RELS 225 Midterm Test 2010 Page 1/9
Objective Answers [45]
STUDENT INSTRUCTIONS
Please do not mark on the left edge of the card. It could interfere with marking.
1. Use a dark pencil - Do not use ink.
2. Print the student’s name and course number in the space provided at the top of the card.
3. Print the student’s 9-digit ID in the boxes to the left of where “StFX ID” is written. Shade in the blocks that correspond to the digits of the student ID.
4. The Card NO: ONLY has to be filled in IF the test requires more than one card per student.
5. Carefully mark in answers in the circles matching the question number. Shade in the answer which is “most appropriate”
(there is not always a single, simply “correct” answer). Read each question carefully and be sure you understand what is being asked.
6. A computer reads the answer card. All boxes should be clearly marked and fully erased when changed.
7. Erase carefully - Do not cross out.
8. Write your name and student number on the question sheet.
9. All question sheets must be handed in along with your answer sheet. Any answer sheet without a signed question sheet will not be marked.
Instructions: Indicate your answer by filling in the circle on the card corresponding to the best response to each question. Select only one answer for each question.
- In the debate over “cults” most scholars have come to favour an alternative term, which is:
(a) emergent religions;
(b) new religions;
(c) new religious movements;
(d) nascent religions;
(e) alternative religions - The five different groupings of new religious movements mentioned by Dawson are groups associated with:
(a)Asian mystical traditions; the human potential movement; Pentecostalism; initiatory groups; spiritualism;
(b)UFO groups; Judaic-Christian fundamentalists spin-offs; occult revival groups; the human potential movement; Asian mystical traditions;
(c)initiatory groups; ancient wisdom groups; neo-paganism; oriental movements; Jesus freaks;
(d)Indian movements; UFO groups; psycho-therapeutic groups; esoteric knowledge societies; neo-paganism
(e)none of the above - In studying popular attitudes towards cults, the social psychologist Jeffrey Pfeifer discovered:
(a) that only those without personal knowledge of a cult member are biased;
(b) that the public is generally adverse to all forms of indoctrination;
(c) that the public is overwhelmingly biased against cults;
(d) that the public is relatively indifferent to cults;
(e) that bias against cults is age related - _ of the participants in Pfeifer’s study said that their perceptions of NRMs were based on media reports.
(a) 40%;
(b) 92%;
(c) 100%;
(d) 60%;
(e) 23% - Churches, unlike sects, are more:
(a) voluntary, democratic, and homogeneous;
(b) ritualistic, hierarchical, and homogeneous;
(c) inclusive, have charismatic leaders, and are inclined to schism;
(d) involuntary, heterogeneous, and accommodating;
(e) personal, inspirational, and accommodating - Cults are:
(a) preoccupied with extending the power of their charismatic leaders;
(b) almost wholly concerned with the satisfaction of individual needs;
(c) usually loosely organized and display no systematic orientation to the broader society;
(d) devoted to the cultivation of collectivist ethics;
(e) both
(b) and
(c) - Cults:
(a) lay claim to esoteric knowledge;
(b) are usually short-lived and small;
(c) tend to engage in aggressive recruitment;
(d) both a and b;
(e) all of the above - Roy Wallis makes a useful distinction between:
(a) imported and innovated cults;
(b) world-affirming, world-rejecting, and world-accommodating cults;
(c) therapeutic and destructive cults;
(d) pre-modern, modern and post-modern cults;
(e) communal and non-communal cults. - In the Introduction to Comprehending Cults Dawson argues ...
(a) that cults give expression to universal spiritual needs;
(b) that cults are so dangerous we are obliged to understand them better;
(c) that the choice to join a cult should be treated as essentially rational;
(d) that the choice to join a cult should be treated as essentially emotional;
(e) that cults defy understanding in the conventional categories of social science - In thinking about why “cults” seemed to suddenly attract so much attention in the 1960s and 1970’s we have to keep in mind:
(a) the increased importance of religion to the American people in the 1960’s;
(b) the demographic effects of the baby boom generation;
(c) the rise of the New Christian Right in the United States;
(d) the fear that cults were un-American;
(e) how the cults were associated with the sexual revolution - New religious movements are seen by some sociologists as “successor movements” to:
(a) the counter-culture;
(b) “old-time religion”;
(c) monasticism;
(d) the conventionality and conformism of the 1950s;
(e) none of the above - Thinking in historical terms, the rise of many new religious movements in recent times is often compared to:
(a) the rise of witchcraft in the sixteenth century;
(b) the Great Awakenings in America;
(c) conditions in the Roman Empire;
(d) the spread of Islam around the world;
(e) the great missionary movements of the nineteenth century - If we put contemporary new religious movements in proper historical perspective, some scholars say, we should not be so surprised at the rise of so many new religions, because of:
(a) the long tradition of pre-Christian and extra-Christian beliefs and practices that has always existed in our society;
(b) the tremendous emphasis on individualism in Western societies;
(c) the substantial amounts of money made by religious figures like the televangelists;
(d) the inherently religious nature of humankind;
(e) the growing loss of confidence in science to solve our problems - In Comprehending Cults Dawson cautions that we must keep in mind that some scholars
(e.g., Melton, Stark and Finke) have:
(a) questioned whether there ever was an increase in new religions in the 1960s and 70s;
(b) argued that it is only a matter of time before the new religions displace the existing denominations dominant in the United States;
(c) questioned if the protection of religious freedom in the U.S. Constitution should be extended to the new cults;
(d) argued that the new religions of the 1960s and 70s are unique in form and function;
(e) suggested that only new religions arising from western religious traditions will succeed in the United States - One of the most prominent arguments linking the emergence of NRMs to changes in social structures suggests that NRMs arose in response to:
(a) the de-institutionalization of the private sphere of life;
(b) the institutionalization of the private sphere of life;
(c) the decline of religion in the public sphere of life;
(d) the de-institutionalization of the public sphere of life;
(e) the re-institutionalization of the public sphere of life - At the end of the Introduction to Comprehending Cults Dawson comments on the wisdom of Donald Stone’s observation that “... the new religious movements often serve as spiritual inkblots.” By this he means:
(a) they represent colourful mistakes in the course of social evolution;
(b) they reveal much about the imaginative capacities of modern people;
(c) they may tell us more about us
(the observers), than about them
(the observed);
(d) they soak up diverse religious impulses;
(e) they are essentially meaningless without our projections upon them - The founder of Theosophy is:
(a) Annie Besant;
(b) C.W. Leadbeater;
(c) Sanat Kumara;
(d) Rosicrucian;
(e) Helena Blavatsky - Theosophy includes teachings about
(a) astrology;
(b) karma;
(c) reincarnation;
(d) spiritual masters;
(e) all of the above. - In Theosophy the “Masters” are:
(a) a pantheon of deities;
(b) alien beings from other planets;
(c) spiritually advanced humans who have evolved to a higher level;
(d) mediums with special psychic powers;
(e) a race of beings on earth prior to the human race - Blavatsky’s first major book was:
(a) The Lamasery;
(b) Isis Unveiled;
(c) Passage to India;
(d) The Secret Doctrine;
(e) The Foundations of Wisdom - What causes bad things to happen in Theosophy?
(a) nothing;
(b) Satan;
(c) disharmony;
(d) God;
(e) the flux of creation - Why did Asian religions begin to become more prominent in the USA after 1965?
(a) because of Pete Townsend;
(b) because of George Harrison;
(c) because the Asian Exclusion Act was replaced;
(d) because of GaudivaVaishnava;
(e) because of the World Parliament of Religions. - Scientologists believe in, but not in.
(a) Jesus, the resurrection;
(b) life on other planets, UFOs;
(c) scientific truths, religious truths;
(d) life after death, reincarnation;
(e) reincarnation, karma. - The dab of clay down the middle of the forehead is called
(a) Tilak;
(b) Sikha;
(c) Kritan;
(d) Doti;
(e) Sari - Theosophy is a religion with...
(a) a very prescriptive ethical system;
(b) a very non-prescriptive ethical system;
(c) a crusading consciousness about many specific moral concerns;
(d) a dogmatic commitment to a specific lifestyle;
(e) a complete indifference to moral concerns - The movement that would become Scientology began in:
(a) 1930;
(b) 1940;
(c) 1950;
(d) 1960;
(e) 1970 - The founder of Scientology was:
(a) Rex Humbard;
(b) L. Ron Hubbard;
(c) George Gurdjieff;
(d) Maharishi Mahesh Yogi;
(e) none of the above - According to Dianetics the human mind is composed of different parts:
(a) the conscious and the unconscious;
(b) the human and the divine;
(c) the dias and the nous;
(d) the analytic and the reactive;
(e) the pre-Clear and the Clear - The central practice/activity of Scientology is:
(a) astral projection;
(b) meditation;
(c) auditing;
(d) “study of knowing”;
(e) being Clear - According to Scientology, The world as we know it is the eventual outcome of Thetans becoming ensnared in:
(a) matter, energy, space, and time;
(b) egocentrism;
(c) cycles of action;
(d) their emotions;
(e) hedonistic pleasures - Engrams are:
(a) the memories of our past lives;
(b) the spark of our divinity within;
(c) the Scientological equivalent of sin;
(d) psychic scars left in the reactive mind;
(e) hidden powers revealed by auditing - Which apocalyptic religious movement was founded by Charles Taze Russell?
(a) The Unification Church
(b) Jehovah's Witnesses
(c) Theosophy
(d) Scientology
(e) ISKCON - Popular and media stereotypes are that converts to new religious movements are:
(a) the brightest and best;
(b) maladjusted marginal losers;
(c) young, idealistic, gullible and duped;
(d) average people;
(e) b and c - Charles Glock advanced the theory ofdeprivation to help explain the origins of religious movements.
(a) status;
(b) relative;
(c) severe;
(d) differential;
(e) psychic - Which of the following is not one of Glock’ s categories of deprivation?
(a) economic;
(b) organismic;
(c) spiritual;
(d) social;
(e) ethical - Glock argued that deprivation is acondition for the rise of new religious movements, but it is not a condition. Which words correctly fill in the blanks?
(a) relative, absolute;
(c) primary, important;
(d) necessary, sufficient;
(e) possible, frequent. - Sociological studies of new religious movements have revealed that the single strongest factor influencing how people come to join these groups is:
(a) the need for spiritual compensators;
(b) interpersonal bonds and social ties;
(c) being unchurched;
(d) mental instability;
(e) drug usage - What do converts find most attractive about NRMs?
(a) the ideology;
(b) the people;
(c) the lifestyle;
(d) the power;
(e) the esoteric insights - Sociologists have found that the educational levels of converts to new religious movements are:
(a) below the national average;
(b) representative of the national average;
(c) above the national average;
(d) vary from group to group;
(e) higher among committed, long term converts - Studies reveal that converts to new religious movements are more likely to be one of the following than the others:
(a) seekers;
(b) women;
(c) religious;
(d) depressed;
(e) free of commitments - Lofland and Stark classify the first three steps of their model of conversion as dealing with:
(a) verbal conversion;
(b) predisposing conditions;
(c) situational contingencies;
(d) necessary conditions;
(e) involvement variables - In her extensive study of the Moonies in Britain, Eileen Barker discovered that a large number of the members of this NRM....
(complete the sentence)
(a) came from “broken homes”;
(b) came from working class households;
(c) came from very “respectable” families;
(d) came from single child families;
(e) came from religiously nonconformist households - From his study of young people who joined cults, the Canadian psychiatrist Saul Levine came to the conclusion that the “radical departures” are best identified as:
(a) acts of calculated life-style experimentation;
(b) true religious conversions;
(c) extensions of childhood dependency;
(d) acts of social protest;
(e) attempts to find themselves and separate from their families - Ninety percent of converts to NRMs leave in:
(a) less than a month;
(b) less than a year;
(c) less than six months;
(d) less than two years;
(e) less than ten years - Levine found a tendencythat the young people who joined cults:
(a) were very rebellious as teenagers;
(b) had been exploring various religions for some time;
(c) had experienced a strong romantic disappointment;
(d) had never really experienced a strong romantic relationship;
(e) had been complaining to their parents, but they wouldn’t listen
Written answers[30]
- Explain five ofthe following terms in a few sentences, indicating their significance in the religion:[10]
RELS 225 Midterm Test 2010 Page 1/9
- Sea Org
- Watchtower
- Sankirtana or kritan
- Sun Myung Moon
- Ascendant Masters
- Washington Post
- Armageddon
- Mantra
- E-meter
- Olcott
RELS 225 Midterm Test 2010 Page 1/9
- Compare the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses and the ISKCON regardingwhat happenswhen people die. [10]
- Compare the teaching of the Unification Church and Scientology about the basic problem humans face, and how that problem can be solved.