Previous studies have shown that adolescent religious participation is negatively associated with risky health behaviors such as cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and illicit drug use. One explanation for these findings is that religion directly reduces risky behaviors because churches provide youths with moral guidance or with strong social networks that reinforce social norms. An altern...

What is the role of religious institutions and religious workers in the racial earnings gap in the United States? In this paper we explore the relationship between childhood exposure to religious density, as measured with the number of religious workers at the state level, and the labor market outcomes of the worker thirty years later. We use data that spans over fifty years to identify changes...

BACKGROUND There is a huge interest by faith-based organizations (FBOs) in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere in HIV prevention interventions that build on the religious aspects of being. Successful partnerships between the public health services and FBOs will require a better understanding of the conceptual framing of HIV prevention by FBOS to access for prevention intervention, those concepts t...

This paper analyses public conflicts over school policies that seek to advance Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) equality. It focuses in particular on where Muslims, who protest LGBT-inclusive policies, become racialised as other secular national/Western values. Growing attention has been paid the arguments used by majority minority religious groups publicly counter education. In th...

India -"Hindustan" literally means the land of Hindus. It is a secular nation since 1950. Officially, there is no place for religious, cultural or caste segregation in the society. However, the framers of the Indian Constitution decided to give special benefits to the backward classes and women by forming a reservation policy that was included in the Constitution itself. This paper tries to loo...

Background: There is a huge interest by faith-based organizations (FBOs) in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere in HIV prevention interventions that build on the religious aspects of being. Successful partnerships between the public health services and FBOs will require a better understanding of the conceptual framing of HIV prevention by FBOS to access for prevention intervention, those concepts ...

Religious people nowadays have more children on average than their secular counterparts. This paper uses a simple model to explore the evolutionary implications of this difference. It assumes that fertility is determined entirely by culture, whereas subjective predisposition towards religion is influenced by genetic endowment. People who carry a certain 'religiosity' gene are more likely than a...

What do we currently know about atheists and secular people? In what ways are atheism and secularity correlated with positive societal outcomes? This article offers a thorough presentation and discussion of the latest social scientific research concerning the identities, values, and behaviors of people who don’t believe in God or are non-religious, and addresses the ways in which atheism and se...

Abstract Adolescence is frequently seen as a troubled age. In many Western societies this also time of sharp religious decline. The question arises to what extent faith and practice could help teenagers cope with their distress, especially when religion fades away in secularized environments stops being common coping resource. A study was conducted South-East Spain ( N = 531) assess styles—reli...