Ex-votos in the form of a penis were known since since prehistoric and their manufacture flourished until historical times, mainly in ancient Greek (1,2) and Etrusco-Roman art (3). The great majority of these penises were constructed as healthy examples, probably in order to express the believers’ gratitude towards the healing gods, usually after the restoration of their health, or as pray in o...

Although ecological forces are known to shape the expression of sociality across a broad range of biological taxa, their role in shaping human behavior is currently disputed. Both comparative and experimental evidence indicate that beliefs in moralizing high gods promote cooperation among humans, a behavioral attribute known to correlate with environmental harshness in nonhuman animals. Here we...

Charles J. Gomez on The Quantified Scholar and Study Gods.

Darius offered the political order of “king of kings” to solve the political crisis of his era. He legitimized it based on an order of gods. In his belief, the nature of politics was based on a dualistic religious worldview that is the fight between true divinity and false divinity’s will and performance in the world. In addition, the chief true divinity’s law was introduced as the principle or...

A religion usually is defined as a collection of beliefs about God and his relation with the universe and individual persons. There are many religions in the world, but I will deal only with the major world religions, which include Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The beliefs of these religions are documented in certain books, which are considered to be sacred and used for ...

The HERMES initiative (Harmonising Education in Respiratory Medicine for European Specialists), was created by the European Respiratory Society in 2005, and named after the Greek god of travellers and boundaries. The main goal is the European harmonisation of post-graduate education and training in respiratory medicine, promoting excellence of care and professional mobility. The development str...

For centuries, humans have contemplated the minds of gods. Research on religious cognition is spread across sub-disciplines, making it difficult to gain a complete understanding of how people reason about gods' minds. We integrate approaches from cognitive, developmental, and social psychology and neuroscience to illuminate the origins of religious cognition. First, we show that although adults...

Even though myths have an imaginative component that frequently clashes with logical thinking, their symbolism often resonates with our collective unconscious. The divine inspiration that propels mythological heroes towards the noblest and highest ideals also carries the risk of taunting the jealousy of the gods. This may culminate in fatal results as has happened to Remus when he overstepped t...