The vast majority of human beings derive their religious convictions from participation in a tradition, into which they were either born or converted. An important, but largely neglected, topic, therefore, is when, if at all, such participation is warranted) Quite a lot hangs on the answer to this question. For, as I shall make explicit, if it is warranted to participate in one tradition rather...

This paper presents, for the first time, a comprehensive scholarly examination of the history and principles of major traditions of esoteric healing. After a brief conceptual overview of esoteric religion and healing, summaries are provided of eight major esoteric traditions, including descriptions of beliefs and practices related to health, healing, and medicine. These include what are termed ...

some islamic traditions have described women as “lacking in intellect”. these traditions have been encountered with various implications and reactions and caused debates in scholarly arenas and many writings have been written concerning this topic. we see three reactions to these traditions: some denied their issuance; some maintained women‘s lack of intellect by accepting those traditions; and...

ers, without committing ourselves one way or the other as to their effect on biological fitness. Nevertheless, the idea that some innovations will be less attractive to imitate and others more so, while some make only a marginal difference to existing options, seems a reasonable one. The specific aim of this article is to explore the consequences of innovations in small populations of the kind ...

This article outlines some of the major Eastern sexual and spiritual traditions (primarily Hinduism, Taoism and Tantrism), and discusses their relevance for the contemporary Western world. The article begins by examining the sources of Eastern sexual traditions, before and after the "Axial" period, the turning point at which male consciousness and power gained ascendancy over the female princi...

Humans have a form of externalised memory. They are able to transmit information across generations in the form of learned cultural traditions and preserve this knowledge in artefacts. How this capability evolved from the simpler traditions of other animals is an active area of research.

Over the past century, the congruency between the modern description of hemophilia and a hereditary coagulation disorder described in the Talmud has been widely noted. Examination of the Talmudic text suggests that: 1. The disease described there closely resembles the modern characterization of classic hemophilia. 2. The hereditary pattern described is consistent with the distinctive inheritanc...