Criteria of Identity: Exploring Religious Versus Atheistic Perspective
In this discussion, several criteria can be identified for determining religious or atheistic identity.Firstly, for religious identity, it is essential that the content of faith corresponds to certain canons or, as expressed in one of the sources, “the correspondence of the content believed to Divine Revelation, the voice of the religious Object about itself.” This criterion emphasizes that the central focus is on the content of the confession, its connection with the concept of Divine Revelation (source: link txt).Secondly, some authors point to the necessity of applying a holistic concept of human self-identity. In their view, to adequately define the boundaries of personality, including the religious dimension, it is important to rely on a sufficient set of criteria that outlines the main dimensions of human essence. This means that religious identity can also be regarded as part of a general system of self-knowledge and self-determination (source: link txt).Finally, the contrast provided by the Christian approach to the meaning of life—in which an individual acquires godlike spiritual values and believes in the bodily resurrection—is juxtaposed with atheistic views, such as the ideal of atheistic humanism. This approach not only highlights specific religious positions but also contrasts them with the characteristics of atheistic identity, where the absence of such beliefs becomes a key indicator (source: link txt).Thus, in the context of this discussion, the criteria include:• The correspondence of the content of faith to the idea of Divine Revelation;• The use of a holistic concept of self-identity, wherein the religious component is integrated into the broader structure of personality;• The presence or absence of specific religious positions, such as belief in resurrection and godlike values, which are set in opposition to atheistic worldviews.Supporting citation(s):“Religiosity has its own specific criterion, unlike all similar spheres that tend to merge with religion and attempt to replace it; this criterion can be expressed as the correspondence of the content believed to Divine Revelation, the voice of the religious Object about itself.” (source: link txt)“But achieving this at a satisfactory level proves unsuccessful: any proposed criteria and constraints turn out to be more or less arbitrary, debatable, and consensus is not reached. From the perspectives of Christian anthropology, this failure is understandable. The only basis for a generally meaningful and correct, non-arbitrary resolution of these issues can be the holistic concept of (self)identity of the human being, which includes a definition of the term and a sufficient set of criteria outlining the boundaries of human personality in its main dimensions and suitable for practical application.” (source: link txt)“The Christian meaning of life, which consists in the individual acquiring godlike spiritual values here on earth and in the belief in the bodily resurrection for eternal life in God, thus becomes in irreconcilable contradiction to the ideal of the so-called atheistic humanism.” (source: link txt)