Week 12 - Findings

When conducting my interview, my eyes were open to so much about religion. I interviewed a Christian woman who was able to articulate many aspects of her beliefs and experiences based around her beliefs. When relating my findings to the literature I was able to see to what degree one's beliefs justify their actions, this is accurate in terms of religious beliefs. I was also surprised about the types of constraints that were being mentioned. This connected to my literature when I made references to the work of Caroline Merchant and her position on the mechanistic and organic worldview, they both entailed a series of justifications for actions, as well as constraints. 

I constructed my findings in 3 sections, each section was based around how the data matched my questions. What did become most obvious to me was the importance of experience. I feel that in many cases our beliefs are validated through experiences, there is always some form of prominent external driving force. Through my findings and discussion, nothing has been concrete based on pure feeling or tuition. So I think that experience is an important factor in what shapes beliefs and what we do. 

One of my research sub-questions is in regards to judgement. This concept was identified within the interview but it is not something that directly correlates to the literature review. Regardless of that, I think that is in an important factor and one of the key models which influenced me to carry out this topic for research. What I found in the interview is that this sense of judgement came from a foundation of religious constraint.

It was a long and very interesting interview. I wish I had more time to ask many more questions, but one of my favourite things that came up in the interview was how strong the sense of self this individual has build, and how much of themselves they devote to genuinely building their character and helping others without expecting anything in return.