Research On The Relationship Between People And Gods From The Perspective Of Spatial Metaphor

Metaphor exists in all aspects of our life.It is not just a rhetorical method,but also an important cognitive method.Lakoff and Johnson put forward the Conceptual Metaphor Theory,which holds that,firstly,metaphor is a method to understand familiar complex abstract concepts with familiar simple concrete concepts.Secondly,it is a mapping from concrete concept to concept.Thirdly,it reflects the relationship of cognitive space.The psychological foundation of metaphor is an abstract image mode.The concept of it is based on physical experience,especially the spatial experience,which is a result of people's understanding of space and body.Therefore,spatial metaphor is the most common,fundamental and irreplaceable form of metaphor.There are reasons for thinking that conceptual metaphors should be operative in the domains of spirituality and religion.Key concepts in this area—such as God,the afterlife,and the sacred—are either abstract or intangible,which is the precise sorts of conditions that should give rise to conceptual metaphors.For example,God is known as the "most high" or is considered to reside in the "high Heavens",which are "high above earth".Confucianism emphasizes "Renmin-as-the-lord-of-Gods".Some researches showed that the content of metaphor is different under different cultural models.It is unclear whether the the content of metaphor in religion,as a part of culture,is different or not.Based on this idea,this study puts forward the following questions.Under Confucianism,do non-Christians and Christians have the spatial metaphor representation of God concepts and Renmin concepts?Are there multiple types of spatial metaphors for God concepts and Renmin concepts?Do non-Christians and Christians differ in their spatial metaphorical representations of God concepts and Renmin concepts?This paper explores the relationship between Renmin and God from the perspective of spatial metaphor.The experiment 1 applied the implicit association test(IAT)to explore whether there were upper and lower spatial metaphorical representations of God concepts and Renmin concepts,and,if so,whether they showed differences in these two groups.Participants were 40 non-Christians and 30 Christians(29 men and 41 women)with an average age of 25.16 years(SD=7.43 years).In experiment la,IAT results is-0.46,participants were faster at categorizing God-related words when they were paired with down-related words and Renmin-related words when they were paired with up-related words rather than when these pairings were reversed,t(39)=-6.56,p<0.001,d=-0.95.In experiment 1b,IAT results is 0.65,participants were faster at categorizing God-related words when they were paired with up-related words and Renmin-related words when they were paired with down-related words rather than when these pairings were reversed,t{29)=8.90,p<0.001,d=1.23.It was found that non-Christians have implicit connection between“God is lower" and "Renmin is upper",Christians have implicit connection between"God is upper" and "Renmin is lower".The experiment 2 applied the implicit association test(IAT)to explore whether there were far and near spatial metaphorical representations of God concepts and Renmin concepts,and,if so,whether they showed differences in these two groups.Participants were 34 non-Christians and 24 Christians(excluded one subject's data,25 men and 32 women)with an average age of 31.00 years(SD=14.00 years).In experiment 2a,IAT results is 0.46,participants were faster at categorizing God-related words when they were paired with far-related words and Renmin-related words when they were paired with near-related words rather than when these pairings were reversed,t(33)=7.39,p<0.001,d=1.12.In experiment lb,IAT results is-0.52,participants were faster at categorizing God-related words when they were paired with near-related words and Renmin-related words when they were paired with far-related words rather than when these pairings were reversed,t(22)=-3.66,p=0.001,d=-1.56.It was found that non-Christians have implicit connection between "God is far" and "Renmin is near",Christians have implicit connections between“God is near' and "Renmin is far".In experiment 3,the forced selection paradigm was applied to explore whether there were inside and outside spatial metaphorical representations of God concepts and Renmin concepts,and if so,whether there were differences in these two groups.Participants were 50 non-Christians and 37 Christians(44 men and 43 women)with an average age of 28.00 years(SD=7.48 years).In experiment 3a,the main effect of spatial location was significant,X2(2)=20.77,p<0.001.The main effect of words was no significant,?2(1)=0,p=1.The simple effect was significant,?2(2)=49.15,p<0.001.In experiment 3b,the main effect of spatial location was significant,?(2)=51.31,p<0.001.The main effect of words was no significant,?2(1)=0,p=1.The main effect of words was no significant,?2(2)=64.17,p<0.001.Then the analysis of simple effect were carried out.The analysis shows that non-Christians tend to put the divine words somewhere outside the circle during the experiment,and put the Renmin words somewhere inside the circle,which shows an implicit connection of“God vs.outside" and"Renmin vs.inside ".Christians tend to put the divine words somewhere inside the circle,and put the Renmin words somewhere outside the circle,which shows an implicit connection of"God is inside" and "Renmin is outside ".To sum up,psychological realities of the spatial metaphor of God and Renmin concepts are noted in the current study.The spatial metaphors of God concepts and Renmin concepts are systematic,including upper and lower spatial metaphors,near and far spatial metaphors,and inside and outside spatial metaphors.The spatial metaphors of God concepts and Ren,in concepts are different in different cultures,non-Christians have spatial metaphors of "God is lower,God is far,God is outside" and "Renmin is upper,Renmin is near,Renmin is inside".Christians have spatial metaphors of "God is upper,God is near,God is inside" and "Renmin is lower,Renmin is far,Renmin is outside".This difference may be caused by cultural schema.The spatial metaphor of the God concepts and the Renmin concepts exists both on the consciousness and nonconsciousness.