### belief | doctrine | philosophical theory | relativism:

Moral relativism
* comfortable moral position because it requires nothing of the moral agent.
* is hard-wired into our culture.
* kind of subjectivism.
* major foundation of abortion.
* poor foundation for managerial decision-making.
* says that there are no universal moral principles
  - is no absolute right or wrong

Semiology
* interprets texts as a system of signs or symbols.
* is based on two concepts - genotext and phenotext.
* philosophical theory

Sensationalism
* is messages.
* philosophical theory

Solipsism
* can be dangerous to most people.
* fatal disease in a journalist.
* is incoherent.
* is the extreme idealist view that there is no world beyond our mind
  - philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist
  - view that the self is the only thing that can be known and verified

Teleology
* is based on the proposition that the universe has design and purpose
  - in disfavor today
  - the study of design or purpose in natural phenomena
* makes scientific study possible.
* refers to the use of the ultimate purpose or design as a means of explaining a phenomenon.
* relates to tautology.

Vitalism
* embraces the inter-relationship of mental, emotional and physical experience.
* is fundamental to naturopathy.
* popular philosophy in many cultures.

### belief | doctrine:

Populism
* are doctrines.
* builds on resentment and anger against abusive power.
* can move to the left or right.
* cornerstone of the state and form of the consciousness of national sovereignty.
* cuts across the traditional labels of right, center and left.
* has no political agenda per se.
* implies a lack of leadership.
* is expressed uniquely in different historical eras
  - the social glue of Venezuelan politics
  - their creed
* means listening to the people and hearing what they have to say.

Precept
* are a manifestation of a mindful life.
* are the rules Buddhist laymen, monks, and nuns follow
  - of life

Prescriptivism
* descendent of emotivism.
* has a long history.

Religious doctrine
* are doctrines.
* inform or guide laws, customs, morals.
* is steeped in, and bounded by references to good and evil and original sin.

Secular humanism
* aims to bring out the best in people so that all can achieve fullness in life.
* has no god, bible or savior.
* is the official religion of the public education system
  - same as communism
* naturalistic, nonreligious worldview.
* remains trapped in collective self-centredness.
* wants a world for 'the big, the bright and the beautiful'.

### belief | doctrine:

Secularism
* calls for the separation between the religion and worldly affairs.
* can have worldwide negative religious liberty consequences
  - never bring peace to mankind
* cultural laissez faire.
* is primarily concerned with the here and now
  - supported by advances in science and developments in technology
* is the domination of temporal things
  - only solution to the problems of fundamentalism
  - principle that there exist no gods or purely spiritual entities
  - silence before the storm
  - thus integral to democracy
* is, simply, the separation of religion from life.
* pleads that our lives be given entirely to earthly interests.
* religion, a religion that is understood.
* ridicules belief and commitment.
* takes the view that religious beliefs are irrelevant to how society operates.
* very subtle form of heresy.

Total depravity
* asserts that our entire being is involved in sin.
* holds bondage all mankind, except for grace.
* is the doctrine that all of our nature is corrupted by sin.
* teaches that men and women from birth are rotten to the core.

Transubstantiation
* reflects Roman Catholic faith in the literalness of the words of the Bible.
* scholastic or Aristotelian figment of the twelfth century.