Previous studies have presented mixed findings when it comes to the relationship between religion and pornography use. Overall, religiosity has been associated with both an increase and a decrease in problematic pornography viewing. Researchers Borgogna and colleagues propose that this discrepancy in findings might be explained by the interfering effectsContinue Reading

http://bit.ly/2Xho8Bs They’re alarmed by the kindness and love shown by people they were told were ‘wicked and evil’,” Gregory said. “That is their overwhelming feeling.” Gregory said there are many hurdles for the brainwashed victims. “They just can’t believe they were lied to about people out here; that you canContinue Reading

http://bit.ly/2oyAvMk “This ambiguity attribute is interesting as it gives people latitude to form interpretations of religious beings that are personally appealing and plausible,” Dr Swan says. And whereas fictional beings were given character traits that defined them as heroes or villains, religious beings were more ambivalent and associated with similarContinue Reading

The Telegraph: Child sex abuse inquiry widens scope to other religions outside Christianity for first time.https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/05/02/child-sex-abuse-inquiry-widens-scope-religions-outside-christianity/ Religious organisations across the country will be investigated for the first time, as the  Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) announced it was widenening its scope. Faiths including Buddhism, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Baptists andContinue Reading

David is a quantitative social scientist with a background in demography. He serves on the executive committee of the European Values Study and is co-director of British Religion in Numbers (www.brin.ac.uk), an online centre for British data on religion that has received recognition as a British Academy Research Project. HeContinue Reading

https://www.elementsbehavioralhealth.com/behavioral-process-addictions/can-religion-be-an-addiction/ What about religion? Is being devoted to God and going to services regularly something that can turn into a process addiction? It is possible to become so dedicated to worship that it overtakes everything else. Like any other behavioral addiction, this obsession is related to emotions and to theContinue Reading

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion Secular humanism embraces human reason, ethics, social justice, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, pseudoscience, and superstition as the bases of morality and decision making. Secular humanism posits that human beings are capable of being ethical and moral without religion or a god. Freethought holds thatContinue Reading

https://aeon.co/essays/theres-no-sharp-distinction-between-cult-and-regular-religion The historian J Gordon Melton of Baylor University in Texas says that the word ‘cult’ is meaningless: it merely assumes a normative framework that legitimises some exertions of religious power – those associated with mainstream organisations – while condemning others. Groups that have approved, ‘orthodox’ beliefs are considered legitimate,Continue Reading

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) is currently looking at the extent to which institutions in England and Wales failed to protect children from sexual abuse. It is examining institutional failures in the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches but has yet to do anything specific on other religiousContinue Reading

http://www.psypost.org/2017/05/study-uncovers-candidates-level-religiosity-can-impact-support-among-voters-48971 “The results have a number of implications for American politics,” Castle said. “First, they suggest that there is still a strong bias against secular candidates. In particular, we saw that Republicans had sharply negative reactions to the secular Republican candidate — in this treatment, the effect of party identificationContinue Reading