Salut
tout le monde, Je suis très intêressé par ce sujet, ainsi que par celui
de laîcité, avec ses deux versions française (issue de la Révolution),
et anglosaxone. Déja, l'impression générale est que la religion est
conçue comme une philosophie, une spriritualité,...Mais je constate une
plus forte récurrence des mensions négatives vis-à-vis de la religion
dans les réponses françaises (15 contre 7), ce-ci ne peut pour autant
être justifié par le stéréotype de l'athé français. Les français se
distancient trop de la religion et considèrent l'Eglise comme une
institution à part, mais gardent toujours leur grand estime de les
valeurs religieuses. Je me demande en revanche si les opinions des
étudiants de MIT sont représentatives de toutes les USA, ou de toutes
les tranches d'âges et ce qu'aurait pu donner le même exercice
d'associations de mots dans un milieu conservateur au Texas...

Mo

Tu penses à quelquechose de particulier avec le milieu conservateur du Texas?

Hi,
my name is Josephine and I'm from Indonesia. From both sets of
responses, I think people generally uphold the values that are
associated with religion. However, both groups also have negative
associations, which are different for the students at MIT and at Ecole
Polytechnique. The negative associations from the students at
Polytechnique reflect religion as a social conflict ("guerre",
"terrorisme") and the impression that I get is a more distant attitude
toward religion. The responses from MIT maintain the personal
atmosphere of religion, relating closely with someone's personal belief
and faith.

Hello, my name is Katie, and I am from the US. Upon looking at the words associated with
religion, I noticed that the words chosen by students at the Ecole Polyechnique had,
overall, a more negative connotation than the words given by students at MIT. In America,
there has not been much religious prosecution in our recent history. Religious
prosecution here has never really been widespread. There are so many different kinds of
religions practiced in the US today, and so many denominations and branches within some
of those religions.

In France’s history, however, religion “wars” and religious prosecution was a much bigger
deal (probably where the association of religion and war and terrorism stems from). I
think I am correct in saying that a majority of people in France are Catholic and Protestant?
Is there a substantial population of other religions?

Hi-
My name is Allison and I'm American. I agree that Polytechnique
students seem to associate religion with persecution more than
Americans do. However, I think that both MIT students and Polytechnique
students were fairly evenly split between looking at religion as
something spiritual and freeing, and something extremely negative. The
negative MIT responses mostly were about binding and collectivity,
which are not very popular in a country that really likes
individualism. Overall, I think that we are very similar in our
religious feelings considering that France and the United States have
such different traditional religious backgrounds. I know that in class
today, most people seemed to think that Polytechnique students have
more negative associations with religion than MIT students do. Does
anybody else agree with me? There were several responses from
Polytechnique students about terrorism and fanaticism. Are terrorist
attacks common in France?

Salut, moi c'est Clément.
Je me permets de donner mon point de vue sur cette affaire.
Les attaques terroristes ne sont pas, à ma connaissance, plus nombreuses en France qu'ailleurs.

Le mot "guerres", "danger" dans les mots français doivent faire
référence, non seulement aux croisades où les religieux se permettaient
d'exterminer des peuples sous prétextes de croyances, mais aussi aux
guerres en Irak qui, vues d'ici ressemblent un peu à des luttes de
religions (même si les choses sont évidemment plus compliquées). Le mot
"amalgame" montre bien qu'on peut rapidement associer les religions à
des épisodes malheureux ou sanglants (y compris les attentats), et vite
oublier les autres aspects. Il faut aussi se rappeler des périodes
sombres de l'Eglise où les censures et les tortures étaient communes,
sans parler des bûchers. Tout cela fait qu'il n'est pas facile
aujourd'hui de peser le pour et le contre en matière de religion.

On a appris récemment à la télévisions que certains états aux
USA ont décidé de mettre l'accent, dans les écoles, sur une histoire de
l'évolution "religieuse" (Adam et Eve) plutôt que sur la théorie de
Darwin. C'est assez effarant, qu'en pensez-vous ?

From
my experience, most Americans (me included) are super sensitive when
speaking of religion. We fear to stir up disagreement or to offend our
friends and acquaintances. I believe that adults should be able to
speak up and have civilized conversations about their fundamental
religious, or anti-religious beliefs.

I also think the problem stems from the authorities, Churches,
Government, Institutions, who each fear the public discussion of
religious topics. Individual Churches have extinction to fear; the
government has its sovereignty to look out for, public and private
institutions want to please as many people as possible. Our differing
faiths make these ideals clash sometimes, but this is absolutely
neccesary in order to keep the world within reason.

Everyone is able to form opinions about the clashes between
science and religion, personally I think that historically, the score
is tied. In fact, I don't these contradictions are a big issue, I am
more worried that people tend to listen to whoever is screaming the
loudest and give up a part of their humanity for the sake of
convenience.

I hope this will keep you guys thinking and responding..
-Bran