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Coronavirus puts world’s religions under pressure

Prayer assemblies are defying restrictions and spreading the virus — but faith may also be a coping strategy. Religious studies researcher discusses the role of religion in times of disasters and pandemics.

Religious and superstitious people understand the physical world less than atheists

Religious people have a lower understanding and interest in physics and maths than non-religious people, and often ascribe emotions to inanimate objects, shows new research.

Religion alone does not cause civil war

Conflicts arise when people are excluded from political influence in their own country, concludes a new study.

How extremists become ex-extremists

Ideology is not the barrier that stops an extremist from abandoning their radical views and reintegrating into the community, shows new research.

Believing in a watchful God makes you more “moralistic”

The type of God you follow can determine how you behave towards other people, shows new research.

Teaching about religions tends to be condescending

A Swedish study finds that in high school religious education courses both teachers and pupils often suggest that religions are unnecessary for modern people.

All religions will come together in new research project

Better overview of all faiths is needed before we can understand what religion means for the development of society, say researchers behind world religion database.

Politicians do not know how to stop radicalisation

Scientists warn that there is a deep lack of knowledge about how radicalisation is created and prevented.

Scientists warn: creationism is on the rise in Europe

More and more people in Europe are beginning to believe that a god -- not evolution -- shaped life on Earth and there are no signs this development will stop.

Study links autism with circumcision

A new study suggests that circumcision increases the risk of developing autism. Pain could be a possible reason for the connection, says scientist.

Anthropologist: this is how I met the spirits

What a scientist learned from his encounter with a necromancer and the spirits of his ancestors.

Gay Muslims keep religion and sexuality separate

Homosexual men in Beirut consider their sexual orientation to be a transitional phase rather than a lifelong part of their identity.

Extreme rituals enhance social cohesion

Physically and mentally exhausting rituals promote the spirit of community in society, according to a new study. This is the first time that this hypothesis has been confirmed experimentally.

Vikings held political summits across Europe

A new Viking exhibition reveals that the Vikings were not just marauding barbarians. They met with the European elite to exchange gifts, form alliances and to negotiate borders.

The Pope’s scientists study miracles

God’s representative on Earth has his own miracle commission. Its job is to determine – using scientific methods – whether unexplainable healings really are miracles caused by deceased people.

Climate debate is based on religion

Religion plays a major part in the climate debate, for instance in our fight to preserve endangered species that have no practical use to humans, argues theologian in a new book.

The origin of fiction

Films, computer games and novels have only come into existence thanks to medieval writers who used their imagination to create novels. New research reveals the surprising historical process behind fiction.

Saga professors toast with Viking ale

More than 300 of the world’s leading Norse mythology researchers met at the 15th International Saga Conference earlier this month in Denmark.

Your Danish friend may be a witch

Witches in present-day Denmark keep their craft secret – and one in four of them is probably a man.

Role playing and religion function identically

Religious rituals and role playing both require agreement on the rules that maintain a ‘fantasy world’ in which churchgoers and game players find themselves.

We fear that science will wipe us out

Our ancestors feared that a god would cause the Earth’s destruction. Today we dread man-made viruses, global warming and nuclear bombs – the underside of science and technology.

Inuit drum history longer than realised

Two 4,500 year-old pieces of frozen wood found in Greenland have added a couple of thousand years to the history of the Inuit drum. But they help little in revealing the drums’ origin.

Protestantism has left us utterly confused

Protestant Christianity takes the blame for many people's doubts about who they are. This is the conclusion of a new dissertation, which examines the existential consequences of the Protestant tradition.

Danes killed to get killed

Eighteenth century suicide candidates were afraid to take their own lives because the church said doing so would send them straight to hell. So they had to find another way out.

World unlikely to end in 2012, say scientists

The claimed prediction by the ancient Mayas of the end of the world, as popularised in the film '2012', gets a sceptical assessment from the scientific community.