144-479: Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of at least one deity . In common parlance, or when contrasted with deism , the term often describes the philosophical conception of God that is found in classical theism —or the conception found in monotheism —or gods found in polytheistic religions—or a belief in God or gods without the rejection of revelation , as is characteristic of deism. Atheism
288-512: A belief in an ideal may involve the belief that this ideal is something good, but it additionally involves a positive evaluative attitude toward this ideal that goes beyond a mere propositional attitude. Applied to the belief in God, opponents of the reductive approach may hold that a belief that God exists may be a necessary pre-condition for belief in God, but that it is not sufficient. The difference between de dicto and de re beliefs or
432-661: A belief in marriage could be translated as a belief that marriage is good. Belief-in is used in a similar sense when expressing self-confidence or faith in one's self or one's abilities. Defenders of a reductive account of belief-in have used this line of thought to argue that belief in God can be analyzed in a similar way: e.g. that it amounts to a belief that God exists with his characteristic attributes, like omniscience and omnipotence . Opponents of this account often concede that belief-in may entail various forms of belief-that, but that there are additional aspects to belief-in that are not reducible to belief-that. For example,
576-663: A de re sense, Lois does believe that Clark Kent is strong, while in a de dicto sense she does not. The contexts corresponding to de dicto ascriptions are known as referentially opaque contexts while de re ascriptions are referentially transparent. A collective belief is referred to when people speak of what "we" believe when this is not simply elliptical for what "we all" believe. Sociologist Émile Durkheim wrote of collective beliefs and proposed that they, like all " social facts ", "inhered in" social groups as opposed to individual persons. Jonathan Dancy states that "Durkheim's discussion of collective belief, though suggestive,
720-400: A dispositive belief ( doxa ) from knowledge ( episteme ) when the opinion is regarded correct (n.b., orthé not alethia ), in terms of right, and juristically so (according to the premises of the dialogue), which was the task of the rhetors to prove. Plato dismisses this possibility of an affirmative relation between opinion and knowledge even when the one who opines grounds his belief on
864-406: A "calling of the quarters", in which a participant draws a circle in the air in a deosil direction to hail the north, south, east, and west, marking out the space in which the ceremony will take place. Libations may be poured onto the ground while a chalice of drink is passed around the assembled participants, again in a deosil direction. Food, often in the form of bread or cake, is also passed around
1008-523: A "revival" of genuine pre-Christian druidic practices, others see it a creative and respectful borrowing from one "native spirituality" into another, and a third school of thought regards it as a form of cultural theft. Native Americans who preserve the sweat lodge ceremonies for their communities have protested the appropriation of the ceremony by non-Natives, increasingly so now that people have been injured, and some have died , in fraudulent sweat lodge ceremonies performed by non-Natives. In Druidry,
1152-587: A Druidic baby-naming ceremony which took place at Kent's Chestnuts Long Barrow . Attitudes to land and environmental conservation are important to the Druidic world-view. In 2003, Druids performed a ritual at the Hill of Tara to heal the location after road construction took place in the adjacent landscape. Others have carried out rituals at Coldrum Long Barrow to oppose fracking in the landscape. Druids have also involved themselves in tree planting projects. In
1296-523: A belief in a proposition or one does not. This conception is sufficient to understand many belief ascriptions found in everyday language: for example, Pedro's belief that the Earth is bigger than the Moon. But some cases involving comparisons between beliefs are not easily captured through full beliefs alone: for example, that Pedro's belief that the Earth is bigger than the Moon is more certain than his belief that
1440-404: A belief or we don't have a belief") with the more permissive, probabilistic notion of credence ("there is an entire spectrum of degrees of belief, not a simple dichotomy between belief and non-belief"). Beliefs are the subject of various important philosophical debates. Notable examples include: "What is the rational way to revise one's beliefs when presented with various sorts of evidence?", "Is
1584-412: A belief system, and that tenanted belief systems are difficult for the tenants to completely revise or reject. He suggests that beliefs have to be considered holistically , and that no belief exists in isolation in the mind of the believer. Each belief always implicates and relates to other beliefs. Glover provides the example of a patient with an illness who returns to a doctor, but the doctor says that
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#17327801399631728-447: A central role in many religious traditions in which belief in God is one of the central virtues of their followers. The difference between belief-in and belief-that is sometimes blurry since various expressions using the term "belief in" seem to be translatable into corresponding expressions using the term "belief that" instead. For example, a belief in fairies may be said to be a belief that fairies exist. In this sense, belief-in
1872-461: A certain way is called a belief. This is not just true for humans but may include animals, hypothetical aliens or even computers. From this perspective, it would make sense to ascribe the belief that a traffic light is red to a self-driving car behaving just like a human driver. Dispositionalism is sometimes seen as a specific form of functionalism. It defines beliefs only concerning their role as causes of behavior or as dispositions to behave in
2016-446: A certain way. For example, a belief that there is a pie in the pantry is associated with the disposition to affirm this when asked and to go to the pantry when hungry. While it is uncontroversial that beliefs shape our behavior, the thesis that beliefs can be defined exclusively through their role in producing behavior has been contested. The problem arises because the mechanisms shaping our behavior seem to be too complex to single out
2160-444: A chess computer will behave. The entity has the belief in question if this belief can be used to predict its behavior. Having a belief is relative to an interpretation since there may be different equally good ways of ascribing beliefs to predict behavior. So there may be another interpretation that predicts the move of the queen to f7 that does not involve the belief that this move will win the game. Another version of interpretationism
2304-409: A few closely related beliefs while holists hold that they may obtain between any two beliefs, however unrelated they seem. For example, assume that Mei and Benjamin both affirm that Jupiter is a planet. The most straightforward explanation, given by the atomists, would be that they have the same belief, i.e. that they hold the same content to be true. But now assume that Mei also believes that Pluto
2448-534: A fixed ceremonial framework unique to the Druid group, and a central ritual activity that varies with the season. Druids residing in the traditionally Celtic regions of Europe are significantly more likely than Druids residing in other parts of the world to perform their ceremonies and rituals in groups. In the British Isles, Druid group rituals often involve the participants standing in a circle and begin with
2592-449: A form of autotheism. Alterity theism is a belief that the supreme being is radically transcendent to the point that it cannot be recognized as having any genuine being at all. Belief A belief is a subjective attitude that a proposition is true or a state of affairs is the case. A subjective attitude is a mental state of having some stance , take, or opinion about something. In epistemology , philosophers use
2736-498: A form of contemporary Paganism, and on the contemporary Pagan spectrum between reconstructionism and eclecticism, Druidry sits on the latter end. Various Druidic groups also display New Age and neo-shamanic influences. The Druidic community has been characterised as a neo-tribe , for it is disembedded and its membership is elective. Druidry has been described as a form of Celtic spirituality , or "Celtic-Based Spirituality". Scholar of religion Marion Bowman described Druidry as
2880-401: A full sensory and spiritual awareness of whatever or whoever may be near by. Environmental stewardship work extends this connection through acts of reciprocity. Druids regularly participate in activities such as restoring native ecosystems, creating wildlife habitats, growing organic food crops, composting, installing solar or wind power systems, and changing personal consumption habits to protect
3024-452: A language-like structure, sometimes referred to as "mentalese". Just like regular language, this involves simple elements that are combined in various ways according to syntactic rules to form more complex elements that act as bearers of meaning. On this conception, holding a belief would involve storing such a complex element in one's mind. Different beliefs are separated from each other in that they correspond to different elements stored in
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#17327801399633168-402: A mental attitude towards the proposition "It will be sunny today" which affirms that this proposition is true. This is different from Sofía's desire that it will be sunny today, despite the fact that both Rahul and Sofía have attitudes toward the same proposition. The mind-to-world direction of fit of beliefs is sometimes expressed by saying that beliefs aim at truth. This aim is also reflected in
3312-579: A monotheistic god. In modern times, with the increase in polytheistic Druidry, and the widespread acceptance of goddess-worship, the word "Goddess" has largely replaced the word "God" in The Druid's Prayer; other variants include "God and Goddess" and "Spirit". Some Druids regard it as possible to communicate with various spirits during rituals. For example, certain Druids in Ireland have adopted belief in
3456-404: A more realistic sense: that entities really have the beliefs ascribed to them and that these beliefs participate in the causal network. But, for this to be possible, it may be necessary to define interpretationism as a methodology and not as an ontological outlook on beliefs. Biologist Lewis Wolpert discusses the importance of causal beliefs and associates the making and use of tools with
3600-661: A particular culture. People with syncretic views blend the views of a variety of different religions or traditional beliefs into a unique fusion which suits their particular experiences and contexts ( eclecticism ). Unitarian Universalism exemplifies a syncretic faith. Typical reasons for adherence to religion include the following: Psychologist James Alcock also summarizes a number of apparent benefits which reinforce religious belief. These include prayer appearing to account for successful resolution of problems, "a bulwark against existential anxiety and fear of annihilation," an increased sense of control, companionship with one's deity,
3744-400: A particular function ( Hilary Putnam ). Some have also attempted to offer significant revisions to our notion of belief, including eliminativists about belief who argue that there is no phenomenon in the natural world which corresponds to our folk psychological concept of belief ( Paul Churchland ) and formal epistemologists who aim to replace our bivalent notion of belief ("either we have
3888-541: A person actively thinking "snow is white"), but can instead be dispositional (e.g. a person who if asked about the color of snow would assert "snow is white"). There are various ways that contemporary philosophers have tried to describe beliefs, including as representations of ways that the world could be ( Jerry Fodor ), as dispositions to act as if certain things are true ( Roderick Chisholm ), as interpretive schemes for making sense of someone's actions ( Daniel Dennett and Donald Davidson ), or as mental states that fill
4032-429: A sentence and in a map through its internal geometrical relations. Functionalism contrasts with representationalism in that it defines beliefs not in terms of the internal constitution of the mind but in terms of the function or the causal role played by them. This view is often combined with the idea that the same belief can be realized in various ways and that it does not matter how it is realized as long as it plays
4176-402: A source of self-significance, and group identity. Typical reasons for rejection of religion include: Mainstream psychology and related disciplines have traditionally treated belief as if it were the simplest form of mental representation and therefore one of the building blocks of conscious thought. Philosophers have tended to be more abstract in their analysis, and much of the work examining
4320-450: A special class of mental representations since they do not involve sensory qualities in order to represent something, unlike perceptions or episodic memories. Because of this, it seems natural to construe beliefs as attitudes towards propositions, which also constitute non-sensory representations, i.e. as propositional attitudes . As mental attitudes , beliefs are characterized by both their content and their mode. The content of an attitude
4464-626: A specific ceremony takes place known as an Eisteddfod , which is dedicated to the recitation of poetry and musical performances. Within the Druidic community, practitioners who are particularly skilled in their recitation of poetry or their performance of music are referred to as Bards. Although bardism can also be found in other Pagan traditions such as Eco-Paganism , it is of particular importance within Druidry. Bards perform at Eisteddfod at various occasions, from formal rituals to pub get-togethers and summer camps and environmental protests. Among
Theism - Misplaced Pages Continue
4608-823: A specific element of proselytization . This is a strongly-held belief in the Christian tradition which follows the doctrine of the Great Commission , and is less emphasized by the Islamic faith where the Quranic edict "There shall be no compulsion in religion" (2:256) is often quoted as a justification for toleration of alternative beliefs. The Jewish tradition does not actively seek out converts. Exclusivism correlates with conservative, fundamentalist, and orthodox approaches of many religions, while pluralistic and syncretist approaches either explicitly downplay or reject
4752-431: A term reflects the movement's association with trees, and references the idea that Iron Age druids performed their rituals within tree groves. Larger Druidic organisations are usually termed orders , and those that lead them are often termed Chosen Chiefs or Arch Druids . Some British Druid orders divide membership into three grades, referred to as "bards", "ovates", and then "Druids". This three-tier system mirrors
4896-399: A twin Earth in another part of the universe that is exactly like ours, except that their water has a different chemical composition despite behaving just like ours. According to Putnam, the reader's thought that water is wet is about our water while the reader's twin's thought on twin Earth that water is wet is about their water . This is the case despite the fact that the two readers have
5040-400: A way of living that they regard as being more "natural". Through seeking a connection with nature, neo-Druids pursue a sense of "cosmic belonging". "Grant, O God, Thy protection; And in protection, strength; And in strength, understanding; And in understanding, knowledge; And in knowledge, the knowledge of justice; And in the knowledge of justice, the love of it; And in that love,
5184-471: A wistful Macpherson seeking to recreate the oral traditions of Scotland. Everything presently known about the Iron Age druids derives from archaeological evidence and Greco-Roman textual sources, rather than material produced by these druids themselves. Due to the scarcity of knowledge about the Iron Age druids, their belief system cannot be accurately reconstructed. Some Druids incorporate everything that
5328-412: Is a modern spiritual or religious movement that promotes the cultivation of honorable relationships with the physical landscapes, flora, fauna, and diverse peoples of the world, as well as with nature deities, and spirits of nature and place. Theological beliefs among modern Druids are diverse; however, all modern Druids venerate the divine essence of nature. While there are significant variations in
5472-422: Is a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices; the service or worship of God or the supernatural. Religious belief is distinct from religious practice and from religious behaviours —with some believers not practicing religion and some practitioners not believing religion. Belief is no less of a theoretical term than is religion . Religious beliefs often relate to
5616-707: Is a planet, which is denied by Benjamin. This indicates that they have different concepts of planet , which would mean that they were affirming different contents when they both agreed that Jupiter is a planet. This reasoning leads to molecularism or holism because the content of the Jupiter-belief depends on the Pluto-belief in this example. An important motivation for this position comes from W. V. Quine 's confirmational holism , which holds that, because of this interconnectedness, we cannot confirm or disconfirm individual hypotheses, that confirmation happens on
5760-493: Is believed to be a "flowing spirit" that is given by the deity, which can be invoked by the Druid. In many Druidic rituals, Awen is invoked by either chanting the word "Awen" or "A-I-O" three times, in order to shift the consciousness of the participants involved. The word "Awen" derives from the Welsh and Cornish terms for "inspiration". A connection with ancestors is important in Druidry. In some recorded examples, Druids regard
5904-493: Is called the Lockean thesis . It states that partial beliefs are basic and that full beliefs are to be conceived as partial beliefs above a certain threshold: for example, every belief above 0.9 is a full belief. Defenders of a primitive notion of full belief, on the other hand, have tried to explain partial beliefs as full beliefs about probabilities. On this view, having a partial belief of degree 0.9 that it will rain tomorrow
Theism - Misplaced Pages Continue
6048-418: Is commonly understood as non-acceptance or outright rejection of theism in the broadest sense of the term (i.e., non-acceptance or rejection of belief in God or gods). Related (but separate) is the claim that the existence of any deity is unknown or unknowable; a stance known as agnosticism . Agnostic theism is a personal belief in one or more deities along with acceptance that the existence or non-existence of
6192-595: Is concerned with delineating the boundary between justified belief and opinion , and involved generally with a theoretical philosophical study of knowledge . The primary problem in epistemology is to understand what is needed to have knowledge. In a notion derived from Plato 's dialogue Theaetetus , where the epistemology of Socrates most clearly departs from that of the sophists , who appear to have defined knowledge as " justified true belief ". The tendency to base knowledge ( episteme ) on common opinion ( doxa ) Socrates dismisses, results from failing to distinguish
6336-845: Is due to Donald Davidson , who uses the thought experiment of radical interpretation , in which the goal is to make sense of the behavior and language of another person from scratch without any knowledge of this person's language. This process involves ascribing beliefs and desires to the speaker. The speaker really has these beliefs if this project can be successful in principle. Interpretationism can be combined with eliminativism and instrumentalism about beliefs. Eliminativists hold that, strictly speaking, there are no beliefs. Instrumentalists agree with eliminativists but add that belief-ascriptions are useful nonetheless. This usefulness can be explained in terms of interpretationism: belief-ascriptions help us in predicting how entities will behave. It has been argued that interpretationism can also be understood in
6480-474: Is internal to that person and are determined entirely by things going on inside this person's head. Externalism, on the other hand, holds that the relations to one's environment also have a role to play in this. The disagreement between atomism, molecularism and holism concerns the question of how the content of one belief depends on the contents of other beliefs held by the same subject. Atomists deny such dependence relations, molecularists restrict them to only
6624-417: Is known about Iron Age druids into their practices. However, as noted by Irish contemporary paganism scholar Jenny Butler, the historical realities of Iron Age religion are often overlooked by Druids in favour of "a highly romanticised version". Many Druids believe that the practices of the Iron Age druids should be revived and modified to meet current needs. In Ireland, some Druids have claimed that because
6768-600: Is manifested as the universe. As such, even astronomical objects are viewed as part of the sole deity. The worship of all gods of every religion has been conceived as a form of pantheism, but such a system is more akin to Omnism . Pantheist belief does not recognize a distinct personal god , anthropomorphic or otherwise, but instead characterizes a broad range of doctrines differing in forms of relationships between reality and divinity. Pantheistic concepts date back thousands of years, and pantheistic elements have been identified in various religious traditions. The term pantheism
6912-510: Is no set dogma or belief system followed by all adherents. Druid perceptions of the divine tend to be complex, and subject to change as the individual Druid learns and grows. Most Druids identify with more than one theological category: 64% of Druids identify as animists ; 49% of Druids identify as soft polytheists , 37% of Druids identify as pantheists , 15% of Druids identify as hard polytheists, 7% of Druids identify as monotheists ; 7% are agnostic ; and 2% identify as atheists . Druidry
7056-527: Is often used when the entity is not real, or its existence is in doubt. Typical examples would include: "he believes in witches and ghosts" or "many children believe in Santa Claus " or "I believe in a deity". Not all usages of belief-in concern the existence of something: some are commendatory in that they express a positive attitude towards their object. It has been suggested that these cases can also be accounted for in terms of belief-that. For example,
7200-412: Is relatively obscure". Margaret Gilbert has offered a related account in terms of the joint commitment of a number of persons as a body to accept a certain belief. According to this account, individuals who together collectively believe something need not personally believe it individually. Gilbert's work on the topic has stimulated a developing literature among philosophers. One question that has arisen
7344-497: Is the Fragments of Ancient Poetry , which was published by James Macpherson between 1760 and 1763. The poems were hugely popular; they were read by many of the notable figures of the period, including Voltaire , Napoleon , and Thomas Jefferson , and the quality of the poetry inspired contemporary comparisons with Homer . Though attributed to the ancient semi-legendary poet Ossian , the works are believed to have been composed by
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#17327801399637488-524: Is the belief in multiple deities , which are usually assembled into a pantheon , along with their own religious sects and rituals . Polytheism was the typical form of religion before the development and spread of the Abrahamic religions of Judaism , Christianity , and Islam , which enforce monotheism. It is well documented throughout history; from prehistory and the earliest records of ancient Egyptian religion and ancient Mesopotamian religion to
7632-828: Is the form of theism that describes God as the Absolute Being. Central insights of classical theistic theology includes emanationism and divine simplicity . Classical theistic traditions can be observed in major religions and philosophies, such as Sufism in Islam , Vaishnavism in Hinduism , Sikhism in general, and Platonism . Monotheism (from Greek μόνος ) is the belief in theology that only one deity exists. Some modern day monotheistic religions include Christianity , Judaism , Islam , Mandaeism , Druze , Baháʼí Faith , Sikhism , Zoroastrianism , Rastafari , some sects of Hinduism , and Eckankar . Polytheism
7776-454: Is the same as having a full belief that the probability of rain tomorrow is 90%. Another approach circumvents the notion of probability altogether and replaces degrees of belief with degrees of disposition to revise one's full belief. From this perspective, both a belief of degree 0.6 and a belief of degree 0.9 may be seen as full beliefs. The difference between them is that the former belief can readily be changed upon receiving new evidence while
7920-561: Is the sole religious or spiritual path for 54% of world Druids; the other 46% practice Druidry concurrently with one or more other religions traditions. The most common, concurrently practiced religious traditions reported among Druids were Buddhism, Christianity, shamanistic traditions, Witchcraft/Wicca, northern traditions, Hinduism, Native American traditions, and Unitarian Universalism. 63% of world Druids identify as either Pagan or Heathen, in addition to identifying as Druids; 37% of Druids reject both of these labels. Some Druids draw upon
8064-428: Is their relation to perceptions and to actions: perceptions usually cause beliefs and beliefs cause actions. For example, seeing that a traffic light has switched to red is usually associated with a belief that the light is red, which in turn causes the driver to bring the car to a halt. Functionalists use such characteristics to define beliefs: whatever is caused by perceptions in a certain way and also causes behavior in
8208-400: Is true, one must not only believe the relevant true proposition but also have justification for doing so. In more formal terms, an agent S {\displaystyle S} knows that a proposition P {\displaystyle P} is true if and only if : That theory of knowledge suffered a significant setback with the discovery of Gettier problems , situations in which
8352-502: Is what this attitude is directed at: its object. Propositional attitudes are directed at propositions. Beliefs are usually distinguished from other propositional attitudes, like desires, by their mode or the way in which they are directed at propositions. The mode of beliefs has a mind-to-world direction of fit : beliefs try to represent the world as it is; they do not, unlike desires, involve an intention to change it. For example, if Rahul believes that it will be sunny today, then he has
8496-456: Is whether and how philosophical accounts of belief in general need to be sensitive to the possibility of collective belief. Collective belief can play a role in social control and serve as a touchstone for identifying and purging heresies , deviancy or political deviationism . As mental representations , beliefs have contents, which is what the belief is about or what it represents. Within philosophy, there are various disputes about how
8640-674: The Carmina Gadelica . Most use some form of Morganwg's Gorsedd Prayer. Some Druids also involve themselves in spell-casting, although this is usually regarded as a secondary feature among their practices. The two most common locations for Druid rituals are indoors, at home, at a home altar or shrine (92% of Druids), or outdoors in a private garden or wild space (90% of Druids). Only 48% of world Druids regularly participate in rituals held in publicly viewable spaces, and 18% attend rituals at public monuments or popular tourist destinations such as Stonehenge or Avebury, however, Druids in
8784-513: The British Druid Order have established their own gorseddau . Unlike the Welsh cultural gorseddau, these Druidic events often allow anyone to perform as a bard if they are inspired to do so. Druids have participated in other musical genres and with more technological instruments, including the blues and rave music, and one British club, Megatripolis, opened with the performance of a Druidic ritual. Among many Druids, there
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#17327801399638928-647: The Catholic Church each consider themselves to be the true heir to Early Christian belief and practice. The antonym of "orthodox" is " heterodox ", and those adhering to orthodoxy often accuse the heterodox of apostasy , schism , or heresy . The Renaissance and later the Enlightenment in Europe exhibited varying degrees of religious tolerance and intolerance towards new and old religious ideas. The philosophes took particular exception to many of
9072-771: The Coldrum Long Barrow in Kent . In Ireland, Druids perform ceremonies at one of the island's best known prehistoric sites, the Hill of Tara . In 2000, scholar of religion Amy Hale noted that Druidic rituals at such prehistoric sites were "increasingly more common". She regarded the stone circle as "a symbol of an imagined Celtic past" shared by both Druids and Gorseth Bards. As well as performing group rituals at sites, Druids also visit them alone to meditate, pray, and provide offerings. Aside from seasonal celebrations, rites of passage can also take place at such sites, such as
9216-704: The Cornish Gorsedd for example has publicly disassociated any links to Paganism. Some Druids identify as Pagan, others as Christian. Some practitioners merge Pagan and Christian elements in their own personal practice, in at least one case identifying as a "Christodruid". Other practitioners adopt additional elements; for instance there are self-described " Zen Druids" and " Hasidic Druids". The Berengia Order of Druids drew upon elements from science fiction television shows like Star Trek and Babylon 5 . The earliest modern Druids aligned themselves with Christianity. The writer William Stukeley regarded
9360-518: The Grand Canyon is in Arizona involves entertaining the representation associated with this belief—for example, by actively thinking about it. But the great majority of our beliefs are not active most of the time: they are merely dispositional. They usually become activated or occurrent when needed or relevant in some way and then fall back into their dispositional state afterwards. For example,
9504-655: The Roman Catholic Church ) still hold to exclusivist dogma while participating in inter-religious organizations. Explicitly inclusivist religions include many that are associated with the New Age movement, as well as modern reinterpretations of Hinduism and Buddhism . The Baháʼí Faith considers it doctrine that there is truth in all faith-systems. Pluralism and syncretism are two closely related concepts. People with pluralist beliefs make no distinction between faith systems, viewing each one as valid within
9648-445: The Sí , which are spirits from Irish folklore, into their Druidic system, and they believe that those spirits are elementals . Those druids have adopted the folkloric belief that such spirits are repelled by iron, and thus they avoid bringing iron to their rituals, so as not to scare those spirits away. Awen is a concept of spirit or divinity in Druidry, which inspires poetry and art, and
9792-452: The founders or leaders , and considers it a matter of faith that the "correct" religion has a monopoly on truth. All three major Abrahamic monotheistic religions have passages in their holy scriptures that attest to the primacy of the scriptural testimony, and indeed monotheism itself is often vouched as an innovation characterized specifically by its explicit rejection of earlier polytheistic faiths. Some exclusivist faiths incorporate
9936-483: The "Celtic spirituality" par excellence . Some practitioners regard Druidry as a form of "native spirituality", and it displays an affinity with folk religions . In defining Druidry as a "native spirituality", some Druids seek to draw elements from other native religions , such as the belief systems of Australian Aboriginal and Native American communities. Practitioners differ in the levels of formality and seriousness that they bring to their adherence. Some groups use
10080-409: The "ancestors" as an amorphous group, rather than as a set of named individuals. The Druidic concept of ancestry is that of "ancestors of the land", rather than the "ancestors of the blood" venerated by some Heathen groups; they perceive a spiritual connection, rather than a genetic one, as being important. Emphasising ancestors gives practitioners a sense of an identity which has been passed down from
10224-522: The "justified true belief" definition. Justified true belief is a definition of knowledge that gained approval during the Enlightenment , "justified" standing in contrast to "revealed". There have been attempts to trace it back to Plato and his dialogues, more specifically in the Theaetetus , and the Meno . The concept of justified true belief states that in order to know that a given proposition
10368-446: The "physical stance" and the "design stance". These stances are contrasted with the intentional stance , which is applied to entities with a more complex behavior by ascribing beliefs and desires to these entities. For example, we can predict that a chess player will move her queen to f7 if we ascribe to her the desire to win the game and the belief that this move will achieve that. The same procedure can also be applied to predicting how
10512-521: The 18th century Romanticist movement in Britain, which glorified the ancient Celtic peoples of the Iron Age , the early neo-Druids aimed to imitate the Iron Age priests who were also known as druids . At the time, little accurate information was known about these ancient priests, and the modern Druidic movement has no direct connection to them, despite contrary claims made by some modern Druids. In
10656-402: The 1990s and early 2000s, the use of a ritual based on the sweat lodge became increasingly popular among some Neo-druids in Ireland and the U.K. Some Druids regard these sweat lodges as "initiatory and regenerative opportunities to rededicate oneself to honouring the Earth and the community of life." This practice is regarded differently by different individuals. Some practitioners regard it as
10800-679: The British Isles are significantly more likely to do so. Public rituals in the British Isles frequently take place at formations in the natural landscape or at prehistoric sites, among them megalithic constructions from the Neolithic and Bronze Age or earthworks from the Iron Age. Druids often believe that, even if the Iron Age druids did not build these monuments, they did use them for their rites. Performing rituals at said sites allows many Druids to feel that they are getting close to their ancestors. Druids regard them as sacred sites in part as recognition that prehistoric societies would have done
10944-399: The Druidic community, it is often believed that bards should be divinely inspired in producing their work. Storytelling is important within Druidry, with stories often following themes from the literary traditions of Celtic nations and Arthurian legend. Musical performances typically draw from the folk traditions of Ireland , Scotland , England , France , and Brittany . Groups like
11088-428: The Druids and consumed. This may be followed by a period of meditation among those assembled. A form of earth energy is then visualised, with participants believing that it is sent for a designated healing purpose. This may be designed to help the victims of a particular event, such as a war or an epidemic, or it might be directed to assist individuals known to the group who are ill or requiring emotional support. After
11232-441: The Earth is bigger than Venus. Such cases are most naturally analyzed in terms of partial beliefs involving degrees of belief, so-called credences . The higher the degree of a belief, the more certain the believer is that the believed proposition is true. This is usually formalized by numbers between 0 and 1: a degree of 1 represents an absolutely certain belief, a belief of 0 corresponds to an absolutely certain disbelief and all
11376-661: The Iron Age and there is no evidence that it was ever used by Iron Age druids, many modern Druids believe that their ancient namesakes did indeed use it for their ceremonies. Druids also use many other prehistoric sites as spaces for their rituals, including stone circles like that at Avebury in Wiltshire. Some Druids have erected their own, modern stone circles in which to perform their ceremonies. Druidic practices have also taken place at Early Neolithic chambered long barrows such as Wayland's Smithy in Oxfordshire , and
11520-415: The Iron Age druids as monotheist proto-Christians who worshipped the Christian god. In a similar vein, some modern Druids believe that ancient druidic wisdom was preserved through a distinct Celtic Christianity . Over the course of the twentieth century, and particularly since the early 1960s, Druidry increasingly came to be associated with the modern pagan movement. Druidic beliefs vary widely, and there
11664-588: The Iron Age druids. By 2020, modern Druidry had spread to 34 nations, across 6 continents, and had taken root in 17 diverse biomes. The importance that modern Druids attributed to Celtic language and culture, circa 2020, varied depending upon the physical and cultural environments in which the individual Druid lived. By 2020, roughly 92% of world Druids were living outside the British Isles . Based on 2011–2013 census data from Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland, and 2008 ARIS Report data from
11808-1041: The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (including 57% of world Druids), Ár nDraíocht Féin (12%), the Ancient Order of Druids in America (8%), the British Druid Order (6%), The Druid Network (4%), the New Order of Druids (2%), each of which offers either Druidry curriculum materials or online reference materials about how to practice contemporary Druidry. Survey results indicated that 25% of world Druids belong to multiple Druid groups; 57% belong to just one group, and 18% are unaffiliated, solitary practitioners. Despite these Druid group affiliations, 92% of world Druids report that most of their devotional practices and rituals are celebrated alone, as solitary practitioners. Druidic groups are usually known as groves . Such
11952-475: The United States, the population of Druids residing in anglophone nations was estimated at 59,299. The current global population of Druids is likely to significantly exceed this number, as many countries with resident Druids do not allow for the existence of Druidry within their census instruments. Pagan faith surveys are also likely to undercount Druids, as only 63% of world Druids identify with either of
12096-414: The above conditions were seemingly met but where many philosophers deny that anything is known. Robert Nozick suggested a clarification of "justification" which he believed eliminates the problem: the justification has to be such that were the justification false, the knowledge would be false. Bernecker and Dretske (2000) argue that "no epistemologist since Gettier has seriously and successfully defended
12240-473: The anthropologist Thorsten Gieser, Druidic rituals are best seen not as a set of formalised actions but as "a stance, an attitude, a particular mode of experience and perception which gives rise to a feeling of being-in-the-world, of being part of Nature." The practices of modern Druids typically take place outside, in the daylight, in what is described as "the eye of the sun", meaning around midday. In some cases, they instead perform their rites indoors, or during
12384-533: The attitude. This view contrasts with functionalism , which defines beliefs not in terms of the internal constitution of the mind but in terms of the function or the causal role played by beliefs. According to dispositionalism , beliefs are identified with dispositions to behave in certain ways. This view can be seen as a form of functionalism, defining beliefs in terms of the behavior they tend to cause. Interpretationism constitutes another conception, which has gained popularity in contemporary philosophy. It holds that
12528-417: The belief that 57 is greater than 14 was probably dispositional to the reader before reading this sentence, has become occurrent while reading it and may soon become dispositional again as the mind focuses elsewhere. The distinction between occurrent and dispositional beliefs is sometimes identified with the distinction between conscious and unconscious beliefs. But it has been argued that, despite overlapping,
12672-545: The beliefs of an entity are in some sense dependent on or relative to someone's interpretation of this entity. Representationalism tends to be associated with mind-body-dualism. Naturalist considerations against this dualism are among the motivations for choosing one of the alternative conceptions. Representationalism characterizes beliefs in terms of mental representations . Representations are usually defined as objects with semantic properties —like having content, referring to something, or being true or false. Beliefs form
12816-421: The beliefs of an entity are in some sense dependent on, or relative to, someone's interpretation of this entity. Daniel Dennett is an important defender of such a position. He holds that we ascribe beliefs to entities in order to predict how they will behave. Entities with simple behavioral patterns can be described using physical laws or in terms of their function. Dennett refers to these forms of explanation as
12960-479: The categories Pagan or Heathen . In addition, 74% of world Druids report having significant privacy and safety concerns, due to discrimination and persecution within their local communities, and so are likely to be underreported in the census data that does exist. While modern Druidry has spread rapidly across the globe, Druids do not proselytize, and 74% of world Druids actively work to keep their spiritual practices private. Modern Druidry derives its name from
13104-420: The causal role characteristic to it. As an analogy, a hard drive is defined in a functionalist manner: it performs the function of storing and retrieving digital data. This function can be realized in many different ways: being made of plastic or steel, or using magnetism or laser. Functionalists hold that something similar is true for beliefs (or mental states in general). Among the roles relevant to beliefs
13248-463: The celtic magico-religious specialists of Iron Age Western Europe who were known as druids . There is no real historical continuity between the druids of Iron Age Europe and modern Druids. However, some Druids nevertheless regard modern Druidry as a genuine continuation of the practices of the Iron Age druids. The 18th-century figure Iolo Morganwg fabricated what he claimed were early Welsh literary sources and traditions that supposedly dated to
13392-453: The content of our beliefs entirely determined by our mental states, or do the relevant facts have any bearing on our beliefs (e.g. if I believe that I'm holding a glass of water, is the non-mental fact that water is H 2 O part of the content of that belief)?", "How fine-grained or coarse-grained are our beliefs?", and "Must it be possible for a belief to be expressible in language, or are there non-linguistic beliefs?" Various conceptions of
13536-411: The contents of beliefs are to be understood. Holists and molecularists hold that the content of one particular belief depends on or is determined by other beliefs belonging to the same subject, which is denied by atomists. The question of dependence or determination also plays a central role in the internalism-externalism- debate. Internalism states that the contents of someone's beliefs depend only on what
13680-544: The context of Early Christianity , the term "orthodoxy" relates to religious belief that closely follows the edicts, apologies , and hermeneutics of a prevailing religious authority. In the case of Early Christianity, this authority was the communion of bishops, and is often referred to by the term " Magisterium ". The term orthodox was applied almost as an epithet to a group of Jewish believers who held to pre-Enlightenment understanding of Judaism—now known as Orthodox Judaism . The Eastern Orthodox Church of Christianity and
13824-410: The corresponding ascriptions concerns the contributions singular terms like names and other referential devices make to the semantic properties of the belief or its ascription. In regular contexts, the truth-value of a sentence does not change upon substitution of co-referring terms. For example, since the names "Superman" and "Clark Kent" refer to the same person, we can replace one with the other in
13968-495: The deity or deities is fundamentally unknowable. The term theism derives from the Greek θεός ( theós ) or theoi meaning 'god' or 'gods'. The term theism was first used by Ralph Cudworth (1617–1688). In Cudworth's definition, they are "strictly and properly called Theists, who affirm that a perfectly conscious understanding being, or mind, existing of itself from eternity, was the cause of all other things". Classical theism
14112-416: The differing doctrines and practices espoused by other religions or by other religious denominations in a variety of ways. People with exclusivist beliefs typically explain other beliefs either as in error, or as corruptions or counterfeits of the true faith . This approach is a fairly consistent feature among smaller new religious movements that often rely on doctrine that claims a unique revelation by
14256-402: The early 20th century, merged with contemporary movements such as the physical culture movement and naturism . Since the 1980s, some modern druid groups have adopted similar methodologies to those of Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism in an effort to create a more historically accurate practice. However, there is still controversy over how much resemblance modern Druidism may or may not have to
14400-498: The end of the ceremony, the Druids may remain together to take part in a meal, or visit a nearby pub . There is no specific dress code for ritual within the Druidic movement; some participants wear ordinary clothes, others wear robes. Some groups favour earth-coloured robes, believing that this links them to the natural world and that it aids them in traveling unnoticed when going about at night. Celtic languages are often employed during ceremonies, as are quotations and material from
14544-415: The essential features of beliefs have been proposed, but there is no consensus as to which is the right one. Representationalism is the traditionally dominant position. Its most popular version maintains that attitudes toward representations, which are typically associated with propositions, are mental attitudes that constitute beliefs. These attitudes are part of the internal constitution of the mind holding
14688-493: The exclusivist tendencies within a religion. People with inclusivist beliefs recognize some truth in all faith systems , highlighting agreements and minimizing differences. This attitude is sometimes associated with Interfaith dialogue or with the Christian Ecumenical movement, though in principle such attempts at pluralism are not necessarily inclusivist and many actors in such interactions (for example,
14832-510: The existence of gods outside their own pantheon altogether . Polytheism is further divided according to how the individual deities are regarded: Pantheism is the belief that reality , the universe and the cosmos are identical to divinity and a supreme being or entity. Pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity in and of itself, the deity is understood as still expanding, creating, and eternal, or that all things compose an all-encompassing, immanent god or goddess that
14976-528: The existence, characteristics and worship of a deity or deities, to the idea of divine intervention in the universe and in human life , or to the deontological explanations for the values and practices centered on the teachings of a spiritual leader or community . In contrast to other belief systems , religious beliefs are usually codified . A popular view holds that different religions each have identifiable and exclusive sets of beliefs or creeds , but surveys of religious belief have often found that
15120-434: The expression and practice of modern Druidry, a core set of spiritual and devotional practices may be observed, including: meditation; prayer/conversation with deities and spirits; the use of extra-sensory methods of seeking wisdom and guidance; the use of nature-based spiritual frameworks to structure devotional practices and rituals; and a regular practice of nature connection and environmental stewardship work. Arising from
15264-596: The faith. Vedanta , the most dominant school of Hinduism, offers a combination of monotheism and polytheism, holding that Brahman is the sole ultimate reality of the universe, yet unity with it can be reached by worshipping multiple Devas and Devies. A major division in modern polytheistic practices is between so-called soft polytheism and hard polytheism. "Soft" polytheism is the belief that different gods may be psychological archetypes , personifications of natural forces, or fundamentally one deity in different cultural contexts (e.g., Odin , Zeus , and Indra all being
15408-495: The general contribution of one particular belief for any possible situation. For example, one may decide not to affirm that there is a pie in the pantry when asked because one wants to keep it secret. Or one might not eat the pie despite being hungry, because one also believes that it is poisoned. Due to this complexity, we are unable to define even a belief as simple as this one in terms of the behavioral dispositions for which it could be responsible. According to interpretationism,
15552-449: The idea that these deities predate Christianity. These deities are usually regarded as being immanent rather than transcendent. Some practitioners say that the real existence of these deities is less important to them than the impact that the belief therein has upon their lives. A central prayer in modern Druidic traditions is " The Druid's Prayer ", which was written in the 18th century by Druid Iolo Morganwg and originally addressed to
15696-494: The island was never conquered by the Roman Empire , the Iron Age druids survived here and their teachings were passed down hereditarily until modern times, at which modern Druids can reclaim them. Some Druids claim that they can channel information about the Iron Age druids. Druidry has been described as a religion, a new religious movement , a "spiritual movement", and as a nature religion . It has been described as
15840-571: The late 18th century, modern Druids developed fraternal organizations modeled on Freemasonry that employed the romantic figure of the British Druids and Bards as symbols of the indigenous spirituality of Prehistoric Britain . Some of these groups were purely fraternal and cultural, such as the oldest one that remains, the Ancient Order of Druids founded in 1781, creating traditions from the national imagination of Britain. Others, in
15984-411: The latter is more stable. Traditionally, philosophers have mainly focused in their inquiries concerning belief on the notion of belief-that . Belief-that can be characterized as a propositional attitude to a claim which is either true or false. Belief-in , on the other hand, is more closely related to notions like trust or faith in that it refers usually to an attitude to persons. Belief-in plays
16128-410: The laws of probability. This includes both synchronic laws about what one should believe at any moment and diachronic laws about how one should revise one's beliefs upon receiving new evidence. The central question in the dispute between full and partial beliefs is whether these two types are really distinct types or whether one type can be explained in terms of the other. One answer to this question
16272-681: The legends surrounding King Arthur . One of the clearest links between Arthuriana and Druidry is through the Loyal Arthurian Warband, a Druidic group in Britain that employs Arthurian symbolism as part of its environmental campaigns. Neo-Druidry has been described as a nature-venerating movement. Neo-druids conceive of the natural world as being imbued with spirit, and thus regard it as being alive and dynamic. 89% of world Druids practice nature-connection, along with some form of environmental stewardship work. Nature-connection involves spending time alone in nature, while maintaining
16416-491: The level of the theory as a whole. Another motivation is due to considerations of the nature of learning: it is often not possible to understand one concept, like force in Newtonian physics , without understanding other concepts, like mass or kinetic energy . One problem for holism is that genuine disagreements seem to be impossible or very rare: disputants would usually talk past each other since they never share exactly
16560-402: The love of all existences; And in the love of all existences, the love of God. God and all goodness." Iolo Morganwg, The Gorsedd Prayer. By the end of the 19th century, Druidry was described as a "monotheistic philosophical tradition". Druidry is now often described as polytheistic , although there is no set pantheon of deities to which all Druids adhere. Emphasis is placed upon
16704-472: The mind. A more holistic alternative to the "language of thought hypothesis" is the map-conception , which uses an analogy of maps to elucidate the nature of beliefs. According to this view, the belief system of a mind should be conceived of not as a set of many individual sentences but as a map encoding the information contained in these sentences. For example, the fact that Brussels is halfway between Paris and Amsterdam can be expressed both linguistically as
16848-556: The more fantastical claims of religions and directly challenged religious authority and the prevailing beliefs associated with the established churches. In response to the liberalizing political and social movements, some religious groups attempted to integrate Enlightenment ideals of rationality, equality, and individual liberty into their belief systems, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Reform Judaism and Liberal Christianity offer two examples of such religious associations. Adherents of particular religions deal with
16992-409: The natural environment from damage. Many Druids are also involved in environmental activism, acting to protect areas of the natural landscape that are under threat from development or pollution. Druids are generally critical of mainstream society, regarding it as being "governed by consumerism, environmental exploitation, and the supremacy of technology". In contrast to this, Druids seek to establish
17136-572: The natural world, and that these sources reveal the existence of a supreme being as creator. Autotheism is the viewpoint that divinity —whether external or not—is inherently "within oneself" and that one has the ability to become godlike. Within the context of subjectivism, autotheism can refer to the belief that one's self is a deity. Advaita Hindus use the phrase " aham Brahmāsmi ", or "I am Brahman ", to describe their relation to divinity. The Latter-day Saint doctrine of exaltation , by which humans attain godhood after death, could be viewed as
17280-423: The night. Druidic rituals usually reflect on the time of year and the changing of the seasons. The most common form of ritual used for seasonal celebrations is a solitary nature ramble to observe and connect with nature, combined with a personal meditation on the meaning of the season at hand. When larger, group rituals are organized among Druids, the rituals tend to be more elaborate and formally structured, with
17424-456: The numbers in between correspond to intermediate degrees of certainty. In the Bayesian approach , these degrees are interpreted as subjective probabilities : e.g. a belief of degree 0.9 that it will rain tomorrow means that the agent thinks that the probability of rain tomorrow is 90%. Bayesianism uses this relation between beliefs and probability to define the norms of rationality in terms of
17568-595: The official doctrine and descriptions of the beliefs offered by religious authorities do not always agree with the privately held beliefs of those who identify as members of a particular religion. For a broad classification of the kinds of religious belief, see below. First self-applied as a term to the conservative doctrine outlined by anti-modernist Protestants in the United States, "fundamentalism" in religious terms denotes strict adherence to an interpretation of scriptures that are generally associated with theologically conservative positions or traditional understandings of
17712-574: The origin of human beliefs. In the context of Ancient Greek thought , three related concepts were identified regarding the concept of belief: pistis , doxa , and dogma . Simplified, Pistis refers to " trust " and "confidence," doxa refers to " opinion " and "acceptance," and dogma refers to the positions of a philosopher or of a philosophical school such as Stoicism . Beliefs can be categorized into various types depending on their ontological status, their degree, their object or their semantic properties. Having an occurrent belief that
17856-598: The past over the course of many centuries. Ancestor-veneration leads many neo-druids to object to the archaeological excavation of human remains and their subsequent display in museums. Many neo-druids have organized campaigns for their reburial . For example, in 2006, a neo-Druid called Paul Davies requested that the Alexander Keiller Museum in Avebury , Wiltshire rebury their human remains, and he said that storing and displaying those human remains
18000-481: The prehistoric druids. Gorsedd , one of the 18th century traditions that were founded by Morganwg, became part of the National Eisteddfod of Wales festival. The concerns of modern Druidry, which include healing the planet, and seeking connections with the natural world, are likely very different from those of the Iron Age societies in which the original druids lived. Another 18th-century fabrication
18144-915: The prescribed medicine is not working. At that point, the patient has a great deal of flexibility in choosing what beliefs to keep or reject: the patient could believe that the doctor is incompetent, that the doctor's assistants made a mistake, that the patient's own body is unique in some unexpected way, that Western medicine is ineffective, or even that Western science is entirely unable to discover truths about ailments. This insight has relevance for inquisitors , missionaries , agitprop groups and thought-police . The British philosopher Stephen Law has described some belief systems (including belief in homeopathy , psychic powers , and alien abduction ) as "claptrap" and says that such belief-systems can "draw people in and hold them captive so they become willing slaves of claptrap ... if you get sucked in, it can be extremely difficult to think your way clear again". Religion
18288-773: The religions prevalent during Classical antiquity , such as ancient Greek religion and ancient Roman religion , and in ethnic religions such as Germanic , Slavic , and Baltic paganism and Native American religions . Notable polytheistic religions practiced today include Taoism , Shenism or Chinese folk religion , Japanese Shinto , Santería , most traditional African religions , and various neopagan faiths such as Wicca , Druidry , Romuva , and Hellenism . Hinduism , while popularly held as polytheistic, cannot be exclusively categorised as such as some Hindus consider themselves to be pantheists and others consider themselves to be monotheists. Both are compatible with Hindu texts since there exists no consensus of standardisation in
18432-542: The right perceptions; for example, to believe that it is raining given a perception of rain. Without this perception, there is still a disposition to believe but no actual dispositional belief. On a dispositionalist conception of belief, there are no occurrent beliefs, since all beliefs are defined in terms of dispositions. An important dispute in formal epistemology concerns the question of whether beliefs should be conceptualized as full beliefs or as partial beliefs. Full beliefs are all-or-nothing attitudes: either one has
18576-525: The rule and is able to add justification ( logos : reasonable and necessarily plausible assertions/evidence/guidance) to it. A belief can be based fully or partially on intuition . Plato has been credited for the justified true belief theory of knowledge, even though Plato in the Theaetetus elegantly dismisses it, and even posits this argument of Socrates as a cause for his death penalty. The epistemologists, Gettier and Goldman , have questioned
18720-430: The same god as interpreted by Germanic, Greek, and Indic peoples, respectively)—known as omnitheism . In this way, gods may be interchangeable for one another across cultures. "Hard" polytheism is the belief that gods are distinct, separate, real divine beings rather than psychological archetypes or personifications of natural forces. Hard polytheists reject the idea that "all gods are one essential god" and may also reject
18864-424: The same molecular composition. So it seems necessary to include external factors in order to explain the difference. One problem with this position is that this difference in content does not bring any causal difference with it: the two readers act in exactly the same way. This casts doubt on the thesis that there is any genuine difference in need of explanation between the contents of the two beliefs. Epistemology
19008-507: The same web of beliefs needed to determine the content of the source of the disagreement. Internalism and externalism disagree about whether the contents of our beliefs are determined only by what's happening in our head or also by other factors. Internalists deny such a dependence on external factors. They hold that a person and a molecule-by-molecule copy would have exactly the same beliefs. Hilary Putnam objects to this position by way of his twin Earth thought experiment . He imagines
19152-623: The same. Druids in various parts of Ireland and Britain have reported such sites being home to a "Spirit of the Place" residing there. Many Druids also believe that such sites are centres of earth energy and lie along ley lines in the landscape. These are ideas that have been adopted from Earth mysteries writers like John Michell . In the popular imagination, Druids are closely linked with Stonehenge —a Neolithic and Bronze Age site in Wiltshire , southern England. Although Stonehenge predates
19296-474: The sentence "Superman is strong" without changing its truth-value; this issue is more complicated in case of belief ascriptions. For example, Lois believes that Superman is strong but she does not believe that Clark Kent is strong. This difficulty arises due to the fact that she does not know that the two names refer to the same entity. Beliefs or belief ascriptions for which this substitution does not generally work are de dicto , otherwise, they are de re . In
19440-404: The tendency to revise one's belief upon receiving new evidence that an existing belief is false. Upon hearing a forecast of bad weather, Rahul is likely to change his mental attitude but Sofía is not. There are different ways of conceiving how mental representations are realized in the mind. One form of this is the language of thought hypothesis , which claims that mental representations have
19584-495: The term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false . To believe something is to take it to be true; for instance, to believe that snow is white is comparable to accepting the truth of the proposition "snow is white". However, holding a belief does not require active introspection . For example, few individuals carefully consider whether or not the sun will rise tomorrow, simply assuming that it will. Moreover, beliefs need not be occurrent (e.g.
19728-407: The text and are distrustful of innovative readings, new revelation, or alternative interpretations. Religious fundamentalism has been identified in the media as being associated with fanatical or zealous political movements around the world that have used a strict adherence to a particular religious doctrine as a means to establish political identity and to enforce societal norms. First used in
19872-488: The three degrees found in British Traditional Wicca . Other groups eschew any division into bard, ovate, and druid. OBOD primarily educates its members in its form of Druidry through a correspondence course. Every solitary Druid and Druidic grove conducts its rituals and ceremonies in a unique way. Druidic rituals are designed to align their participants with the spirit imbuing nature. According to
20016-468: The traditional view." On the other hand, Paul Boghossian argues that the justified true belief account is the "standard, widely accepted" definition of knowledge. A belief system comprises a set of mutually supportive beliefs. The beliefs of any such system can be religious , philosophical , political , ideological , or a combination of these. The British philosopher Jonathan Glover , following Meadows (2008), says that beliefs are always part of
20160-455: The two distinctions do not match. The reason for this is that beliefs can shape one's behaviour and be involved in one's reasoning even if the subject is not conscious of them. Such beliefs are cases of unconscious occurrent mental states. On this view, being occurrent corresponds to being active, either consciously or unconsciously. A dispositional belief is not the same as a disposition to believe. We have various dispositions to believe given
20304-488: The viability of the belief concept stems from philosophical analysis. The concept of belief presumes a subject (the believer) and an object of belief (the proposition). Like other propositional attitudes , belief implies the existence of mental states and intentionality , both of which are hotly debated topics in the philosophy of mind , whose foundations and relation to brain states are still controversial. Druidry (modern) Druidry , sometimes termed Druidism ,
20448-805: The word Druid for both male and female practitioners, eschewing the term Druidess for female followers. Following terms devised by the Druid Philip Carr-Gomm , a distinction has been drawn between "cultural" Druids, who adopt the term as part of their Welsh and Cornish cultural activities, and "esoteric" Druids who pursue the movement as a religion. The scholar of religion Marion Bowman suggested "believing" as an alternative term to "esoteric". There are also individuals who cross these two categories, involving themselves in cultural Druidic events while also holding to modern Pagan beliefs. Some cultural Druids nevertheless go to efforts to disassociate themselves from their esoteric and Pagan counterpart;
20592-451: Was "immoral and disrespectful". Criticism of such demands has come from the archaeological community, with statements like "no single modern ethnic group or cult should be allowed to appropriate our ancestors for their own agendas. It is for the international scientific community to curate such remains." The World Druidry Survey of 2018–2020 identified 147 active Druid groups internationally. The six largest and most influential of which were
20736-734: Was coined by mathematician Joseph Raphson in 1697, and since then has been used to describe the beliefs of a variety of individuals and organizations. Pantheism was popularized in Western culture as a theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza —in particular, his book Ethics . A pantheistic stance was also expressed by the 16th-century by philosopher and cosmologist Giordano Bruno . Deism typically rejects supernatural events (such as prophecies, miracles, and divine revelations) prominent in organized religion. Instead, deism holds that religious beliefs must be founded on human reason and observed features of
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