govern point

ATLANTA, January. 31 /Newswire/ — Govern Point launches blog with Religious content focused on providing informational content and balanced views in a non-denominational way.  Sample Topics To Be Covered:

• How do science and religion fair as constructs
• Darwinism
• Mysticism
• Religious Education Views
• The Bible
• Various Religions

“The topic of religion has always been intriguing, but even more so as a Parent, so this is here” J. David, chief content kid.  “Hopefully the topics of religion, science and belief as interesting for you the reader as well.”  Govern Point will provide fact based information as available and will at times just take a leap of faith in some content.

Articles of Interests

• Should Creationism Be Taught in Public Schools? (usnews.com)
• Why This Jesus? (justanotherclaypot.blogspot.com)
• Bible Stories Your Parents Never Taught You (nonfictionaudiobooks.suite101.com)
• TIME.com: How to Get Teens Excited About God — Page 1 (time.com)

This self control study is getting some play. Self control is very important for success in life, and new research carried out by Michael McCullough at the Miami University showed that religious people have a higher level of self control that people who are not religious.

Thus, religious people may be better at pursuing and achieving long-term goals that are important to them.

To arrive at his controversial conclusion, McCullough evaluated eight decades of research that was conducted in diverse samples of people from around the world. He found persuasive evidence from a variety of domains – including neuroscience, economics, psychology and sociology – that religious beliefs and religious behaviors are capable of encouraging people to stay “in check” and to more effectively regulate their emotions & behaviors, so that they can pursue goals.

“The importance of self-control and self-regulation for understanding human behavior are well known to social scientists, but the possibility that the links of religiosity to self-control might explain the links of religiosity to health and behavior has not received much explicit attention,” said McCullough. “We hope our paper will correct this oversight in the scientific literature.”

McCullough drew some most interesting conclusions:

• prayer & meditation, along with other rituals, affect the parts of the human brain that are most important for self-regulation & self-control.
• When people strive for something “sacred,” they prioritize pursuing those goals, and therefore, are probably more effective at achieving the goals.
• Religious lifestyles may contribute to self-control by providing people with clear standards for behavior, by causing people to regulate their own behavior more closely.

“By thinking of religion as a social force that provides people with resources for controlling their impulses [including the impulse for self-preservation, in the case of suicide bombers] in the service of higher goals, religion can motivate people to do just about anything,” he concluded.

Other articles:

• Feeling Out of Control, Superstition, and Religion
• Religion Makes People Helpful And Generous — Under Certain Conditions
• Outcasts quick to spot a fake smile
• How To Trick People Into Doing The Right Thing

Although international politics is increasingly challenged by the national and transnational movement of religious politics, the study of religion has been surprisingly absent from the established agendas of most graduate schools that prepare workers for positions in service agencies associated with international non-governmental organizations (NGOs). NGOs lead efforts to develop a global civil society, noted Juergensmeyer, professor of global studies, sociology, and religious studies at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB).

The Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies at UC Santa Barbara has been awarded a $400,000 grant by the Henry Luce Foundation to launch a new research and educational initiative that will advance understanding of the impact of religion on international humanitarian efforts and human rights organizations around the world.

“Since religion plays such a vital role in world affairs, it is mandatory that we understand better how it both helps and hinders humanitarian efforts in building a global civil society,” said Mark Juergensmeyer, director of the Orfalea Center. “This generous grant will fund a very important venture.”

The Orfalea Center project will focus on issues related to religion that are relevant to all humanitarian organizations. The project will also lead to the development of a new concentration on religion in UCSB’s master’s program in global and international studies that will serve as a model for other international studies programs nationwide.

“UCSB’s new graduate program in global and international studies is the first to focus on these issues in a global context,” said Juergensmeyer.

Articles of Interest:

• Teaching Religion in Public High Schools
• UN says economic crisis may add to abuse of poor
• Basics: A Highly Evolved Propensity for Deceit
• Iran keeps Nobel laureate’s office shut

We all struggle with the now, the future and the present. One key theme that keeps coming up is religion. People ask me if I’m religious, what religion I am or if I even know what religion is, so I might as well spend some time on it. So this site will help me understand and hopefully you as well. This will be a collection of posts on religion, news and concepts – good, bad and the ugly, but most of all it will be fair.

Everyone will get a turn, so patience as I reach out and try to learn about faith. Please visit the links I have and the folks I cite, since without them, I would have anything to learn from.