TONGA RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS

Yoruba customs and beliefs pertaining to twins.

The Yoruba are an important ethnic group mainly occupying Southwestern Nigeria. Mainly for genetic reasons, this very large tribe happens to present the highest dizygotic twinning rate in the world (4.4 % of all maternities). The high perinatal mortality rate associated with such pregnancies has contributed to the integration of a special twin belief system within the African traditional religi...

Religious Beliefs, Religious Participation and Cooperation

The paper analyzes the relation between religious beliefs, religious participation and social cooperation. In particular, we focus on religions that instill beliefs about the connection between rewards and punishments and social behaviour. We show how religious organizations arise endogenously, analyze their e¤ect on social interactions in society and identify a "spiritual" as well as a "materi...

Paranormal beliefs, religious beliefs and personality correlates

Medically valid religious beliefs.

Patient requests for "inappropriate" medical treatment (violations of the standard of care) based on religious beliefs should have special standing. Nevertheless, not all such requests should be honored, because some are morally disturbing. The trouble lies in deciding which ones count. This paper proposes criteria that would qualify a religious belief as medically valid to help physicians deci...

Religious Beliefs and Healthcare Decisions

Baptists trace their origins to early seventeenthcentury English Puritanism with the baptism by immersion of Thomas Helwys and John Smyth in Holland in 1607. Baptists and other dissenters believed the English Reformation had failed to achieve sufficient moral purity and doctrinal integrity. They also resisted the efforts of the Crown to impose uniform religious beliefs and practices through the...