Religious Studies Final Exam
Since religious truth is simply a matter of opinion, considering the truth-claims of any given religion may
be interesting, but it is not very helpful ANS:False
To raise the question of the truth-claims of religion means that I must explore the nature of truth itself
ANS:True
Your textbook suggests that in the "popular mindset" one can find at least two camps regarding the
nature of truth and truth-claims, especially with regard to religion truth. These are kind of opposite ends
of a continuum or like polar opposites. Which one of the following is NOT one of these positions?
ANS:all truth including religious truth, has some objective source, but the way it is understood and
communicated is usually affected by the perspective of the ones making the claim
Your author was quick to comment that neither of the two general positions or "camps" discussed in
item #3 above adequately express the complexity of establishing truth-claims ANS:True
Religious truth-claims involve the assumptions, presuppositions, and the interpretations of people
necessarily seeing "the truth" through different "lenses." Therefore religious truth-claims have no
objective validity whatsoever ANS:False
The best way to understand a religion is to boil it down to a few basic ideas so as to be able to compare
it with other religions ANS:False
Religions involve many aspects: ritual practices, moral structures, goals, and means of personal
development as well as beliefs or "truth-claims" It is a somewhat peculiar characteristic of Western
mentality to focus on "beliefs" or "truth-claims" as the defining character of a given religion ANS:True
In the wake of the post-enlightenment era and the subsequent rise of scientific method has been that
the understanding of what "truth" is has been narrowed to "factual" claims and empirically verifiable
statements ANS:True
While religions offer some empirically verifiable "facts," much of religious truth claims are not
empirically provable ANS:True
The rise of post modernity ushered through new insights in philosophy as well as the advent of the new
human sciences like psychology, anthropology, sociology has led people to realize even more that
scientific truth, empirical truth is the only pure truth and therefore the only real truth; all other
knowledges is shaped by subjective opinion and therefore may not be considered true ANS:False
,According to your author, some scholars of religion suggest that we cannot even speak of a given
religion as being true because each one of them is comprised of complex history of ideas, events, and
people, and therefore is much too intricate and complex to evaluate in terms of overall truth ANS:True
According to your author, the scholars of religion who contend that religions can be spoken of as true or
not true if one speaks of a given religion as being "mythologically" true- i.e. having the power to lead
human persons to the REAL or the TRANSCENDENT ANS:True
The truth-claims of any given religion will most certainly come to bear on the actions members of that
religion take toward others-both fellow members of that religion and those outside of their own faith
community. Likewise religious truth-claims have greatly influenced the society, culture, and the
unfolding of history ANS:False
With the advent of modern forms of communication, contact with persons of differing religious
traditions is part of the fabric of daily life and culture in modern, western countries. but one's position
regarding the truth-claims of religion, especially the truth-claims of one's own religious tradition (or lack
thereof) has little bearing on this common cultural interchange ANS:False
Interreligious dialogue can be described as a formal engagement between followers of different
religious traditions about commonalities and differences among religious views ANS:True
Scholars of religion are particularly interested in the work of interreligious dialogue with the hope that
one religion will finally be proved to be true ANS:False
The terms relativism vs. pluralism refer to positions regarding religious truth. both hold that there is a
plurality of appropriate religious claims, but relativism holds that there is really no objective truth, while
pluralism holds that there are many differing but valid claims to truth which can lead to the "real" and
the "true" and thus challenge adherents to actively seek understanding and energetic engagement with
diversity ANS:True
Of all the positions described in item #17 above, relativism seems to lead to the greatest truth,
according to your author because it includes everybody and is more consistent with a pluralistic society
in which we live ANS:False
In asserting truth claims, a religion that adheres to an approach called inclusivism would claim that all
religions have the truth, they just say it in a different way ANS:False
In relation to religious truth, exclusivism suggests that a single religious tradition has exclusive claim to
all genuine religious truth and that truth about God, the sacred and faith cannot be found in any other
religious tradition ANS:True
Religions are internally diverse ANS:True
Most people, though not all of course, are fairly literate when it comes to religious issues. therefore
public debates and media discussions of religion are usually well-grounded ANS:False
, Religions are historically consistent from one generation to the next. therefore, once a religion forms a
particular doctrine, it will never change ANS:False
Although they did it in the past, today religions have little effect on the public life and culture in which
they exist. today religion is a completely private matter ANS:False
Most religions, though not all of them, are historically diverse ANS:True
Currently the relationship between science and religion remains as it always has been--conflicted and
even combative. efforts to reconcile these two disciplines seem to never get off the ground, even
though it would be helpful for each of them and for the wider culture in which their scholarship is done
ANS:False
The tools of philosophy (understood as critical reflection on worldviews) would necessarily have to be
employed in this process of putting science and religion in dialogue with each other ANS:True
A noetic structure refers to ANS:the entire content of propositions that a person believes and the
relationships among those propositions
Which of the following is not one of the four features of a noetic structure? ANS:varying beliefs of
varying levels of influence and varying levels of verification
Anworldview is a conceptual scheme by which a person interprets and judges reality ANS:True
Only people who are conscious of their worldview and are able to articulate that world view can be said
to actually have a worldview ANS:False
Often it happens that a person's worldview has not been carefully and critically thought through
ANS:True
Religions assert or profess "truth-claims" about God, the universe, and humankind. These religious truth
claims: ANS:are not provable but reasonable because they are based on evidence that points to truth,
even those it does not empirically prove it
Some argue that science and religion each deal with totally independent and autonomous realms and
never have subject matter that intersects. this way of construing the relationship between science and
religion has been described by the acronym NOMA short for "non-overlapping magisteria"
true ANS:True
According to your text, every worldview, in order to be complete, includes the following aspects ANS:-
an epistemology
- an axiology
- a metaphysics
