The Swedish RE curriculum states that a major purpose and aim of education inreligion is to make the students accepting and understanding of people, regardlessof religious beliefs and conceptions of life. Previous research has shown that thereare tendencies indicating that these goals are not being attained thus Swedish adolescencespeak of religion and religious people in a stereotypical manner. Thesetendencies are causes of concern which is why this study seeks to make a contributionto the previous research. This research is required since there may havebeen a change in terms of results since the last study was made. In addition, resultsfrom research that are based on interviews are hard to generalize.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether cannabis use can affect cognitive functions. The method that was chosen to answer the purpose of the study was a general literature review. Article search occurred in the databases PsycINFO and PubMed. Nine articles were selected based on the study?s inclusion criteria.

I detta arbete undersöks hur bestraffningsmetoder för att bestraffa storleken på GP-program påverkar generaliseringsförmågan. Arbetet grundar sig på ett arbete som Cavaretta och Chellapilla gjort, där de undersöker skillnaden i generaliseringsförmåga mellan bestraffningsmetoden ?Complexity Penalty functions? och ingen bestraffningsmetod.I detta arbete har nya experiment gjorts med ?Complexity Penalty functions? och ?Adaptive parsimony pressure?, som är en annan bestraffningsmetod. Dessa bestraffningsmetoder har undersökts i samma domän som Cavaretta och Chellapilla och ytterligare i en domän för att ge en bättre bild av hur de generaliserar.I arbetet visar det sig att användningen av någon av bestraffningsmetoderna ?Complexity Penalty functions? och ?Adaptive parsimony pressure? oftast ger bättre generaliseringsförmåga hos GP-program.

This study focuses on aspects of cult experiences, given by deconverted formermembers of closed religious movements. Their testimonies were published inbooks or interviews. The aims of the study were to understand the interactionbetween the religious group and its members, living in high tension towardsmainstream society and their testimonies of altered self-esteem during attraction,membership, deconversion and defection. The purpose was to understand how aperson´s self-esteem is affected by inner mechanisms of closed religiousmovements and how these experiences affects a persons identity. Another aspectwas whether there might be differences in altered self-esteem, between those whoenlisted as adults, and those who were born into the closed religious contexts.Social Identity Theory, Sigmund Freud´s and Carl Rogers models of personal egowere used as models of interpretations.

This literature review aims to investigate, expose and explain August Strindberg's religious position in his partly autobiographical work Inferno, published in Swedish in 1897, in relation to Peter Berger's socialization theory. Strindberg says in the beginning of Inferno that he goes from being an atheist, occultist and Swedenborgian to finally return to his ancestral religion, Christianity. This is questionable, as Strindberg seems to be religious in its atheistic era, and occultist during his Christian period. Strindberg's own religious views seem not always match what he portrays, compared to what he writes in his correspondence and diary entries. This literature review aims to highlight the influences of Strindberg affected to clarify his religiosity which is implicitly and explicitly depicted in Inferno.

During the course of history, the world have come to see powerful nations rise and fall, religions spread and diminish ? and all too often there have been violent struggles between religious groups and secular forces, a fact that we still see in our world today. In the West, we often hear about the violent and fundamental dimensions of Islam. Buddhism is rarely a part of the equation in a western context, regarding violence. A common perception is the picture of Buddhism as a guardian of non-violent principles and values.

The purpose of this study is to see how adolescent students in high school formulate their thoughts of death and if a belief in transcendent existence affects their thoughts. The study was done on two separate schools, one municipal school and one private religious school, in minor cities in Sweden. The method used was qualitative inquiries and the amount of participants was four from each school, eight in total. The result of the study showed that six out of eight participants had a belief of a transcendent existence, three from the municipal school and three from the religious private school. The result also showed that the participants from the municipal school that had a belief in an transcendent existence also had a belief in a form of ?afterlife?, this was however not reflected on the students in the religious private school where result showed that one out of four had a belief in a form of ?afterlife? and three view death as the final stage of existence..

This essay is about the religious change that Jing-cult underwent 600-1500 A.D. It is a historical-critical essay based on literature studies, using Ha?kan Rydving?s theory of religious change. In chronological order, it will go through the religious change from ancient Japan to the late Muromachi-period when Shinto was created. It describes the early temple- cult, buddhism's mission to Japan and how the Jingikan was created.

Religious education in Swedish schools aims to be as objective and non-confessional as possible. This sort of education can lead to that the different religions are presented in a way which is unfamiliar to the followers of the different religions. This problem is what I have focused on in this essay since I myself was a victim of a similar situation. As a syriac-orthodox youth I felt that my Christianity was not the same as the one presented in school. I felt that it had nothing in common with what I learned in my church, therefore I asked myself the question: Whose Christianity is being represented? Therefore I have focused on the syriac-orthodox church in this research.The purpose of my essay was to enlighten the differences between religious education in syriac-orthodox churches and Swedish community schools.

The following essay examines if five Swedish textbooks aimed for religious studies in upper secondary school might show similar flaws to those presented by the Swedish Schools Inspectorate in their review of religious studies conducted in 2012. The method used in this essay is a qualitative study of Swedish textbooks influenced by Lantz definition of wide and thin ethics. This in practice means that I have analysed the five Swedish textbooks using thin and broad ethics while conducting the analysis of the five. The purpose of the essay was to see if the flaws presented in ?Mer än vad du kan tro? regarding ethics and moral education might be present in Swedish textbooks as well.

Göbekli Tepe is an 11000 year old religious center where Totem has been exercised. It was raised by megalithic hunters and collectors that still during the construction lived in small-scaled mobile groups in order to find food and therefore should not have had time to raised costly stone monuments. The religious center consists of four enclosures with two T-pillars decorated with pictures of different animals and birds. Any dwellings have not been found. The place has been constructed by a well-organized elitist organization that has been capable of raising constructions in order to exercise their religion in a way we did not thought was possible such a long time ago. Analysis and findings from the near east existing from this time shows however that social changes happen in the communities around the region. Can archeological finding from the excavations on the religious center give any answer or clue regarding how man came to develop from hunter and collector to farmer? Do the findings reveal that the religion has changed Mans way to think and organize so that she was prepared to introduce the agriculture that occurs? The aim of thesis is to clarify whether Göbekli Tepe has played any role in the complex origin of agriculture..

The aim for this bachelor thesis is to find an answer for the placement of Migration and Vendel period graves on preexisting house constructions in Sweden. The reason behind these graves being built on their respective places will be analyzed, discussed and compared with similar finds in Scandinavia, where a wide contact net had been established during this time. Different kinds of social and religious meanings and functions with the grave mounds will also be taken into consideration during the discussion and analysis. The actual findings in the graves will be not be a part of this thesis, as the aim is to focus more on the grave itself as a cultural and social symbol for the people, and the values it had, during the time period it was built..

Since 2007 the American sitcom the Big Bang Theory has spread throughout the world. With its twenty million watchers it is one of the most popular sitcoms of our time. The starting point for this essay is that the humourus series with the more or less geeky main characters is more than just entertainment - it is a part of the mediatization of religion. This means that media is affecting the recipients? view on religion in general and the personal religion.

The essay's aim is to create an understanding for the act; ritual, and the functions or possible functions in an organisation. Many of the functions attribute to rituals lie in the ritual's double function. A ritual can function both as a practical/functional and a symbolic act. The functionality in a ritual doing is not depending of the "symbolic meaning". The functional value exists there always.

In January 2004 two members of the Pentecostal community Knutby Filadelfia in Uppsalamunicipality, Sweden, were shot by their fellow member Sara Svensson. With a qualitative hermeneutic case study as the principal method this essay takes on the task of not only investigating if and how Stockholm Syndrome can be used as a model for interpreting and understanding the violent incident in Knutby Filadelfia, but also to see if the unique characteristic of the Knutby incident can tell us something about Stockholm Syndrome as a model for understanding violence in religious movements. The material shows Stockholm Syndrome as having been present in Knutby because of among other things, a mileu, leadership and theology that supported the normalization of abuse and the enabling and maintaining of self punishment in the community. While Stockholm Syndrome still is a controversial theory this study shows that it can be used as a powerful tool in the understanding of violence in religious contexts..