Addressing spirituality in therapy is not only important for a substantial number of clients but many therapists also regard it as potentially valuable. However, practitioners report difficulties and confusion regarding how to work with spiritual difference, especially when clients’ spiritual beliefs are perceived as undermining their psychological well-being. The current study aimed to explore...

Evolutionary theories of religion and sacred values are essential for understanding current trends in terrorist activity. We clarify religion’s role in facilitating terror and outline recent theoretical developments that focus on four cross-culturally recurrent features of religion: communal participation in costly ritual, belief in supernatural agents and counterintuitive concepts, separation ...

In this paper, we examine the question of whether religion—affiliation, beliefs, and practice—provides a source of marital strength and stability in the lives of American couples. Unlike most previous studies, we focus on religion and marital quality among 433 lowincome married couples with co-residential minor children, using recently collected survey data on both spouses sampled in the Marita...

A growing body of scientific research suggests connections between religion, spirituality, and both mental and physical health. The findings are particularly strong in patients with severe or chronic illnesses who are having stressful psychologic and social changes, as well as existential struggles related to meaning and purpose. Recent studies indicate that religious beliefs influence medical ...

Autopsies or post-mortem examinations have become a common practice in Western medicine for verifying the cause of death, and to obtain additional scientific information on certain diseases. In monotheistic religions autopsies present several ethical questions even though the advantages attributed to post-mortems in the West are well acknowledged by people living in this modern world. In Islami...

Islam is the dominant religion in about 56 countries around the globe, and has more than 1.2 billion followers. Islam represents a holistic way of life, and according to a large proportion of its followers, the Islamic law or Shari'ah should prevail over secular law and should be implemented as state law. The etymological root of the word Shari'ah can be traced back to the harsh life in the des...

Religion is not an evolutionary adaptation per se, but a recurring cultural by-product of the complex evolutionary landscape that sets cognitive, emotional, and material conditions for ordinary human interactions. Religion exploits only ordinary cognitive processes to passionately display costly devotion to counterintuitive worlds governed by supernatural agents. The conceptual foundations of r...

Religion is not an evolutionary adaptation per se, but a recurring cultural by-product of the complex evolutionary landscape that sets cognitive, emotional, and material conditions for ordinary human interactions. Religion exploits only ordinary cognitive processes to passionately display costly devotion to counterintuitive worlds governed by supernatural agents. The conceptual foundations of r...

the kernel of religion and religiousness« is a philosophical and theological issue that emerged in the west during renaissance. two theories of “religious experience” and “philosophia perennis” are very important in this realm. the kernel of religion, on the basis of the former, is an experience that causes the owner of it to be considered as a religious man, and the husk of religion consist of...

ethics of ancient iran has always been formed one of the most interesting topics for iranian studies. because of the importance of religion in the sassanid's period, the iranian ethics gained great importance and a number of ethical works were developed. andarz and andarzgoy traditions are among the prevalent ethical styles of this period. in the field of ancient iran andarz-nameha the sub...