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Scientific study of religion

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July 2013

July 20, 2013

Science and humility

Connor Wood thinks we should always be humble about what we believe – even if...

July 09, 2013

Religion and creativity: A follow-up

Last week, Connor Wood claimed that religion and creativity were often incompatible. In response to...

June 2013

June 25, 2013

Ritual bypasses conscious cognition

Researchers from Denmark and New Zealand claim that ritual allows cultures to transmit knowledge by...

June 18, 2013

5 Ways Religion Can Influence Political Beliefs

Sometimes religion leads to more political involvement, sometimes none at all; other times political involvement...

June 14, 2013

The neurology of spirit writing

Are spirit mediums for real? Who knows? But researchers in the US and Brazil have...

June 08, 2013

Over generations, religion shapes genetics

Research from a multinational team shows that religion has affected the ways that genes are...

June 03, 2013

How criminals use religion to justify their crimes

Research by criminologists Volkan Topalli, Timothy Brezina, and Mindy Bernhardt (all Georgetown State University) suggests...

May 2013

May 26, 2013

Response to Connor Wood: “Evolved” and “Rational” Aren’t the Same Thing

Nicholas C. DiDonato On this blog, my esteemed colleague and friend Connor Wood recently wrote...

May 17, 2013

Why the Templeton Foundation Is a Darn Good Thing

Physicist Sean Carroll recently made a splash across the Internet by proclaiming that he'll never...

May 14, 2013

Earn $63,628 worth of happiness: pray

Timothy Tyler Brown (University of California, Berkeley) investigated the value happiness prayer yields for the...

May 05, 2013

Exploring your religion

Check out ExploringMyReligion.org to learn how your religious beliefs and commitments shape up against orthodox,...

April 2013

April 29, 2013

Does religious belief make you a better person?

A new survey of the literature on religion and helping behavior calls into question the...

April 22, 2013

How the brain escapes the self

Research from the University of Missouri shows that reduced functioning in the right parietal cortex...

April 16, 2013

Rewriting the script: We change our religious memories

Focusing on religious identity, psychologists R. David Hayward (University of Michigan), Joanna Maselko (Duke University...

April 03, 2013

Forgiveness and health: It’s complicated

Researcher Michael McFarland (University of Texas at Austin) and colleagues found that forgiveness positively correlates...

March 2013

March 27, 2013

How WEIRD are you?

New research from the University of Virginia and China shows a surprising finding – liberals...

March 22, 2013

Psychology and the religion-science conflict: Part 2

Having discovered how everyday people handle the so-called “religion-science” conflict, psychologists Cristine Legare (University of...

March 18, 2013

Psychology and the religion-science conflict: Part 1

Studying the religion-science conflict empirically, psychologists Cristine Legare (University of Texas at Austin) and Aku...

March 06, 2013

Video games: they have what atheists need

Who knew? New research from Canada shows that self-styled atheists prefer video games to tabletop...

March 01, 2013

Does God accept the real you?

Psychologists Bart Soenens (Ghent University, Belgium) applied the study of interpersonal relationships to religiosity and...

February 2013

February 20, 2013

Journal articles on scientific study of religion available online this month

Taylor & Francis, the publisher of the journal Religion, Brain & Behavior, is making all...

February 08, 2013

Does suffering drive us to religion? Yep.

A nationwide values survey in New Zealand captures fascinating changes in New Zealanders' religiosity after...

February 05, 2013

Religion the opiate of the poor?

Research by political scientists Frederick Solt, Philip Habel, and J. Tobin Grant (all Southern Illinois...

January 2013

January 25, 2013

Prisoners who attend religious services have fewer disciplinary problems

University of Alabama criminologist Kent Kerley argues that frequent attendance at religious services while incarcerated...

December 2012

December 27, 2012

How are religious values passed down through families?

Focusing specifically on how grandmothers pass on their religious values to their granddaughters, psychologists Denise...

November 2012

November 28, 2012

Meditation may enhance introspective accuracy

New research from the University of British Columbia shows that certain styles of meditation may...

November 08, 2012

Supernatural agents influence our social strategies

Ever get the feeling you're not alone even when there's no one around? Researchers from...

October 2012

October 12, 2012

Are autistics less religious? Yes.

New research shows that autistics – and men! – may believe less in God because...

September 2012

September 14, 2012

Where does religious doubt come from? The forebrain

Why do we doubt our religious beliefs? New research from the University of Iowa shows...

August 2012

August 31, 2012

A mystery in the history of Anabaptists

Luke J. Matthews (Harvard University) et al. found that violent ideology stems more from congregationally...