Both religion and science start with basic assumptions that cannot be proved but are taken on faith. Here I note that one basic assumption that is rather common in both enterprises is the assumption that in comparing different hypotheses that all equally explain the observations, the simpler hypotheses are more probable (Occam's razor or the law of parsimony). That is, explanations should be ma...

  Every society has oriented itself towards a governing method concerning the socio-cultural conditions and with the inclusion of different historical-ideological periods and has accepted it as its governmental plan. Iranian society is not an exception to this general rule. Throughout different historical stages, such as the government of Safavid, the Constitution Movement, and despotic g...

The purpose of this study is twofold: to explore the nature of church-based social support, and to see whether support received in religious settings is related to the use of religious coping methods. The data come from a nationwide survey of members of the Presbyterian Church USA. Three dimensions of religious support are examined in detail: emotional support from church members, spiritual sup...