you think?    

Making Sense together (tid bits - edited for blog)

Organizing Principals of the Client

     Buirski and Haglund explain that a client has symptomatic behaviors that stems from how he,   has organized and made sense of his unique life experience, and how this is interpreted by him. The principles that organize experience are formed in the early relationships with caregivers (pp 31-32).   This provides the client with a template of how he has interpreted meaning of events in an understanding of himself and his relationship with others.  

The Inter-subjectivity Approach to Psychotherapy

The Inter-subjectivity approach is trying to relate in ways that are experienced by our clients as providing needed self object experiences.  This is accomplished by relating with our clients in ways that promote the recognition, articulation and integration of discrepant affect states.   By doing this we attend to features that contributed to this client’s particular organization of experience that have undermined the development of self cohesion (ibid, p 82).  The psychotherapy process unfolds through dialogue (ibid, p 104). Self awareness is a key, in that it alerts the therapist to her inevitable impact on the patient’s subjective experience.  Each person, and his story is unique, and the experience and meaning of the therapeutic work will unfold as a construction at the intersection of the two distinct subjectivities (ibid. p 105).   Change results from making sense together and making sense together includes the two subjective experiences of therapist and client, the unique field created by their mutual influence and the specific understanding of the patient’s subjective experience that emerges through their work (p 32).    

The New Formulation of the Clients Organizing Principles

     The psychotherapeutic task is to “illuminate” the underlying organizing principals from which the behavior is from, thus allowing for the transformation with a new understanding gained in a relationship with the therapist.  The inter-subjective perspective recognizes that these organizations of experience exert their influence while remaining largely unconscious (Ibid. p 124).

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[1] Buirski, Peter and Haglund, Pamela.  Making Sense Together The Intersubjective Approach To Psychotherapy.  Lanham, Maryland:  Rowman &Littlefield, 2010.  References to the text will be indicated by  page number.

Personality (psychology) - definition

Personality defined:
1.  What is unique and recognizable about a person.
2.  It is inferred from behavior.
3.  It is observable behavior.
4.  It is the inner structure of the mind.
5.  It is consistent and patterned and is a developing structure.
6.  It is dynamic and changing.
7.  It directs behavior and thought.

cont....

Longitudinal Research Design (cont) (psychology, notes)

Research on the same person or group of persons over an extended period of time yields age related changes on a number of psychological variables.  Such research tracks long-term individual development.  Problems with such research are attrition, sampling bias - above average in income, intelligence, etc.  Testing that is repeated also produces a practised effect.

Happy Valentine's Day!

What meaning does Valentine's day have for you?  Who is your valentine?  Loving ourselves is important.  Who do you love? Is it your family?  Your mate?  Your pets?  Why not show an expression of love to someone today?  Happy Valentines day from me to you!!!!!!! 

Take a day of rest

When was the last time you took a day to rest?  Can you imagine a day without a cell phone or computer?  Why not try it?  Spend a day just doing something restful for you.  Rest can mean different things, to different people.  What is restful for you?  Are you doing it?  Why not?  How do you nourish your soul, your being?  How close are you to taking, that one day?   What do you think?

Have fun this weekend!

Why not do something fun this weekend?  Get out of the house, off your sofa and off your computer for part of the weekend.  Go to a party, to a movie, for a long walk etc...Take some time, off for you.  Take a break from the demands imposed on you.  Think about your life.  Are you happy?  Are you sad?  What power do you have, that can change things for yourself?  What makes you happy?  Do you have enough to live on?  Do you have enough to eat?  What can you change in your life to reach your goals?  What have you done to get you there?  Are you writing in your journal?  Why not?  Are you happy with the friends you have?

What do you think?  

Cross-sectional research design (cont......)(psychology notes)

Here the research compares groups of 35, 45 and 55 year olds in terms of memory ability.  It may be possible to correlate age with memory by noting differences among the three different age groups. But does age alone account for memory ability differences?  There may be a cohort effect, meaning that different age groups share different formative cultural events such as economic, depression, war; growing up with television.  Thus, when researchers compare different age groups, is the difference between them on some psychological variable due to age or a cohort effect? 

cont........

Experimental Studies (psychology - notes)

Experimental Studies  -  Cause and effect relationships are explored in experimental research.  The manipulation of one variable while keeping the others constant, may show that the experimental variable (or treatment), has an effect or it does not.

Steps in Experimental Designs:
1.  Identify variables:  The independent and dependant variables must be identified and controlled.
2.  After identification of variables, subjects must be assigned randomly to either the experimental group which receives the independent variable or the control group..which does not receive the independent or treatment variable.  The control group is used as a base of comparison....How did those subjects respond without the treatment?  Did the treatment in the experimental group influence the outcome measure or the dependent variable.
3.  Validity  and psychological research:  Random assignment gives all participants an equal chance of being assigned to experimental or control groups.  It permits the differences in subject characteristics to be evenly distributed by chance so that the experimental and control groups are as equal as possible in every way except in terms of the "treatment" or independent variable.  Thus, internal validity is assured and differences between the groups on the outcome or dependent variable measure can be confidentiality attributed to the treatment variable rather than to subject characteristics such as age, intelligence, education, socio-economic class; gender.
4.  Natural experiments:  these involve studying groups which naturally divide along some variable such as education or income or disease.  Thus, one group of people with formal education are compared to another group without formal education.

cont.....

Buddhism and Reincarnation

BUDDHISM AND REINCARNATION

By: Silva Redigonda

Buddhism and Reincarnation  

     Reincarnation is a concept beyond the understanding of many Christians who believe that there is only one life to live.  Buddhism is becoming popular in North American.  This paper will define reincarnation as it pertains to Buddhism and it will also be compared to reincarnation as viewed by Hinduism.  Reincarnation should be examined by the most skeptic since there are numerous recorded cases where knowledge of a previous life cannot be easily dismissed.  This too shall be depicted.

     Buddha said there is no soul.  Buddha used an image of a flame being passed from candle to candle to understand his concept of reincarnation. “There is a chain of causation threading each life to those that have led up to it and those that will follow...[1]  It is possible to stop this rebirth  of living different existences if one “wishes wholeheartedly to do so” (Smith, p 151).  If the person now has a comfortable life, this is a reward of goodness performed in the past and present life.  Those experiencing misery is a result of evil they have committed in previous existences or are committing in their present life.  The individual is totally responsible for the life he is experiencing.[2]   At any given time, a minority demonstrate the ability to escape the “wheel of life” by entering a state of nirvana (a positive meaning includes bliss, release from desire etc..A negative meaning includes a state of extinction and nothingness). The karma (The good and evil effect of one’s action which is carried along to the next rebirth) of most beings necessitate their rebirth in any of the numerous heavens or hells (Masumian, pp 51 and 54).

     Reincarnation did not begin with Buddhism, Hinduism which is considered one of oldest religious system in the world believes in reincarnation (Ma’sumian, p 1).   However similar the two religions are, there are also differences involving the concepts of reincarnation.                    

     Buddhism is only concerned with personal eschatology as is Hinduism.  There is no  collective destiny for humanity as there is for Christianity.  The Hindu shares the belief of countless rebirths of humans in a spectrum of evil to goodness but unlike the Buddhist believes in the human soul (atman). Individual souls (jivas) enter the world mysteriously and make their way through the universe until they break free into the limitless atmosphere of illumination (liberation).  They begin as the souls of the simplest forms of life and do not vanish with the death of their original bodies (Smith, p 63). Hindus understanding of reincarnation also differs from that of Buddhism.  Hindu doctrine of rebirth is attributed to Karma which is the consequences of actions in previous lives.  However, the Buddhist maintains that rebirth is due to Tanha, “as long as the wish to be a separate self persisted, that wish would be granted (Smith, p 151).                        

     Reincarnation does not belong to Buddhism or Hinduism alone.  In a 1981 US gallup poll it was determined that in the general population 23 % believed in reincarnation.[3]  In a 2005 US gallup poll, 20 % of the population believed in reincarnation.[4]    Though there appears to be a decrease of belief, a margin of error is to be considered.  Regardless, there is no doubt that almost a quarter of the population believes in some form of reincarnation.  

     Children Who Remember Previous Lives  is a text based on a study, drawing on the information of more than 2, 500 cases children who appear to remember some type of past life.[5]

This ranges from phobias occurring in relation to a previous life ( Stevenson, p182) to the announcing of dreams in the selection of the next incarnation (Stevenson, p243) What is most baffling is the ability to speak a language not know to the youth (Stevenson, p 127).

     Reincarnation cannot be readily dismissed or confined to a particular religion.  Reincarnation may be a mystery for some but it does require attention.  I have had two professors at different times who I respected very much who were both Buddhists.  Though I have never had a client who experienced any type of reincarnation, as a student pastoral counsellor and/or therapist I need to be open and prepared for the possibility.  Though I myself do not believe in reincarnation, I need to keep my mind open to the possibility.  There is much humanity does not understand.  Hinduism and Buddhism are both old and respected religions.  Their beliefs should not be taken lightly.  Religions all seem to have some basis of mythological similarity.  How much do we know is factual and not a myth?  Reincarnation is not confined to religion.  When children speak with knowledge that they cannot possibly know than one must take notice.  Life is a mystery and so is death.

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[1] Smith, Huston.  The World Religions. 50^th Anniversary Edition.  Harper Collins: New York, 1991. P 115. Further reference to the text will be indicated by author and page number.

[2] Ma’Sumian, Farnaz. Life After Life. A Study Of The Afterlife In World Religions. Oneworld: Oxford. P 44.  Further reference to the text will be indicated by author’s name and page number.

[3] Cranston, Sylvia and William, Carey. Reincarnation.  A New Horizon In Science, religion and Society. Julian Press: New York. P 13.

[4] “Gallup New Service” GALLUP.  19 Feb 2010. Web www.gallup.com/poll/16915.

[5] Stevenson, Ian.  Children Who Remember Previous Lives.  A Question of Reincarnation.  McFarland and Co.: North Carolina, 2001.