Science on Religion Research News
Five ways religion can influence political beliefs
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- Published on 18 May 2013
- Written by Nicholas C. DiDonato
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Typically, when people think of “religion and politics,” they think of social issues such as abortion, contraceptives, and gay marriage. While that’s not a bad place to start, it does in fact start at the group level rather than focusing on individuals. Wanting instead to see how religion can affect political beliefs at the individual level, Ryan LaMothe (St. Meinrad School of Theology) found five ways in which this can happen.
The Boston Marathon bombings and the scientific study of religion
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- Published on 11 May 2013
- Written by Nicholas C. DiDonato
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Much to the chagrin of the vast majority of Muslims around the world, the brothers responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing were Muslim. Once again, a fringe group within Islam has cast a dark shadow on all of Islam. While one should not associate Islam with terrorism, neither should one completely dismiss the role religion played in motivating the bombers. Aiming to shed light on the issue of the religious motivations of the Boston bombers, anthropologist Scott Atran (John Jay college) notes the homegrown, decentralized nature of modern Islamic terrorism.
The neurology of spirit writing
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- Published on 06 May 2013
- Written by Connor Wood
- Hits: 115
Mediums – people who say they can channel spirits or other supernatural beings to communicate with the living – often get a bad rap. They’re the subjects of debunking attempts, they’re accused of fraud, and most people think they’re just plain odd. But what if we deferred our judgments and tried to find out just what’s actually going on physically and neurologically in the act of channeling? A team of researchers in the US and Brazil did just that, finding that, whatever else is happening, mediums show some very unique patterns of brain activity. And even more interestingly, those patterns differ depending on the mediums’ amount of experience.
How religion shapes genetics
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- Published on 01 May 2013
- Written by Connor Wood
- Hits: 154
In the United States, religion is usually said to be a personal affair – one’s own private decision about how and what to believe. But this remarkably private and individualistic approach is somewhat odd when compared with the vast majority of cultures and religions throughout history. Far more often, religion has been a public affiliation, determining cultural identities, affecting marriage and family choices, and defining groups in relation to each other. A fascinating recent study published in PLOS Genetics shows just how inextricable religion often is from culture, finding that religious identity has decisively shaped the genetic landscape of the Levant - so decisively, in fact, that Lebanese Muslims are more closely related to fellow Muslims from Morocco or Yemen than they are to their Christian or Jewish compatriots.
Criminals use religion to justify their crimes
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- Published on 27 April 2013
- Written by Nicholas C. DiDonato
- Hits: 159
Redemption stories are the stuff of movie magic: a hardened criminal goes to jail, has a religious conversion, and then turns his life around and becomes a force for good. While this makes for compelling drama, it does not make for an accurate description of criminals’ actual appropriation of religion. Research by criminologists Volkan Topalli, Timothy Brezina, and Mindy Bernhardt (all Georgetown State University) suggests that “[t]hrough purposeful distortion or genuine ignorance” criminals take advantage of religious beliefs in order to justify their ongoing criminal behavior.
Earn $63,628 worth of happiness: pray
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- Published on 20 April 2013
- Written by Nicholas C. DiDonato
- Hits: 166
People commonly say that “money can’t by happiness,” but such people do not bother economists. Economists like to quantify everything in terms of money, including happiness. And when they got wind of research that religion increases long-term happiness, they naturally asked, “By how much (in US dollars)?” More exactly, Timothy Tyler Brown (University of California, Berkeley) investigated the value of happiness prayer yields for the average individual per year in dollars, and found that the answer is $63,628.
Parallel evolution: reexamining evolution’s “randomness”
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- Published on 16 April 2013
- Written by Nicholas C. DiDonato
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Evolution, when taken as the only narrative of how organisms came into existence, paints a rather bleak picture: purposeless forces randomly give rise to humans who could just as easily have not existed at all. This may disturb some religious people, whose religious narratives say that humans have a purpose. But new research suggests that evolution may not be as random as is typically thought: experiments in “parallel evolution” show that the same genetic structures evolve in the same circumstances.
Does religious belief make you a better person?
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- Published on 10 April 2013
- Written by Jonathan Morgan
- Hits: 225
When evolutionary psychologists look at religion they tend to highlight the way it could strengthen communities to make them successful. The intuitions behind this theory also spur a large body of research linking religiosity to prosocial behavior. As Robert Putnam famously put it, religious people make better neighbors. They’re more generous, trustworthy, helpful, cooperative, and generally healthier…or so the theory goes. But a recent review of these studies suggest that we may be drawing too simple and hasty conclusions.
The persuasive power of the “new atheists”
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- Published on 05 April 2013
- Written by Nicholas C. DiDonato
- Hits: 301
Best-selling authors such as Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens have virtually become household names through their vehement attacks on belief in God. Though they have gotten their message out there, the question remains as to how effective their arguments have been. Curious about the persuasiveness of these two atheists, Neil Pembroke (University of Queenland, Australia) found that most found only the new atheists’ criticism of the Bible’s historical accuracy persuasive – the rest of their arguments had relatively little impact.
Health, forgiveness, and religion
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- Published on 31 March 2013
- Written by Nicholas C. DiDonato
- Hits: 201
Most religions preach forgiveness. Holding grudges, remembering wrongs, and not letting things go leads to poor spiritual health (according to such religions). While scientists cannot test claims about spiritual health, they can test physical health. Can forgiveness lead to improved health? Researcher Michael McFarland (University of Texas at Austin) and colleagues posed this question, and found that forgiveness does positively correlate with health over time.
How the brain escapes the self
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- Published on 27 March 2013
- Written by Connor Wood
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Religious experiences get described in a lot of ways. People gushingly talk about a profound sense of oneness, about incredible bliss, joy, and ineffable meaning. One thing you almost never hear, however, is that a religious experience made someone more greedy and selfish. No one ever says, “Hey, you know what? I just experienced ultimate spiritual bliss, and boy, did it ever make me focus neurotically on my own struggles, financial problems, and dating insecurities!” Why this incompatibility between spirituality and self-absorption? A team of researchers from the University of Missouri thinks that the reason might be found in the brain, where reduced function in the region associated with self-awareness is correlated with greater spirituality.
More Articles...
- Rewriting the script: We change our own religious memories
- How WEIRD are you?
- Psychology and the religion-science conflict: Part 2
- Psychology and the religion-science conflict: Part 1
- Video games: they have what atheists crave
- Does God accept the real you?
- An evidence-based rethinking of the religion-science conflict
- Religious households are more likely to save money and plan for the future
- Does suffering drive us to religion?
- Religion as the opiate of the poor: Was Karl Marx right?
- Attending religious services predicts reduced deviance in prisoners
- Do you believe in magic? Seriously.
- Interview: Michael Ruse on evolution, creationism, and religion
- How religious values are passed down
- Belief in the occult growing in Europe
- Why atheist scientists bring their children to church
- How accurate are your subjective impressions?
- Scientific misconduct
- Supernatural agents and social strategy
- Forgiveness may be linked to long life
