Four studies examined whether awareness of mortality intensifies belief in supernatural agents among North Americans. In Studies 1 and 2, mortality salience led to more religiosity, stronger belief in God, and in divine intervention. In Studies 3 and 4, mortality salience increased supernatural agent beliefs even when supernatural agency was presented in a culturally alien context (divine Buddh...

Shame and honor are mechanisms that expose behavior that falls outside the social norm. With recent six-player public goods experiments, we demonstrated that the threat of shame or the promise of honor led to increased cooperation. Participants were told in advance that after ten rounds two participants would be asked to come forward and write their names on the board in front of the fellow gro...

Moral philosophers like Martha Nussbaum, Philippa Foot, and Michael Weber argue for what I call the “Neo-Stoic Reading” of Nietzsche, which includes two claims: first, Nietzsche allegedly recommends the relentless pursuit of self-interest at the expense of other persons; second, he denies empathy any major role in the ethical life. I will argue that the Neo-Stoic view misses an important unifyi...

In the field of hioethics, freedom and autonomy assume the ability of self-regulation and determination. If one has the ability to make one 's own decisions, then one represents an autonomous and free person. Such a view of autonomy faces many difficidties, because it idtimately limits those who can be considered autonomous. Tlie Orthodox theology of the one Hypostasis of Jesus Christ presents ...

Since ancient times, in societies throughout the world, mankind has interpreted some dreams in the context of religion – from invoking the gods into their dreams in incubation temples, to recording dream narratives in holy scriptures of religions that thrive in today’s world. This paper acknowledges that the role of dreams has diminished in many faiths, most noticeably in western Christianity, ...