Articles

On the contemporary college campus, believers exhibit their own brand of skepticism.

Why religious literacy is just as important as reading, writing, and arithmetic

Wheatley Religion Fellow Samuel Wilkinson co-authored an article for the Deseret News on the history of the relationship between psychiatry and religion. Despite longstanding negative assumptions from early psychiatry, many modern studies have found strong links between religious attendance and lowered risks of depression and anxiety.

Distinguished Wheatley Fellow Shima Baughman wrote an article for the Deseret News about returning to teach at BYU after 10 years at the University of Utah.

View of how religious intolerance and movies intersect

It is not unusual to hear discussions of the relationship between faith and reason, or science and religion, cast in terms of the blind acceptance of unquestionable propositions (religion) versus careful, skeptical, and critical rational reflection (science). Indeed, one of the hallmarks of religious faith, at least as commonly depicted in a great deal of our daily public discourse, is that it rests on claims that are “incontestable”—that is, impervious to skeptical scrutiny, empirical or logical analysis, or rational dispute. In contrast, scientific or secular knowledge claims are presumed to rest on “evidence” and the sure foundation of rational and/or empirical demonstration. As Suzanna Sherry (1996) has written, for example, someone operating under the epistemology of faith is “able to ignore contradictions, contrary evidence, and logical implications. Indeed, one test of faith is its capacity to resist the blandishments of rationality; the stronger the rational arguments against a belief, the more faith is needed to adhere to it” (p. 482). In contrast, “secular science and liberal politics, both committed to the primacy of reason, necessarily deny that any truth is incontestable” (p. 479).

“I travel around to countries and meet with oppressed religious minorities, and they say ‘You hold our story up to the world. You give us a voice.’” US Ambassador-at-Large for International Freedom, David Saperstein was sworn in on January 6th, 2015. In the time following, he has traveled around the world to meet with government officials, religious groups, and those affected by religious restrictions. On November 17th, Ambassador Saperstein addressed the BYU campus in a Distinguished Lecture titled, “U.S. Efforts to Promote International Religious Freedom.” He described the current climate of religious freedom around the world. “Three-fourths of the world’s population live in countries that have serious restrictions regarding religious freedom.” Many of these restrictions are disguised as blasphemy laws, laws that severely punish individuals for making core life decisions in accordance to their religious beliefs. Saperstein’s travels have given him the opportunity to meet and work with people from many different faiths and backgrounds. Oftentimes, the countries with the most progress on religious freedom issues are those in which interfaith cooperation flourishes, even when the interfaith efforts are “done at the risk of life and limb.”

The role of religion in world affairs is a rapidly growing field of international studies. The expansion of interest in this topic dates back to the terrorist attacks of September 11, when it became painfully clear that religion directly affected the interests and security of the United States and its citizens. There is now a large network of academic and policy centers whose purpose is to understand the impact of religion in international affairs. This article explores several principles identified in that research.