Five ways religion can influence political beliefs
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 […]
religious experience
Review: Inside the Neolithic Mind
David Lewis-Williams and David Pearce’s Inside the Neolithic Mind (Thames & Hudson, 2005) claims to descend into the nebulous world of Neolithic people’s consciousness in […]
Review: The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain
It is a pleasure to review a book about the science of spirituality that is refreshingly free of ideological axes to grind. The author of […]
Toward an anatomy of religiosity
While media excitement about the supposed discovery of a single “God module” in the brain has rightly followed scientific consensus and cooled off considerably, the […]
Religion brings sadness to some
People participate in religion because it makes them happy, right? Sure – plenty of studies have indicated a correlation between religious involvement and mental health, […]
IN FOCUS: Reliability of religious experiences
William James wrote, “The overcoming of the barriers between the individual and the Absolute is the great mystical achievement.” Richard Dawkins said, “If you’ve had […]
IN FOCUS: The biology of religious experiences
One of the Institute’s research concentrations is on the biology of religious and spiritual experiences. This topic was neglected until a couple of decades ago […]