Religion : Dogmatism ::

Education : Liberation

Name: Anirban Kar

Roll No: EPGP-12A-022
Centre : Kolkata Salt Lake
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 Religion : Dogmatism
“What is Religion?”
✓ A set of beliefs in an ultimate reality
✓ A set of practices used to express those beliefs
✓ It is a key component of culture
✓ Has it’s own special celebration and worship styles
✓ Have their own sacred text, symbols and sites
✓ All of these aspects help unite followers regardless of where in the world
they live.

“Origin of Religion?”
✓ Religion provides a socially shared set of cognitions which provide an
interpretation of reality, a definition of self and a guide to life.
✓ Religion is a cultural product, a phenomenon of psychological projection.
✓ Religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful,
pervasive and long lasting moods and motivations in men by
formulating conception of a general order of existence and clothing
these conceptions with such a aura of factuality that the moods and
motivations seem uniquely realistic. 2
 Religion : Dogmatism
“Why Religion is so powerful?” & “What is the necessity of God?“

✓ Religions has answer for everything.

✓ Religion makes you feel guilty.
✓ Religion makes you feel special.
✓ Religion capitalizes on division.
✓ Religion makes morality really simple.
✓ Religion claims ownership of spiritual bliss.
✓ Religion makes you think you can control the uncontrollable.

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 Religion : Dogmatism
“WhyReligion can inspire both most savage and most noble
human actions?”
There’s something very strange about
religion. There have been recent acts of
terrorism, allegedly carried out in the name of
religion. As per the the Global Terrorism
index, that religion has now become the main
motive for terrorist acts. The report showed
that the number of deaths due to terrorism
increased by 60 percent last year.
Additionally, it found that the number of
annual deaths due to terrorist acts has
increased five times since 2003.

However, we also know that some of the most virtuous and noble human acts
are carried out in the name of religion. Many of the greatest moral reformers
and activists in history were inspired by the principles of their religions, such
as Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa. 4
 Religion : Dogmatism
Dogmatic Religion
✓ Dogmatically religious people think they’re
right and everyone else wrong.
✓ Religion isn’t about self-development or self
experiencing, but about rigid beliefs and
following the rules laid by religious
authorities.
✓ Defending their beliefs against them who
questions them.
✓ Try to impose their beliefs to others by any
means.
✓ Dogmatic religion stems from a psychological
need for a group identity and belonging.
✓ Dogmatically religious people are mostly
vulnerable & insecure.
DOGMATISM → No Theory Change
If an accepted theory is taken as a final truth, it will always remain accepted.
No New theory on the subject can ever become accepted.
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 Religion : Dogmatism
“Religions can survive without Dogmatism ?”

A good religion is one which foresees the future and sets rules accordingly or
which gets modified accordingly. Only those religions find their existence
unhampered with time. We must remember that the rules are to be
modified such a way that people should not understand the change. "People
do not hate change but hate to be changed".

I do not wish to get into the question "does God actually exists?" For no one
can either prove or disprove the existence. It all depends on one's belief and
one's belief is his utmost proof. Religion is possibly necessary for the
existence of mankind to not to get corrupted and chaotic. And Dogma is it’s
side effect. If you want to heal a disease, you need to take the medicine even
though its bitter or having side effects.

The bottom line, organised religion would not exist, or at least would not
survive, without dogma. God does not deploy any gatekeepers for truth, he
gives the responsibility to everyone. We have to study, learn, and ask what
that truth is, otherwise we are just the blind being led by the blind. 6
 The Corporate Dogma – few examples
Case1 : At Yahoo! when CEO Marissa Mayer took the helm in 2012, have
pulled their formerly-flexible-workforces back into the office. With the world
getting more connected than ever, why would a company tell employees "You
may no longer work from home — come back and work in the office?”

Case2: In 2017, Barclays Plc, a British multinational bank installed sensors that
track how often bankers are at their workstations. These sensors are tracking
devices called OccupEye, which use heat and motion sensors to record how
long employees are spending at their workstations.

Case3: Amazon monitored its employees using GPS tags while they were
inside the warehouse. If any employee was found to breach any of the
company's rules, such as talking to colleagues or leaving work early, he could
be dismissed on a ‘three strikes, and you are out' basis.

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 Education : Liberation
“What is Liberation in Education ?”

Most of the education that we know of today

is NOT education as “the practice of
freedom”, which is a form of teaching and
consequent learning that is engaging and
exciting for both teachers and students alike.

✓ In “practice of freedom,” both parties are

equal players in contributing and sharing
in the learning experience.
✓ Students are not just taught information
that they are expected to commit to
memory and recall when asked;
✓ Students learn to think critically in a non-conformist, unconfined way.
✓ Teachers who educate as a “practice of freedom” teach “not merely to
share information but to share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of
students”.
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 Education : Liberation

In a Liberating education system,

✓ Students able to to distinguish between what is true and what is false, and it
involves a number of different analytical perspectives: the scientific, the
artistic, the humanistic, the quantitative, the qualitative, etc.
✓ students learn that to measure something indicates it is valued, but
understand that not everything of value can be measured.
✓ It enables intellectual growth of students. Purpose is not just to teach one
how to earn a living, but also how to live.
✓ It offers instruction and experience in both technique and vision—the
ultimate combination in education.
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 Education : Liberation
“Three key aspects of Liberation through Education ?”

a. Contemporary refection
✓ reflect on contemporary issues and ask what lessons we have learned.
✓ survey of the past several years showed that too many people, even those
in sophisticated roles, lacked knowledge of history, lacked context.

b. Imagination
✓ the exercise of the imagination permits us to see patterns, to see where
they diverge and when they converge and help us to take right decisions.
✓ requires us to listen, to understand, to tolerate the silence, and to
comprehend before we respond.

c. Compassion
✓ the ability to listen, truly hear, and comprehend another person’s
perspective and also to be fair.

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 Education : Liberation
“An ideal curricular approach”

✓ A general education curriculum organized around above mentioned three

clusters would require extensive reading, writing, listening, and oral
presentations as well as the use of technology.
✓ Such a program would acknowledge that, while we cannot teach
everything, we can prepare students to learn almost anything.
✓ Moreover, the three clusters would be complemented by cocurricular
experiences—clubs, organizations, teams, internships, volunteer activities,
service learning—that provide students with opportunities to apply their
learning, learn from additional sources, increase their knowledge, develop
their skills and abilities, and refine a set of values.

This, I believe, is the way we should be preparing students for the world.

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Thank You

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