Witchcraft and Ancestor Worship

Hero worship

This month, as the surest route to public embarassment, I decided to write about scientific heroes. Today’s world is full of talk of mentoring. Graduate students are told to find supervisors who will intellectually nourish them, emotionally support them, and teach them networking and grantspersonship. As I tap away, I can almost hear Uncle Syd muttering that the world is going to the dogs. In h...

Celebrity worship, addiction and criminality

Two studies assessed the relationship between celebrity worship and (i) addiction (n 1359) and (ii) criminality (n 2158). Overall Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS) scores correlated positively with Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised (EPQ-R) Addiction and Criminality sub-scale scores. In further support of the absorption addiction model of celebrity worship (McCutcheon, Lange, & Houran, 2002...

The Ancestor Worship Practices’ Evolutions in Peri-Urban Vietnam A Case of Study in Ho Chi Minh City

Ancestor worship is not a particular religion, it is more a cultural fact and a social practice that crosses the different religious currents and may even involve individuals and families, not claiming religious affiliation [1]. However, ancestor worship is considered as the most fundamental ritual act in Viet Nam [2]. Most Vietnamese have practiced this domestic cult since the dawn of time. Ea...

The grounds of worship

Although worship has a pivotal place in religious thought and practice, philosophers of religion have had remarkably little to say about it. In this paper we examine some of the many questions surrounding the notion of worship, focusing on the claim that human beings have obligations to worship God. We explore a number of attempts to ground our supposed duty to worship God, and argue that each ...

Witchcraft and Magic in Ireland