This paper focuses on the conflicts that arise in relation to “the place” of religious symbols in the public sphere, and, specifically, in State schools. Such conflicts, I believe, do not only reflect most of the dilemmas that liberal democracies face in the attempt to reconcile constitutionalism and religion through adherence to secularism in the public place—they actually challenge the very l...

Our 2005 representative national survey (2,972 interviews) shows an overwhelmingly common and strong religious intolerance towards Western churches that are legally deemed “non-traditional” and are commonly perceived as foreign to Russia. Most Russians would not let Western groups build churches, establish religious schools, or engage in other basic religious activities in their hometowns. West...

BACKGROUND Medical students(MS) will face ethical issues throughout their lives as doctors. The present study aims to investigate medical students' opinions on controversial ethical issues and factors associated with these opinions. METHODS SBRAME (Spirituality and Brazilian Medical Education) is a multicenter study involving 12 Brazilian medical schools with 5950 MS. Participants completed a...

Altruistic and socially conscious physicians are dedicating a portion of their professional lives to humanitarian relief of disadvantaged populations in increasing numbers. These efforts are primarily carried out through short-term medical missions(STMMs) throughout the international community.(1) There is a great deal of professional and personal reward to physicians who participate in medical...

We consider the question whether pupils from the lower social strata perform better in private government-dependent schools than in public or private-independent schools, using the PISA 2000 data on European high schools. In the eighty’s, Coleman and Hoffer (1987) found in the USA that the performance of these pupils was better at religious schools than at comparable public schools. Dronkers an...