英美国家概况（美国部分）Unit 15 Dominant Values and Religious Beliefs

,Click to edit Master text styles,Second level,Third level,Fourth level,Fifth level,Click to edit Master title style,*,University of International Business and Economics Press,Click to edit Master text styles,Second level,Third level,Fourth level,Fifth level,Click to edit Master title style,*,英美国家概况,The United States of America,Unit 15,Dominant Values and Religious Beliefs,The United States of America,Think about these questions before we start:,1.What is culture?Please try to define this term.,2.What cultural values and religious beliefs are prevalent in America?,3.How do cultural values and religious beliefs influence the American society?,Warming-up Activities,Contents,Religion in America,Dominant American Value,What is culture?,Dominant American Values,Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people.,A culture is a way of life of a group of people-the behaviors,beliefs,values,and symbols that they accept,generally without thinking about them,and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.,Culture is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.,Dominant American Values,American society:cultural pluralism,Dominant American values:,individualism,Competitive Spirit,Equality,Privacy,Self reliance,Material success,Dominant American Value,1.1,1.2,1.3,individualism,competitive spirit,equality,1 Individualism,Definition:,Belief in the primary importance of the individual and in the virtues of self-reliance and personal independence.,Its influence on the American society?,2 Competitive Spirit,Downside of competition for the U.S.society:,The pressure to win can be overwhelming in America,where only winners are cheered and remembered and the winner takes all,including multimillion-dollar advertising contracts.The overemphasis on competition also contributes to a hostile workplace.Employees constantly compete against their peers and lose sleep over who gets credit for a new sales plan or for having the best ideas;this discourages teamwork and strains human relations.At school,cheating has become a serious concern when even the top students do it regularly.,3 Equality,We hold these truths to be self-evident,that,all men are created equal,that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,that among these are Life,Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.,-the Declaration of Independence,1776,3 Equality,Equality,though an ideal of American Democracy,is not a reality in the American society,and the government has complete control over it.Many Americans treat people differently on the basis of their race,clothing styles,and the amount of money that they have.,I have a dream that one day my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.I have a dream today.,-Martin Luther King Jr.,3 Equality,What is distinctive about the American outlook on the matter of equality are the underlying assumptions:,(1)no matter what a persons initial station in life,he or she has the opportunity to achieve high standing;,(2)everyone,no matter how unfortunate,deserves some basic level of respectful treatment.,II Religion in America,II Religion in America,Nearly 90 percent of Americans are connected to some form of Christianity.Judaism and Islam,each with about 2 percent of the population,are the next largest in membership,and Islam is the fastest growing religion in the United States.,Like many aspects of American culture,Americans feelings about public displays of religion are in conflict.,Americans are free to convert to different religions almost at will.,Religion in America,2.1,2.2,2.3,2.4,2.6,Religious Diversity,Freedom of Religion,Gay rights,Abortion,Religion and Popular Culture,The Social Role of Churches,2.5,2.1 Religious Diversity,Thevarietyofreligious beliefs in the United States surpasses the nations multitude of ethnicities,nationalities,and races,making religion another source of diversity rather than a unifying force.,2.1 Religious Diversity,The largest number of Christians in the United States belong to one of the many Protestant denominations.,Roman Catholics,thenext largest religious group in the United States,are far more unified than Protestants.,Judaismisthenextlargest religion in the United States,with about 2 percent of the population in 2001.,Islam is among the fastest-growing religious groups,Other religions practiced in America include Buddhism,Hinduism,and Islam.,2.2 Freedom of Religion,Freedom of Religion refers to the right of a person to form personal religious beliefs according to his or her own conscience and to give public expression to these beliefs in worship and teaching,restricted only by the requirements of public order.,The United States was the first,and for some time the only,nation to include the principle of religious liberty in its basic laws.,2.2 F