There are countless high mountains in Tibet, and ancient Tibetans believed that gods resided on every one of them. The worship of mountain gods was one of the most important forms of nature worship among ancient Tibetans; it was fundamental to their entire belief system. Each mountain god possessed his own territory and was in charge of particular affairs. Around each god sprang up myths, legen...

The functionalist “law” that religion sustains the moral order must be amended. As is demonstrated in this study, religion has this effect only as it is based on belief in powerful, active, conscious, morally-concerned gods. Contrary to Durkheim’s claims, participation in religious rituals per se has little independent impact on morality and none when done on behalf of gods conceived as unconsc...

ilam civilization is the most important ancient and indigenous civilization of iran prior to the formation of aryan rule and the achaemenid empire. the capital of this civilization, susa, joinedurbanization in 3200 b.c. and was put aside from history in 646 b.c. by assyrian empire. one of the most significant part of this civilization was  ilamidreligion and worldview as represented in their te...

Socrates asks Euthyphro whether the gods value piety because it is good, or if piety is good because the gods value it. If we generalize Socrates’s question, we come to a choice that has exercised tremendous influence in the history of metaphysics. Instead of asking about value, we can talk about any property. Instead of asking about valuing, we can ask about any attitude or activity. Instead o...

This study assesses the validity and reliability of the Glasgow Outcome at Discharge Scale (GODS), which is a tool that is designed to assess disability after brain injury in an inpatient setting. It is derived from the Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOS-E), which assesses disability in the community after brain injury. Inter-rater reliability on the GODS is high (quadratic-weighted kappa 0.98...

In the 90s, a remarkable number of manuscripts were found in Northern Afghanistan, including economic documents, legal documents, and letters, which have become an important resource for academic studies. This paper aims to investigate the Bactrian pantheon as reflected in the economic documents of this collection. At first, these economic documents and the pantheon mentioned in them are introd...

ISSN: 2153-599X (Print) 2153-5981 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rrbb20 Big questions about Big Gods: response and discussion Ara Norenzayan To cite this article: Ara Norenzayan (2015) Big questions about Big Gods: response and discussion, Religion, Brain & Behavior, 5:4, 327-342, DOI: 10.1080/2153599X.2014.928359 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/215...

Book III can be regarded as a kind of summary of the preceding opinions in the history of speculation on púruÞa-, bráhmaúand ātmán-. It is dramatized into a scene of the Brahmodya (theological disputation) held by King Janaka in which famous priest-scholars participate, among them Yājñavalkya and Śākalya. This framework as well as some parts of its contents (e.g. questions about the number of t...