BACKGROUND The experience of 'sensed presence'-a feeling or sense that another entity, individual or being is present despite no clear sensory or perceptual evidence-is known to occur in the general population, appears more frequently in religious or spiritual contexts, and seems to be prominent in certain psychiatric or neurological conditions and may reflect specific functions of social cogni...

As we estimate here, 68% of human beings--4.6 billion people--would say that religion is important in their daily lives. Past studies have found that the religious, on average, have higher subjective well-being (SWB). Yet, people are rapidly leaving organized religion in economically developed nations where religious freedom is high. Why would people leave religion if it enhances their happines...

If religious beliefs matter, how should we expect those beliefs to affect the behavior of religious terrorists? The religious motivation for terrorism often is assumed to be pursuit of bene ts in the afterlife. Though Berman (2009) and others do not nd much empirical support for theology as an motivator for terrorism, few economic models of terrorism attempt to incorporate religious beliefs. We...

This paper examines Hồi giáo, a state-recognized religion translated as “Islam” in Vietnam, and will focus on the Islamic religious practices of the Cham Bani, one of two groups of Muslims in Vietnam. While it is recognized that diverse Islamic religious practices have taken root in various areas, there is a tendency to view religious practices such as the Quran recital, Ramadan, Salat, and so ...

Fasting is a religious obligation, which can be challenging for individuals with oral conditions due to its stringent code of conduct. Moreover, food abstinence during fasting can restrict oral feeding even further in patients whose nutrition has been already compromised. Previous research has mainly concentrated on oral hygiene and gum health, disregarding orodental conditions and diseases. Th...

It is especially appropriate to address in this publication questions concerning the complex relationship between religious traditions and intellectual life. Too often such traditions are still viewed as providing fixed and final answers to questions whose force and meaning do not depend on these traditions. This overvalues traditions in one respect and undervalues them in another. As a set of ...

Examination of the extent to which women in the northern Israeli town of Tzfat recited psalms to cope with the stress of the Second Palestinian Intifada reveals that knowing someone who was killed in the Intifada, experiencing an income loss, and believing that Tzfat would be attacked by terrorists were strong predictors of psalm recitation among self-identified secular but not religious interv...

alienation and isolation is of the concepts which is of antiquity in literature, and has been emerged as the result of unorganized political, social and economic conditions in human societies. the present paper seeks to investigate alienation, its concept and reflections in abu isaac albiri poetry.  he was living in an environment that was replete with political and intellectual struggles and r...

Abstract Although one of the most consistent findings of recent fertility studies is the convergence of the religious differentials in fertility, few data have been analysed to discover Mormon fertility trends and differentials. This paper, based on data obtained on 1,001 Mormon couples, is concerned with describing the effects that the dispersion of Mormon families from the Mormon centre in ...