Religion has long played a very important role in different cultures and it is natural to imagine that when there is more instability or the deaths and crime rates are growing there are more loses and therefore more people look for consolation in religion. If that was the case there should be much more religiosity in Latin America less developed countries which is not true. In fact the United S...

A new cognitive approach to religion is bringing fresh insights to our understanding of how religious concepts are maintained, acquired and used to motivate and direct actions. This approach suggests that seemingly extraordinary thoughts and behaviours can be supported by quite ordinary cognition and may thus be termed 'natural'. Simultaneously, this research is expanding the domain of concepts...

Using religion to improve health is an age-old practice. However, using religion and enlisting religious authorities in public health campaigns, as exemplified by tobacco control interventions and other activities undertaken by WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, is a relatively recent phenomenon. Although all possible opportunities within society should be exploited to control tobacco...

which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Iran as a developing country is experiencing major changes at different economic and cultural levels. Along with all these changes, the population is also growing and number of young people is increasing. The alarm bells are ringing as the new studies show the high prevale...

The papers in this issue arose from a conference on the Psychological and Cognitive Foundations of Religiosity that took place at Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia) in August, 2003. 1 This conference brought together scholars from ten nations and six disciplines (psychology, anthropology, religious studies, biology, philosophy, and cognitive science) to explore new developments at the interfac...

Evolutionary psychology is an emerging paradigm for the social sciences that offers a powerful metatheoretical framework for personality psychology and, as I attempt to demonstrate in this article, for the psychology of religion as well. I argue that religion is not an evolved adaptation; rather, the diverse range of beliefs, behavior, and experience that we collectively refer to as religion em...

There is no connection between science and religion. Science, unlike religion, is based on evidence; and, in contrast to the many religions, there is just one science. All science had its origin in Greek civilisation. There is no ethics in scientific theories or discoveries, but ethical issues can arise when science is applied to technology. Religion does raise ethical issues in relation to sci...

Based on the interactive features of websites, researchers have distinguished between ‘religion online’ and ‘online religion’. Approaching online religious expression as ‘vernacular religion’ can transcend the distinction by focussing on the lived experience of believers. In this study, qualitative interviews and close textual analysis are deployed to locate four traits that define the ‘vernacu...

This study used life narrative interview data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study to examine how religious values, ideas, and language motivate prosocial behaviors. Open coding of 88 in-depth interviews revealed six themes: defining morality in religious terms, considering religion an important aspect of one’s identity, feeling that one’s life involves carrying out God’s mission...

Religious Education Problems in a Multi-Faith Society The idea of religious education presents few difficulties when the society is unambiguous about its religion, or where the majority of the population claims formal allegiance to the State Religion, However, in a society where such unanimity is not present then a solution is found in excluding religion from state schools, as in the public sch...