Religion - Réligion

BEN - 07:53am Feb 23, 2006 (#1 of 7)

Salut tout le monde, Je suis très intêressé par ce sujet, ainsi que par celui de laîcité, avec ses deux versions française (issue de la Révolution), et anglosaxone. Déja, l'impression générale est que la religion est conçue comme une philosophie, une spriritualité,...Mais je constate une plus forte récurrence des mensions négatives vis-à-vis de la religion dans les réponses françaises (15 contre 7), ce-ci ne peut pour autant être justifié par le stéréotype de l'athé français. Les français se distancient trop de la religion et considèrent l'Eglise comme une institution à part, mais gardent toujours leur grand estime de les valeurs religieuses. Je me demande en revanche si les opinions des étudiants de MIT sont représentatives de toutes les USA, ou de toutes les tranches d'âges et ce qu'aurait pu donner le même exercice d'associations de mots dans un milieu conservateur au Texas...

Mo

Tu penses à quelquechose de particulier avec le milieu conservateur du Texas?

Hi, my name is Josephine and I'm from Indonesia. From both sets of responses, I think people generally uphold the values that are associated with religion. However, both groups also have negative associations, which are different for the students at MIT and at Ecole Polytechnique. The negative associations from the students at Polytechnique reflect religion as a social conflict ("guerre", "terrorisme") and the impression that I get is a more distant attitude toward religion. The responses from MIT maintain the personal atmosphere of religion, relating closely with someone's personal belief and faith.

Hello, my name is Katie, and I am from the US. Upon looking at the words associated with religion, I noticed that the words chosen by students at the Ecole Polyechnique had, overall, a more negative connotation than the words given by students at MIT. In America, there has not been much religious prosecution in our recent history. Religious prosecution here has never really been widespread. There are so many different kinds of religions practiced in the US today, and so many denominations and branches within some of those religions.

In France’s history, however, religion “wars” and religious prosecution was a much bigger deal (probably where the association of religion and war and terrorism stems from). I think I am correct in saying that a majority of people in France are Catholic and Protestant? Is there a substantial population of other religions?

Hi- My name is Allison and I'm American. I agree that Polytechnique students seem to associate religion with persecution more than Americans do. However, I think that both MIT students and Polytechnique students were fairly evenly split between looking at religion as something spiritual and freeing, and something extremely negative. The negative MIT responses mostly were about binding and collectivity, which are not very popular in a country that really likes individualism. Overall, I think that we are very similar in our religious feelings considering that France and the United States have such different traditional religious backgrounds. I know that in class today, most people seemed to think that Polytechnique students have more negative associations with religion than MIT students do. Does anybody else agree with me? There were several responses from Polytechnique students about terrorism and fanaticism. Are terrorist attacks common in France?

Salut, moi c'est Clément. Je me permets de donner mon point de vue sur cette affaire. Les attaques terroristes ne sont pas, à ma connaissance, plus nombreuses en France qu'ailleurs.

Le mot "guerres", "danger" dans les mots français doivent faire référence, non seulement aux croisades où les religieux se permettaient d'exterminer des peuples sous prétextes de croyances, mais aussi aux guerres en Irak qui, vues d'ici ressemblent un peu à des luttes de religions (même si les choses sont évidemment plus compliquées). Le mot "amalgame" montre bien qu'on peut rapidement associer les religions à des épisodes malheureux ou sanglants (y compris les attentats), et vite oublier les autres aspects. Il faut aussi se rappeler des périodes sombres de l'Eglise où les censures et les tortures étaient communes, sans parler des bûchers. Tout cela fait qu'il n'est pas facile aujourd'hui de peser le pour et le contre en matière de religion.

On a appris récemment à la télévisions que certains états aux USA ont décidé de mettre l'accent, dans les écoles, sur une histoire de l'évolution "religieuse" (Adam et Eve) plutôt que sur la théorie de Darwin. C'est assez effarant, qu'en pensez-vous ?

From my experience, most Americans (me included) are super sensitive when speaking of religion. We fear to stir up disagreement or to offend our friends and acquaintances. I believe that adults should be able to speak up and have civilized conversations about their fundamental religious, or anti-religious beliefs.

I also think the problem stems from the authorities, Churches, Government, Institutions, who each fear the public discussion of religious topics. Individual Churches have extinction to fear; the government has its sovereignty to look out for, public and private institutions want to please as many people as possible. Our differing faiths make these ideals clash sometimes, but this is absolutely neccesary in order to keep the world within reason.

Everyone is able to form opinions about the clashes between science and religion, personally I think that historically, the score is tied. In fact, I don't these contradictions are a big issue, I am more worried that people tend to listen to whoever is screaming the loudest and give up a part of their humanity for the sake of convenience.

I hope this will keep you guys thinking and responding.. -Bran