Critical Thinking and Religious Training:Areas of Convergence

Critical Thinking and Religious Training:Areas of Convergence A. Homaayoonfard S.M. Sajjaadi, Ph.D. Those who consider religious training contradictory to rational thinking have brought about much doubt and many questions in this regard. That is why researchers are nowadays interested in areas such as creativity, critical thinking, and infusion of rational thinking. Religious training in Iran is considered to be a basic and important duty of the educational system and as such must be undertaken in ways that can overcome challenges from the opposition and attractive to the youth. To attract more people to religion, religious training needs to be more compatible with new perspectives on thinking and creativity. A conceptual analysis leads to the finding that a convergence exists between certain constituents of both religious training and critical thinking, especially in the cognitive dimension.    Key words: critical thinking, religious training, convergence