مجله پژوهش های علم و دین
سال چهارم شماره 1 (بهار و تابستان 1392)

Hiduism is the religion of the majority of Indians. However، there is a controversy among the orientalists and Indian scholars concerning the nature and origin of Hinduism. It surely possesses authentic sources such as Upanishads، which is the main source of Indian philosophical and mystical schools. In Upanishads، knowledge is considered to be the only path of salvation. Knowledge here refers to the knowledge of ultimate reality، namely Atman and Brahman which can be described only through negative attributes. Atman and Brahman are two sides of the same reality. There is difference of views among Shankara and Ramanuja about this issue.

This paper studies deviant groups and the reasons for their emergence in the first five chapters of the Holy Qur’an. The study is carried out with a sociological approach to find useful preventive ways of deviancy. The paper also compares the viewpoints of Iranian and international sociologists about the cause of deviation in the Holy Qur’an. This is a descriptive and applied research، in which the sample consists of the first five chapters of the Holy Qur’an، and the data is gathered through a library research. The results show that 27. 78 % of the verses are specified to deviants، and the Holy Qur’an considers non-monotheistic beliefs and and selection of diabolic life as the basic cause of deviance. As the consequences of deviancy in the Qur’an are as same as the outcomes of deviancy in modern world، deviation could be prevented by knowing basic causes of deviance and involving religion in all dimensions of social life in micro، middle and macro layers. All these factors justify the referral to the Holy Qur’an.

Today، life style، consumption and goods are effective and influential parameters on the sociology of knowledge. Religious knowledge and religious involvement or religiosity are no exception to the rule، because they are also placed in area of the sociology of knowledge based on Scheler''s categorization. Thus، the present paper investigates the relationship between lifestyle and religiosity through survey and questionnaire. The sample consists of 400 people، who are studied via explorative factor analysis in order to identify forms and types of lifestyle and religiosity. Then the hypotheses of this study are analyzed by chi-square، Cramer''s test، ANOVA، Pierson and path analysis. The results indicate that there is relationship between the type of lifestyle and type of religiosity، and there is no relationship between the type of lifestyle and the level of religiosity. The results show that different lifestyles lead to multiple religious behaviors and formation of special patterns in religiosity

Today Descartes is known wrongly as a secular philosopher. In this article، we are going to show that God has a good place in Descartes philosophy and makes the basis of his system. God in Descartes'' philosophical system is not only the basis of metaphysics but also the basis of physics and ethics. God''s knowledge and will are sources of every reality، sources of whatever exists and sources of our knowledge of whatever exists. God is not only the source of physics but also the source of ethical good. The natural light of wisdom in us not only enables us to understand the mathematical structure of the world، but also empowers us to understand the ethical values.

In his ontological argument from the fifth Meditation، Descartes demonstrates God''s existence based his rationalistic method and theory of innate ideas. He believes we cannot conceive that God has all perfections while excluding existence from him. God، as our innate ideas denotes it، is the infinite perfection، and such essence is necessarily existent. Although، for Descartes، there is no real distinction between existence and essence in beings، and he accepts we can infer existence from essence، he believes that the kind of existence belonging to every essence is different from the other. This means we can infer Contingent Being from finite essence and Necessary Being (God) from the supreme and infinite essence.

One of the most genuine ideas of Jaspers is his peculiar doctrine on transcendence. The present article deals with the place of this doctrine in Jaspers'' philosophy. According to him، both scientific and metaphysic types of knowledge are limited. But human beings can be led to something beyond their intellect، on which their existence depends. This is the transcendence which is the final realm of being. The present article claims that we can distinguish two completely different meanings of transcendence. Each of them can be considered as a complementary to the other: the transcendence as a name and the transcendence as an action.

The present research studies three samples of asserted conflicts between the Qur’an and science. Assuming the earth to be motionless، falling hails from mountains in the sky and pertaining science about fetus to God are among instances referred by claimants of conflict between the Qur’an and science such as Kāmil Najjār in the book “Qirā’at Munhajjīah lil-Islam”. The present article attempts to reveal the flaws in the said claims by analyzing the verses related to these three topics and providing reasons by empirical knowledge. So، the paper states that it cannot be inferred from the lack of explicit referral to the movement that the Qur’an assumes it to be motionless. Also attribution of qarār (fixity) to the earth is solely evidence of common immovability. Similarly، denial of zawāl (destruction) for arz (Earth) in Qur’an describes protection of the earth from the movement that leads to transformation and destruction، not preserving it from absolute movement. As regards the falling hail from the mountains، the comment jibāl fi ha men barad (mountains containing ice in them) refers to the mountains of ice clouds in the sky. Also، according to meteorology، cold and ice clouds are the origin of various rainfalls. As for the science about the fetus، the phrase wa ya’lam mā fel arhām ([He] knows what is in the wombs of mothers) solely considers the comprehensive and absolute knowledge of embryology to be excusive to God. This is not incompatible with the fact that humans know about some characteristics of the fetus.