In A History of God, Karen Armstrong describes a division, made by fourth century Christians, between kerygma and dogma: 'religious truth … capable of being expressed and defined clearly and logically,' versus 'religious insights [that] had an inner resonance that could only be apprehended by each individual in his own time during … contemplation' (Armstrong, 1993, p.114). This early dual-proce...

Trust is a critical aspect of social interaction. One might predict that individuals trust religious out-groups less than religious in-groups, and that costly signals performed by members of religious in-groups increase trust while costly signals performed by members of religious out-groups decrease trust. We examined how Christian participants perceived the trustworthiness of Muslim and Christ...

The paper analyzes the relation between religious beliefs, religious participation and social cooperation. In particular, we focus on religions that instill beliefs about the connection between rewards and punishments and social behaviour. We show how religious organizations arise endogenously, analyze their e¤ect on social interactions in society and identify a "spiritual" as well as a "materi...

Identification with a social group can operate as a powerful heuristic, allowing an individual to easily make political judgments. But, a person can identify with multiple groups, which may be mobilized toward different political ends. How do opinions and behaviors change when a person’s identities are in competition with each other, creating cross-pressures? The Evangelical Immigration Table (...

Past research argues that religious commitments shape individuals’ prosocial sentiments, including their generosity and solidarity. But what drives the prosociality of less religious people? Three studies tested the hypothesis that, with fewer religious expectations of prosociality, less religious individuals’ levels of compassion will play a larger role in their prosocial tendencies. In Study ...

This article focuses on the discussion with Dr. Seifert’s work “Civil Opposition to Religious Radicalism in Central Asia” (2020). The author, being supportive of many dr. theses, disagreed his actual division Islam into so-called “good” traditional (moderate, flexible, and compatible secular state) “bad” radical Islam, which denies values therefore should be marginalised. Based results her own ...

Researchers have found that religious affiliation, religious attendance, religious beliefs, and prayer are associated with teen sexual attitudes and behavior.(Wallace & Williams, 1997; Whitehead, Wilcox, & Rostosky, 2001) Holding strong religious beliefs and praying are linked to reduced sexual activity among adolescents (Meier, 2003; Resnick et al., 1997) and teens (girls in particular) from m...

This study investigated the effects of religious education on student religious identity over and above parent religiosity by examining student perceptions of two aspects of teacher functioning: teacher caring and teacher as role-model. We posited that effects of these variables on students' religious identity are mediated by student perceptions that the school provides a non-alienating religio...

BACKGROUND Despite the efforts of national and international organizations, polio has not been eradicated from Pakistan. The prevalence of polio in Pakistan is exceptional in global context. Quetta and Peshawar divisions are amongst the most affected regions hit by polio in Pakistan. This study was carried out to assess the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions towards polio immunization among r...

Within the last few years the relationship between religiousness and psychosocial adjustment has become a subject of increasing interest. However, previous research did not explicitly differentiate between dispositional religious commitment and situation-specific religious coping. The current cross-sectional study investigated the relative power of religious commitment, positive and negative re...