religious experience argument is one of the most significant arguments in proving the existence of god in the west. swinburne – the theistic philosopher – has presented a particular exposition of this argument based on the specific principles he calls “credibility principle” and “witness principle”, which have attracted the attention of the philosophers of religion. it is attempted in this rese...

Background: Gender identity disorder and its treatment with sex reassignment surgery is a profound experience, which can affect the mental, interpersonal, social and religious aspects of one’s life.   Methods: This was a qualitative content analysis study focusing on the various dimensions of the experiences of seven patients suffering from gender identity disorder in a female-to-...

The importance of extraordinary experiences for the process of adopting a heterodox belief system or an alternative religious world view is often neglected in the existing research literature. Scholars of religion commonly lay stress on the process of religious conversion characterized by different stages. Extraordinary experiences are, thereby, included as potential internal catalysts (e.g. my...

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Previous research suggests that religious orientation relates to people's choice of activities and behaviors. Religious orientation has not been examined in relation to sport and competitive orientation. This study examined the relationship of religious orientation, along with athletic experience, college and gender, to competitive orientation in sport. Surveys were completed by male and female...

Despite a growing interest in the ways spiritual beliefs and practices are reflected in brain activity, there have been relatively few studies using neuroimaging data to assess potential relationships between religious factors and structural neuroanatomy. This study examined prospective relationships between religious factors and hippocampal volume change using high-resolution MRI data of a sam...

We examine whether the genetic basis for religious involvement is common to the genetic basis for drug use/abuse, helping to explain the inverse relationship between religiosity and drug use. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed data on 2,537 young adult siblings participating in Wave III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health on whom both genetic characteristics and religious ...

BACKGROUND Patients having psychiatric diagnoses often experience high level of distress. Religiousness is often used by them as part of their coping mechanism and problem-solving strategies. OBJECTIVE To determine the level of religious commitment and coping methods in psychiatric patients and its relationship with distress level. METHODS Religious commitment and coping patterns were measu...

Although religious belief is often claimed to help with physical ailments including pain, it is unclear what psychological and neural mechanisms underlie the influence of religious belief on pain. By analogy to other top-down processes of pain modulation we hypothesized that religious belief helps believers reinterpret the emotional significance of pain, leading to emotional detachment from it....

This qualitative study aimed to explore the potential role that might be played by the reported experience of "sensing the presence of the deceased" in meaning-making processes in bereavement. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 participants who reported having had such an experience and the transcripts were subjected to thematic analysis. Seven overarching themes were identified, ...