Fact-checked by Grok 2 weeks ago

Religious behaviour

Religious behaviour encompasses the observable actions, practices, and conducts that individuals and groups perform in response to religious beliefs, doctrines, and supernatural commitments, including rituals such as prayer, communal worship, ethical adherence, scriptural recitation, and costly signaling through sacrifices or pilgrimages.^[1] These behaviors manifest both privately, as in personal devotion or moral self-regulation, and publicly, as in collective ceremonies that reinforce group identity and norms.^[1] Empirical analyses distinguish religious behaviour from mere belief by focusing on measurable outcomes, such as frequency of participation or adherence to proscriptive rules, which interconnect with broader social and psychological processes.^[2] From evolutionary and biological standpoints, religious behaviour likely emerged through natural selection, with genetic heritabilities estimated between 20% and over 50% for specific practices and attitudes, suggesting innate predispositions shaped by ancestral environments favoring cooperation and group survival.^[3] Theories posit it as either an adaptation via mechanisms like credible commitment to shared supernatural agents, which reduced free-riding in large groups, or a byproduct of cognitive modules for agency detection and social intuition.^[4]^[5] In psychological terms, it correlates with traits like lower neuroticism and higher conscientiousness among practitioners, influencing locus of control and coping strategies during adversity.^[6]^[7] Sociologically, religious behaviour fosters prosocial effects, including elevated altruism, volunteerism, and community cohesion, often through repeated interactions in congregations that build trust and reciprocity beyond kin ties.^[8]^[9] However, variations across cultures highlight defining characteristics like orthodoxy enforcement and socialization, which predict commitment levels but also spark debates over whether such patterns primarily serve individual satisfaction or collective enforcement.^[10] Controversies persist regarding causal impacts, with evidence linking frequent engagement to expanded sympathy networks and reduced isolation, yet questioning persists on whether these stem from selection biases in self-reporting or inherent ritual dynamics.^[11]^[12]

Conceptual Foundations

Definition and Scope

Religious behavior refers to the observable actions, practices, and rituals enacted by individuals or groups in response to beliefs involving supernatural agents, forces, or realms beyond empirical verification. These behaviors typically manifest as communicated affirmations of claims about non-observable realities, such as deities, spirits, or afterlife states, distinguishing them from secular activities through their orientation toward the sacred or transcendent.^[13] ^[14] The scope of religious behavior is broad, encompassing both proactive engagements—like prayer, offerings, festivals, and pilgrimages—and restrictive conduct, such as taboos on certain foods, sexual practices, or interactions deemed profane. These actions serve to maintain social cohesion, enforce moral codes, or seek supernatural intervention, varying by cultural context but consistently tied to cosmologies that attribute causality to non-material entities. Anthropological surveys indicate such behaviors are universal across documented human societies, with no known exceptions lacking some form of supernatural-oriented practice, though intensity and form differ; for instance, belief in an afterlife appears in approximately 79% of sampled societies, often prompting associated rituals.^[15] ^[14] Empirically, religious behaviors integrate into lifecycle events (e.g., birth rites, funerals) and daily routines, influencing everything from dietary habits to communal gatherings, with participation rates varying globally—for example, over 80% of the world's population engages in some religious practice as of recent surveys. This universality stems from cognitive predispositions toward agency detection and pattern-seeking, enabling behaviors that address existential uncertainties, though scholarly definitions emphasize observable conduct over unverifiable internal states to avoid conflation with mere cognition.^[16] ^[15]

Evolutionary and Psychological Bases

Religious behaviors arise from cognitive predispositions shaped by evolutionary processes, with key mechanisms including hyperactive agency detection, where humans intuitively attribute ambiguous events to intentional agents rather than chance, fostering beliefs in supernatural oversight.^[17] This tendency, rooted in survival adaptations for detecting predators or allies, extends to gods or spirits, as evidenced by experimental studies showing children and adults default to agent-based explanations for natural phenomena.^[18] Similarly, theory of mind— the capacity to infer mental states in others—facilitates anthropomorphic conceptions of deities, making religious narratives cognitively intuitive and memorable due to minimal violations of ordinary expectations, such as omnipotent yet person-like beings.^[19] Evolutionary accounts debate whether religion constitutes an adaptation enhancing fitness or a byproduct of unrelated cognitive traits. The byproduct view, dominant in cognitive science of religion, posits that religious beliefs emerge incidentally from mechanisms like agency detection and causal reasoning, without direct selection for religiosity itself, as these traits evolved for non-religious purposes such as threat avoidance.^[5] Critiques argue this underestimates persistence of costly religious practices, like rituals demanding time and risk, which should face selection pressure unless they confer group-level benefits; empirical data indicate religious groups historically outcompete non-religious ones in survival and reproduction, with heritability estimates of religiosity at 30-50% from twin studies suggesting a genetic underpinning amenable to selection.^[20]^[21] Adaptationist perspectives highlight religion's role in signaling commitment and enforcing cooperation, as religious priming increases prosociality and generosity in economic games, while communal rituals correlate with higher in-group trust and reduced free-riding.^[5]^[22] Psychologically, religious behaviors fulfill needs for existential coherence and anxiety reduction, drawing on evolved modules for pattern-seeking and meaning-making amid uncertainty. Behavioral genetic research confirms moderate heritability in dimensions like religious attendance and fundamentalism, implying innate temperamental factors influence susceptibility to doctrinal adherence.^[23] Attachment theory posits god concepts as extensions of parental bonds, with secure early attachments predicting positive religious orientations that buffer stress, as shown in longitudinal studies linking religiosity to lower cortisol responses during adversity.^[24] Neuroimaging reveals activation in reward and social cognition networks during prayer or meditation, underscoring how these practices leverage dopamine-mediated reinforcement akin to social bonding mechanisms.^[25] While cultural transmission amplifies these bases, core dispositions persist across societies, explaining religion's near-universality despite varying forms.^[26]

Core Types of Behaviors

Affirmative Rituals and Practices

Affirmative rituals constitute a core category of religious behaviors involving deliberate, positive actions that express devotion, seek divine favor, or commemorate sacred events, distinguishing them from prohibitive taboos by their proactive engagement with the divine or communal faith structures. These practices often include prayer, offerings, liturgical services, and sacramental acts, performed individually or collectively to affirm beliefs and foster psychological resilience. Empirical research indicates that such rituals enhance self-control and emotional regulation; for instance, a 2016 study posits religious rituals as psychological exercises that bolster adaptive self-regulation by signaling commitment and reducing anxiety through repetitive, effortful actions.^[27] Similarly, integrative reviews of ritual psychology demonstrate that engagement in these behaviors buffers against negative emotions and improves performance under stress by decreasing physiological arousal. In Christianity, affirmative rituals prominently feature the Eucharist, a commemorative rite reenacting the Last Supper, administered weekly in many denominations to symbolize spiritual nourishment and communal unity, with participation linked to reported increases in life satisfaction among adherents. Baptism serves as an initiatory practice, marking entry into the faith through symbolic purification via water immersion or sprinkling, historically documented since the 1st century CE in New Testament accounts and early church fathers' writings. Islamic practices include the five daily Salah prayers, oriented toward Mecca, which involve physical prostrations and recitations from the Quran, fulfilling one of the Five Pillars and empirically associated with reduced tension and stabilized emotions in longitudinal studies of religious coping. The Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, obligatory once in a lifetime for capable Muslims, culminates in rituals like Tawaf circumambulation of the Kaaba, drawing over 2 million participants annually as of 2019 data, reinforcing collective identity.^[28] Hinduism employs Puja, a devotional offering ritual involving flowers, incense, and food presented to deities at home altars or temples, performed daily by observant families to invoke blessings and maintain cosmic harmony, with variations across sects emphasizing personal bhakti devotion. In Judaism, affirmative rituals encompass Shabbat observance through candle lighting, Kiddush blessings over wine, and festive meals on Fridays, prescribed in the Torah and Talmud, which studies correlate with enhanced family cohesion and subjective well-being. Buddhism features meditative practices like mindfulness rituals derived from the Pali Canon, such as metta loving-kindness meditation, which experimental evidence shows mitigate anxiety and promote prosocial behavior by restructuring cognitive appraisals of stressors. Across these traditions, affirmative rituals often scale from solitary acts—such as personal prayer, engaged in by 55% of U.S. adults weekly per 2021 surveys—to large-scale festivals, like the Hindu Kumbh Mela, attracting 50 million pilgrims in 2013 for ritual bathing believed to confer spiritual purification.^[29]^[30] These practices' efficacy in promoting individual flourishing stems from their structured repetition, which cultivates discipline and social signaling of commitment, as evidenced by cultural evolutionary models where ritual costly signaling fosters group cooperation without invoking unverifiable supernatural claims as causal necessities. However, outcomes vary; while meta-analyses link frequent ritual participation to lower depression rates—e.g., positive religious coping reducing symptoms in psychotic patients over prospective follow-ups—effects depend on contextual factors like community support rather than ritual form alone, underscoring causal realism over idealized narratives of universal benefit.^[31]^[32]^[33]

Prohibitive Avoidances and Taboos

Prohibitive avoidances and taboos constitute a core category of religious behaviors, encompassing explicit bans on specific actions, consumptions, or associations deemed spiritually contaminating, morally transgressive, or disruptive to divine order. These prohibitions often invoke supernatural sanctions such as divine wrath or ritual impurity, distinguishing them from secular norms by their sacred enforcement mechanisms. Anthropological analyses trace taboos to early human societies where they regulated social boundaries, with violations risking communal ostracism or supernatural retribution.^[34]^[35] In major world religions, dietary taboos exemplify prohibitive avoidances, serving to demarcate group identity and enforce discipline. Judaism's kashrut laws, codified in Leviticus 11, prohibit pork, shellfish, and blood consumption, alongside separations of meat and dairy, with adherence linked to covenantal fidelity rather than explicit health rationales in scriptural texts. Islam similarly bans pork and alcohol (haram), as stipulated in the Quran (e.g., Surah 5:3), framing these as tests of obedience that foster self-control and communal purity. Hinduism imposes taboos on beef for many adherents, rooted in reverence for cows as sacred symbols of life sustenance, with ethnographic studies noting their role in reinforcing caste and vegetarian ideals.^[36]^[37] Beyond diet, taboos extend to sexual and ritual domains, often amplifying social cohesion through costly signaling. Christian traditions vary, but many prohibit adultery, fornication, and idolatry per New Testament injunctions (e.g., 1 Corinthians 6:9-10), with historical celibacy vows among clergy imposing personal sacrifices to enhance perceived spiritual authority. Empirical research indicates such prohibitions correlate with reduced risky behaviors; for instance, religious adherents avoiding alcohol exhibit lower rates of substance abuse, though causality involves both doctrinal adherence and community enforcement rather than inherent supernatural effects. Anthropologists argue these avoidances evolve culturally to mitigate disgust responses to perceived contaminants, promoting hygiene in pre-modern contexts, yet modern violations rarely incur claimed supernatural penalties, suggesting symbolic over literal functions.^[38]^[39]^[40] Taboos also manifest in menstrual or death-related avoidances, as in Orthodox Judaism's niddah laws isolating women during menstruation to avert impurity, or widespread Hindu customs barring widows from certain rituals post-cremation. These practices, while critiqued in secular analyses for gender disparities, empirically bolster group solidarity by codifying boundaries against chaos, per cross-cultural studies. Violations historically prompted atonement rituals, underscoring taboos' role in maintaining moral equilibrium without reliance on state law.^[41]^[42]

Communal and Solitary Expressions

Communal expressions of religious behavior involve collective participation in rituals, services, and gatherings that reinforce social bonds and shared beliefs among adherents. These include weekly worship services, festivals, pilgrimages, and communal prayers, which are prevalent across major religions such as Christianity's Sunday masses, Islam's Friday congregational prayers (Jumu'ah), and Hinduism's temple festivals. Empirical data indicate that approximately 33% of U.S. adults attend religious services in person at least once or twice a month, with 24% participating weekly, either virtually or in person, reflecting sustained communal engagement despite secular trends.^[43]^[44] Such practices foster generalized trust, volunteering, and perceived cooperativeness, as frequency of service attendance positively correlates with these outcomes in longitudinal studies controlling for confounders.^[45] Communal rituals also enhance social stability and human flourishing by promoting prosocial behaviors and community cohesion, with repeated evidence linking regular group involvement to reduced all-cause mortality and improved policy-relevant outcomes like family stability.^[46]^[47]^[48] In contrast, solitary expressions encompass private devotions such as personal prayer, meditation, scripture reading, and ascetic practices conducted without group involvement, allowing for individualized spiritual introspection. These are more widespread than communal attendance; for instance, daily private prayer is reported by a substantial portion of believers, with studies showing it predicts higher survival rates over six years (hazard ratio of 1.48 for daily pray-ers versus non-pray-ers) independent of other health factors.^[49] Positive religious coping through solitary practices correlates with better psychological well-being and stress reduction, though negative coping styles in isolation can exacerbate distress.^[50] Unlike communal forms, which emphasize social reinforcement, solitary expressions prioritize personal connection to the divine, as seen in monastic traditions or daily personal supplications in Judaism and Buddhism, and they remain resilient amid declining attendance, with private faith practices declining less sharply than public ones.^[51]^[11] The distinction between communal and solitary modes influences their respective outcomes: communal participation builds networks that buffer loneliness through social integration, particularly in later life, while solitary practices offer flexible, introspective coping mechanisms that may protect against depression and anxiety in youth, albeit with smaller effect sizes.^[52]^[53] Many religions integrate both, prescribing solitary prayer alongside obligatory group rites to balance individual piety with collective identity, though empirical patterns reveal solitary behaviors often outpace communal ones in frequency, suggesting personal devotion as a core, adaptable element of religious life.^[54]^[55]

Variations in Specific Contexts

Behaviors in Sacred Spaces

In sacred spaces such as mosques, temples, churches, and synagogues, religious adherents typically adopt behaviors that emphasize reverence, ritual purity, and separation from everyday profane activities. Common practices include removing footwear before entry, observed in Islamic mosques, Hindu temples, and Buddhist shrines to symbolize humility and prevent contamination of holy ground with external impurities. ^[56] ^[57] Head coverings are required for men in Jewish synagogues, often via a kippah or yarmulke, and for both sexes in some Muslim contexts to denote respect and submission to divine authority. ^[56] ^[58] These actions serve to psychologically transition participants into a focused state, fostering communal discipline and individual mindfulness, as physical demarcations reinforce cognitive shifts toward the sacred. ^[59] Specific postural and gestural behaviors further distinguish sacred engagement. In mosques, the salah prayer ritual involves sequential movements of standing (qiyam), bowing (ruku), and prostration (sujud) facing the qibla toward Mecca, performed five times daily to embody total submission to God. ^[60] In Hindu temples, devotees undertake darshan by gazing upon the deity's image after circumambulating (pradakshina) the inner sanctum clockwise, often following hand and foot washing for ritual cleanliness. ^[57] Jewish synagogue customs mandate silence during Torah reading and services, prohibiting idle conversation or lightheartedness to maintain the space's sanctity as a locus for prayer and study. ^[61] Christian churches commonly feature genuflection—bending one knee toward the altar—or the sign of the cross upon entry, signaling acknowledgment of Christ's presence, though variations exist across denominations. ^[62] These behaviors, rigid and repetitive, cultivate group cohesion and individual commitment by channeling affective responses like awe and humility, as evidenced in cross-cultural analyses where ritual formality in sacred settings enhances perceived meaning and social bonding. ^[63] Violations, such as loud speech or disruptive movement, are avoided to preserve the space's efficacy, with etiquette extending to low voices in mosques during dhikr and no photography during active worship in multiple traditions. ^[64] ^[56] Empirically, such practices correlate with heightened emotional regulation and reduced secular distractions, though their origins often trace to practical concerns like hygiene alongside symbolic intent. ^[65]

Daily and Lifecycle Integration

Religious behaviors integrate into daily life primarily through repetitive practices such as prayer and meditation, which serve as mechanisms for personal devotion and stress regulation. In the United States, surveys indicate that 55% of adults pray daily, with women more likely to do so than men (64% versus 46%), embedding these acts into morning, evening, or ad hoc routines regardless of formal service attendance.^[66] Empirical studies further show that daily religious behaviors, including prayer, exert positive main effects on affective states by buffering the impact of daily stressors and enhancing responses to positive events.^[67] Such routines often extend to dietary observances, like halal or kosher adherence among Muslims and Jews, or periodic fasting in traditions such as Ramadan or Lent, which temporally structure eating and reflection patterns.^[68] These daily integrations foster consistency in religious identity, with "highly religious" individuals—defined by daily prayer combined with weekly service attendance—reporting higher engagement in scripture reading or ethical decision-making influenced by doctrine.^[69] Cross-culturally, anthropological evidence highlights how routines like communal meals or work pauses for reflection reinforce social cohesion, as seen in hunter-gatherer societies where repetitive acts align with environmental cycles to mark time and affirm beliefs.^[15] However, integration varies by context; urban believers may adapt practices via digital tools, negotiating traditional rituals with modern schedules while maintaining core elements of identity.^[70] Lifecycle integration manifests through rites of passage that ritually demarcate biological and social transitions, including birth, puberty or initiation, marriage, and death, universal across societies to signify status changes.^[71] At birth, rituals often invoke protection or community incorporation, such as purification ceremonies or naming rites documented in diverse ethnographic accounts, emphasizing communal validation of new life.^[72] Puberty or coming-of-age initiations, prevalent in indigenous and tribal groups, involve seclusion, trials, or symbolic rebirth to confer adult responsibilities, with evidence from global samples linking these to reinforced gender roles and moral frameworks.^[73] Marriage rituals standardize union formation, typically involving vows, exchanges, or feasts to publicly affirm commitments, as observed in historical and contemporary cross-cultural data where they mitigate alliance uncertainties through performative oaths.^[71] Death rites, conversely, address mortality by facilitating mourning, burial, or ancestral incorporation, with practices like vigils or commemorations aiding grief processing and social continuity, per anthropological reviews of lifecycle ceremonies.^[74] These events, while culturally variable, consistently employ symbolic acts to navigate existential shifts, with empirical correlations to enhanced family resilience and identity transmission.^[75]

Empirical Impacts and Evidence

Positive Outcomes for Individuals and Societies

Religious participation, particularly regular attendance at services, has been associated with reduced risks of all-cause mortality, with one longitudinal study of over 5,000 adults finding that frequent attendees experienced a 26% lower mortality hazard ratio compared to non-attendees, independent of health behaviors and social support.^[76] Similarly, analyses of U.S. obituaries from 2010-2017 indicated that individuals with religious affiliations lived approximately 3.82 years longer on average than those without, attributing this partly to community ties and behavioral factors like reduced smoking.^[77] For mental health, positive religious coping—such as seeking spiritual support during stress—predicts reductions in depressive and anxiety symptoms among clinical populations, including psychotic patients, as evidenced in prospective studies tracking symptom changes over time.^[32] At the individual level, religiosity correlates with enhanced life satisfaction, with a meta-analysis of 498 studies (N=1,281,424) reporting a small but significant positive association (r=0.16) across dimensions like attendance and intrinsic faith, potentially mediated by purpose and optimism.^[78] Religious involvement also fosters resilience, providing coping resources that buffer against stress-induced negative emotions, as synthesized in reviews of over 3,000 empirical studies linking faith practices to lower depression incidence.^[79] For societies, religious behaviors promote prosocial actions, with frequent service attendance linked to higher rates of charitable giving and volunteering; longitudinal data show attendees are more likely to donate time and money post-participation, enhancing community welfare.^[47] In diverse national samples, religiosity predicts greater generalized trust and cooperative behaviors, as attendance frequency boosts volunteering by 10-15% in European cohorts.^[45] Regarding crime, higher concentrations of religious congregations correlate with reduced violent and property crime rates, particularly in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas, per analyses of U.S. county-level data where per capita congregations lowered offense rates by up to 20%.^[80] Cross-national comparisons of 13 industrial countries further confirm that nations with higher religiosity exhibit lower property crime, attributed to moral frameworks discouraging deviance.^[81] These patterns suggest religious behaviors contribute to social stability through shared norms and mutual support networks.

Negative Consequences and Risks

Religious behaviors, particularly those involving rigid adherence to doctrines emphasizing divine punishment or moral perfectionism, have been empirically linked to heightened risks of mental health disorders. Scrupulosity, a subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) characterized by excessive religious obsessions and compulsions such as persistent fears of sinning or blaspheming, correlates with increased anxiety, guilt, and impaired daily functioning.^[82] ^[83] Studies indicate that individuals with religious scrupulosity experience more severe OCD symptoms, including intrusive thoughts about offending a deity, which negatively impact religious experiences and overall well-being compared to non-scrupulous OCD sufferers.^[84] Negative religious coping—such as viewing suffering as divine punishment—mediates these effects, exacerbating depression and psychological distress, with longitudinal data showing associations between such coping styles and poorer mental health outcomes.^[85] ^[86] Certain religious practices prioritizing faith healing over conventional medicine pose direct physical risks, including preventable morbidity and mortality. In cases where parents reject medical interventions for children due to religious convictions, faith healing has resulted in substantial child fatalities from treatable conditions like pneumonia, diabetes, and infections; a review of 18 such U.S. cases from 1975 to 1995 documented 23 deaths, with medical evidence indicating high survival probabilities had standard care been provided.^[87] Exclusive reliance on prayer or anointing has led to documented suffering and deaths in faith-based communities, with estimates suggesting hundreds of preventable pediatric fatalities annually when exemptions from child neglect laws apply.^[88] ^[89] These risks extend to adults in sects like Christian Science, where refusal of treatments such as insulin or antibiotics has caused avoidable deaths, underscoring causal links between doctrinal prohibitions and adverse health outcomes.^[90] Socially, intense religious behaviors can foster interpersonal strains, including family disruptions from excessive devotion or enforcement of taboos. Empirical analyses reveal that overcommitment to religious practices, such as prolonged rituals or proselytizing, contributes to marital discord and familial isolation, with qualitative data from clinical samples highlighting family breakups tied to such excesses.^[91] Religious struggles, including doubts or perceived divine anger, predict declines in life satisfaction and relational quality among adherents, independent of positive faith aspects.^[92] While broader societal intolerance stems from group behaviors, individual-level risks include stigmatization of non-conformists within communities, amplifying isolation for those questioning orthodoxy.^[93]

Controversies and Debates

Persecution and Intolerance

Religious persecution involves systematic discrimination, harassment, violence, or suppression directed at individuals or groups due to their faith or lack thereof, often justified through religious doctrines or behaviors emphasizing doctrinal purity and exclusivity.^[94] Intolerance manifests in religious behaviors such as enforcing orthodoxy via social ostracism, vigilante enforcement of taboos, or communal pressures against apostasy, which can escalate to lethal outcomes in contexts where religious identity overrides individual rights.^[95] Empirical data indicate that such behaviors persist across history and regions, with government-imposed restrictions peaking globally in recent years; Pew Research Center reported that in 2022, government restrictions on religion remained at their highest levels since tracking began in 2007, affecting 198 countries through measures like banning faiths or limiting preaching.^[94] ^[96] Historically, early Christian communities endured sporadic but intense persecution in the Roman Empire, driven by behaviors rooted in imperial cult worship and perceptions of Christian refusal to participate in pagan rituals as disloyalty. Under Emperor Nero in 64 CE, following the Great Fire of Rome, Christians were scapegoated and subjected to crucifixions, burnings, and arena executions, with Tacitus documenting their torture as public spectacles.^[97] The Diocletianic Persecution from 303 to 313 CE represented the most systematic campaign, involving church demolitions, scripture burnings, and forced sacrifices, affecting thousands across the empire before Constantine's Edict of Milan in 313 CE granted toleration.^[98] Later, Christian majorities exhibited intolerance, as in the Spanish Inquisition established in 1478, where behaviors enforcing Catholic orthodoxy led to trials, torture, and executions of suspected heretics, Jews, and Muslims, with estimates of 3,000 to 5,000 deaths over centuries.^[99] Islamic expansions from the 7th century onward involved conquest behaviors that imposed dhimmi status on non-Muslims, entailing taxes, restrictions on worship, and occasional forced conversions, though empirical records show variability by ruler and region.^[100] In modern contexts, intolerance often codifies into laws punishing perceived offenses against religious sensibilities, with blasphemy statutes in 89 countries affecting 57% of the global population as of 2024, predominantly in Muslim-majority states where such laws derive from interpretations of Sharia emphasizing protection of prophetic honor.^[101] These enable behaviors like mob violence or state executions; for instance, Pakistan's blasphemy law (Section 295-C) mandates death for insulting Muhammad, resulting in over 1,500 accusations since 1987, many leading to extrajudicial killings despite low conviction rates.^[95] Persecution of Christians remains acute, with Open Doors' 2025 World Watch List documenting 380 million facing high or extreme levels, primarily in 10 top countries—North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, Yemen, Nigeria, Sudan, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan—where Islamist extremism or authoritarian regimes enforce religious conformity through violence, abductions, and church attacks, killing 4,476 Christians for faith-related reasons in the reporting period.^[102] ^[103] Social hostilities compound this, as Pew data show Muslims facing harassment in 17 Middle East-North Africa countries in recent years, while Christians and other minorities endure displacement of over 800,000 in conflict zones tied to religious intolerance.^[104] State atheism under communist regimes exemplified secular intolerance mimicking religious zeal, with the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991 closing 40,000 churches, executing or imprisoning millions of believers, and promoting behaviors denouncing faith as superstition to enforce ideological monopoly.^[100] Today, 19 countries maintain "very high" government restrictions, including China’s suppression of Uyghur Muslims and Falun Gong via re-education camps holding over 1 million since 2017, and India's rising communal tensions under Hindu nationalist policies targeting Muslims and Christians with mob lynchings and forced conversions reported in hundreds of incidents annually.^[105] These patterns reveal causal links between religious behaviors prioritizing group cohesion over pluralism and heightened persecution risks, particularly where majorities wield state power, though empirical trends show no religion immune—Christian, Muslim, and Hindu contexts alike feature intolerance when unchecked by secular limits.^[106]

Religious Violence and Extremism

Religious violence encompasses acts of physical aggression, terrorism, or persecution justified through religious doctrines or directed against individuals or groups on account of their faith. Such violence often stems from interpretations of sacred texts that endorse conflict against perceived apostates, infidels, or rivals, though empirical analyses indicate it frequently intersects with political, ethnic, or socioeconomic grievances rather than deriving solely from theology.^[107] For instance, the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), which tracks over 200,000 incidents since 1970, classifies terrorist attacks by perpetrator ideology, revealing that religiously motivated attacks—predominantly Islamist—accounted for a rising share in the United States, from 9% of attacks in earlier decades to 53% between 2010 and 2016.^[108] Globally, the 2024 Global Terrorism Index reports that Islamic State affiliates remain the deadliest terrorist entities, responsible for significant deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, with nearly 2,000 fatalities from 258 incidents in Burkina Faso alone in the prior year, highlighting concentrations in regions of weak governance.^[109] Extremism in religious contexts involves rigid, absolutist ideologies that demonize outsiders and legitimize coercion or elimination to achieve eschatological or puritanical aims. Scholarly models dissect this across theological (e.g., literalist scriptural exegesis), ritual (e.g., martyrdom cults), social (e.g., in-group solidarity), and political dimensions, as seen in analyses of Islamic groups where extremists amplify selective hadiths to mobilize support.^[110] Causal factors extend beyond doctrine; economic marginalization, state failure, and identity fusion in groups amplify vulnerability, with peer violence or family dysfunction heightening susceptibility per Radicalisation Awareness Network assessments.^[111] Empirical reviews challenge oversimplified theological determinism, noting that violent extremism emerges from interactions like perceived humiliation or resource competition, where religion serves as a framing device rather than root cause.^[107] ^[112] Prominent modern examples include the September 11, 2001, attacks by al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people in the United States through hijacked aircraft strikes justified as jihad against Western influence.^[113] The Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate, established on June 29, 2014, in Iraq and Syria, involved systematic beheadings, enslavement of Yazidis (over 5,000 abducted in August 2014), and territorial conquests that displaced millions, framed as fulfilling prophetic battles.^[109] Other cases span faiths: Rohingya persecution by Myanmar's Buddhist nationalists since 2017 displaced over 700,000 Muslims amid arson and killings, while Hindu-Muslim clashes in India, such as the 2002 Gujarat riots killing around 1,000 (mostly Muslim), illustrate how electoral politics can inflame doctrinal tensions.^[114] These incidents underscore that while religious rhetoric mobilizes perpetrators, underlying causal realism points to power asymmetries and historical animosities, with data showing 95% of 2023 terrorism deaths occurring in conflict zones where multiple motives converge.^[109] Mitigation efforts emphasize countering narratives through community resilience and inclusive development, as violent extremism correlates with poverty and exclusion in fragile states like Somalia or the Philippines.^[115] However, academic sources, often from Western institutions, may underemphasize intra-religious violence (e.g., Sunni-Shia conflicts killing tens of thousands annually) due to sensitivities, privileging secular framings over doctrinal incentives. Peer-reviewed evidence supports that religion's role in extremism is amplified by group dynamics and perceived existential threats, not inherent to faith itself, as non-religious ideologies have similarly fueled mass violence in the 20th century.^[116]^[107]

Secular and Internal Critiques

Secular critiques of religious behavior frequently highlight the absence of verifiable causal mechanisms underlying practices like prayer and ritual, positing them instead as psychological placebos or socially conditioned habits without external efficacy. Statistician Francis Galton, in his 1872 analysis, examined intercessory prayer directed toward British monarchs—who received widespread public supplications—and found their lifespans statistically indistinguishable from those of non-prayed-for peers, such as European royalty without similar devotional focus.^[117] A 2006 systematic review of clinical trials on distant intercessory prayer for health outcomes similarly concluded that evidence shows no consistent positive effects, with some studies indicating potential harm from heightened patient anxiety upon learning of prayers on their behalf.^[118] These findings underpin arguments that religious behaviors fail first-principles tests of causality, relying on anecdotal correlations rather than controlled empirical validation. Psychoanalytic and materialist frameworks further portray religious rituals as maladaptive responses to human vulnerabilities. Sigmund Freud, in works like The Future of an Illusion (1927), interpreted rituals and prayer as projections of infantile helplessness onto a paternal deity, functioning as defensive illusions that repress instinctual drives and foster dependency rather than adaptive reasoning.^[119] Karl Marx, critiquing religion's behavioral manifestations in Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right (1843-1844), deemed them "the opium of the people," instruments that ritualize submission to earthly hierarchies, dulling class consciousness and perpetuating exploitation by framing suffering as divine will.^[120] Friedrich Nietzsche extended this in The Antichrist (1888), decrying Christian rituals as embodiments of "ressentiment," promoting life-denying virtues like meekness that stifle individual will to power and natural hierarchies.^[120] Such views attribute ritual persistence to cultural inertia over truth, warning that uncritical adherence impedes scientific progress and rational self-determination. Internal critiques within religious traditions often target behaviors perceived as hypocritical or mechanistic, prioritizing outward forms over inner ethical transformation. Hebrew prophets repeatedly condemned ritualism untethered from justice; Micah 6:6-8, for instance, rejects elaborate sacrifices—rivers of oil or firstborn offerings—in favor of "doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with your God," arguing that God values moral conduct over performative piety.^[121] Isaiah 1:11-17 echoes this, dismissing multiplied prayers, incense, and festivals as abominations when accompanied by injustice, such as neglecting the oppressed or shedding innocent blood, insisting that true worship demands ceasing evil and correcting oppression.^[122] Amos similarly critiques feasting and sacrifices amid societal corruption, declaring divine rejection of rituals from those who trample the needy.^[123] In Christianity, the New Testament records Jesus denouncing Pharisaic practices—such as ostentatious praying, tithing mint while neglecting justice, or ritual handwashing without heart purity—as hypocritical burdens that strain adherents without alleviating sin (Matthew 23:1-36).^[124] The Protestant Reformation amplified such internal dissent; Martin Luther's 95 Theses (1517) assailed indulgences and relic veneration as corrupt rituals exploiting believers, advocating sola fide to supplant sacramental mechanization with personal faith.^[125] Reformers like John Calvin further critiqued Catholic mass rituals as idolatrous repetitions obscuring Christ's once-for-all sacrifice, urging behaviors grounded in scriptural simplicity over tradition-bound excess.^[126] These critiques, while varying by denomination, consistently demand alignment of religious behavior with doctrinal cores, rejecting dilutions into superstition or moral complacency.

Academic Perspectives

Historical Development of Study

The academic study of religious behavior originated in the mid-19th century within anthropology, where scholars sought to explain rituals and practices through evolutionary frameworks. Edward Burnett Tylor, in his 1871 work Primitive Culture, proposed animism as the foundational form of religion, positing that behaviors such as dream interpretation and ritual offerings stemmed from primitive attributions of souls to natural phenomena, marking an early empirical classification of cross-cultural practices.^[42] James Frazer extended this in The Golden Bough (1890), analyzing rituals like sympathetic magic and sacrificial rites across societies as stages in a progression from magic to religion, emphasizing observable behavioral patterns over theological claims.^[127] These works shifted focus from doctrinal interpretation to behavioral observation, though later critiques highlighted their speculative evolutionary assumptions lacking direct causal evidence.^[128] In sociology, the late 19th and early 20th centuries introduced functionalist analyses of religious behavior's societal roles. Émile Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912) examined Australian Aboriginal totemic rituals as mechanisms for collective effervescence, arguing that repetitive behaviors reinforced social solidarity through shared symbols rather than supernatural beliefs per se.^[129] Max Weber, in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904–1905), traced ascetic behaviors among Calvinists—such as methodical work and reinvestment—as causal drivers of economic rationalization, inverting prior views by linking individual religious conduct to macroeconomic outcomes.^[130] These approaches privileged observable social functions and historical causation, contrasting with theological defenses, but Durkheim's collectivist emphasis has been noted for underplaying individual agency in behavioral motivations.^[131] Psychology of religion emerged concurrently, emphasizing experiential and cognitive dimensions of behaviors. William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) cataloged personal accounts of conversion, prayer, and mystical states as empirically verifiable phenomena influencing conduct, establishing the field by treating religious actions as psychological processes amenable to pragmatic assessment.^[1] Sigmund Freud's The Future of an Illusion (1927) later interpreted rituals and observances as neurotic defenses against helplessness, rooted in infantile projections, though this reductionism drew empirical challenges for overlooking adaptive behavioral benefits observed in longitudinal studies.^[132] By the mid-20th century, interdisciplinary integration began, with post-World War II quantitative surveys measuring behavioral correlates like attendance and adherence, building on these foundations to test causal hypotheses via statistical methods.^[133]

Modern Interdisciplinary Approaches

Cognitive science of religion examines how ordinary cognitive processes generate religious beliefs and behaviors, positing that concepts of supernatural agents emerge as by-products of evolved mental systems such as agency detection and theory of mind. Pascal Boyer's 2003 analysis argues that religious ideas activate domain-specific inference systems—like those for intuitive ontology and social exchange—producing minimally counterintuitive representations that are memorable and transmissible, without requiring dedicated religious modules in the brain.^[134] Experimental evidence supports this through the hyperactive agency detection device (HADD), where individuals, particularly children, over-detect intentional agents in ambiguous stimuli, fostering animism and theism as adaptive error-management strategies in ancestral environments.^[135]^[136] Evolutionary psychology integrates genetic and cultural selection to explain religious behaviors, debating whether they constitute direct adaptations for cooperation or spandrels of other traits like morality and group cohesion. Twin and adoption studies reveal moderate heritability for religiosity, with meta-analyses estimating genetic influences at 18-44% across dimensions like church attendance and fundamentalism, indicating polygenic contributions interacting with shared and non-shared environments.^[137] Empirical models, such as costly signaling theory, demonstrate how rituals impose verifiable fitness costs to signal commitment, enhancing intragroup trust and reducing free-riding in large-scale societies, as evidenced by ethnographic data from hunter-gatherers to modern denominations.^[138] Behavioral experiments further show that priming religious concepts increases prosociality toward ingroup members, aligning with kin selection extensions to symbolic kin in religious communities.^[139] Neuroscience employs imaging techniques to map correlates of religious experiences, revealing distributed brain networks rather than localized "God spots." Andrew Newberg's SPECT studies from 2001 onward, scanning meditating Tibetan Buddhists and praying Franciscan nuns, found decreased parietal lobe activity—linked to self-other boundaries—during peak spiritual states, alongside heightened prefrontal engagement for focused attention and emotional regulation.^[140]^[141] fMRI research on prayer and glossolalia confirms involvement of reward circuits like the nucleus accumbens, suggesting religious behaviors hijack neurochemical pathways for motivation and bonding, akin to attachment systems.^[142] These findings underscore causal roles for neuroplasticity, where repeated practices reshape default mode networks, potentially explaining persistence of behaviors like communal worship despite secular alternatives.^[143] Interdisciplinary syntheses, such as those in the Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Religion (2021), combine these strands to model religion's emergence around 70,000-100,000 years ago amid cognitive revolutions enabling symbolic thought and large-scale cooperation.^[139] While critiques note reductionism—overlooking cultural variance—these approaches prioritize falsifiable predictions, like heritability gradients across societies, yielding predictive power absent in purely interpretive frameworks.^[138] Ongoing work in credition science further dissects belief formation as neural subprocesses, bridging gaps between cognition and overt behavior.^[144]

References

[1]
Psychology of Religion: An Overview of its History and Current Status
Jul 24, 2008 · Among the many forms of religious behavior studied are participation in group worship, prayer, reading of Scriptures, use of religious language, ...
[2]
[PDF] Explanation in Yinger's sociology of religion.
It studies empirical phenomena to try to isolate generalizations concerning the interconnection of religious behavior with other social behavior” (1961: 135).
[3]
The Evolutionary Biology of Religious Behavior - ScienceDirect.com
Religious attitudes and behaviors do have a reasonable genetic predisposition ranging from 20% up to over 50%, depending on the attitude or behavior ...
[4]
The Biology of Religious Behavior: The Evolutionary Origins of Faith ...
Apr 23, 2010 · In particular, Feierman presents a general description of how religious behavior may have evolved through natural selection and offers some ...
[5]
Religion as an Evolutionary Byproduct: A Critique of the Standard ...
When authors claim that religion is adaptive, they are asserting that religion has propagated due to its history of fitness-enhancing effects relative to non- ...
[6]
Basic Religious Beliefs and Personality Traits - PMC - NIH
It means that religious people should be more calm, at – ease, relaxed, secure and comfortable, while the neurotic people are worried, nervous, high-strung, ...
[7]
The Relationship Between Locus of Control and Religious Behavior ...
Jun 24, 2020 · The purpose of the present study was to examine, in a large representative population, the association between self-reported religious beliefs, attitudes and ...
[8]
A systematic review of the association between religiousness and ...
Religiousness is related to increased prosocial behaviors. Since most religious congregations organize or sponsor community services, for instance, fund-raising ...
[9]
(PDF) The Influence of Religious Beliefs on Social Behavior and ...
Religious beliefs influence social behavior by promoting altruism, volunteerism, and prosocial actions. ... a sense of shared identity and common purpose, ...
[10]
The Determinants of Religious Behavior: A Theoretical Model ... - jstor
The five categories influencing religious behavior are: group involvement, belief-orthodoxy, religious commitment, religious socialization, and ...
[11]
Religiosity and religious attendance as factors in wellbeing and ...
Jan 22, 2020 · Religiosity and attendance affect local community engagement, friends, and trust, but not happiness. Attendance increases sympathy group size ...
[12]
Believing, Bonding, Behaving, and Belonging - Sage Journals
They reflect distinct psychological processes (cognitive, emotional, moral, and social), respective goals, conversion motives, types of self-transcendence, and ...
[13]
Religion as an identifiable traditional behavior subject to natural ...
This article thus argues that the only thing identifiable that is distinctly religious is a certain type of behavior; more specifically, a certain type of talk.
[14]
Religion - Human Relations Area Files - Yale University
Nov 28, 2018 · Belief in an afterlife is widespread. One study reports that such beliefs are present in 79% of world societies (Peoples, Duda, and Marlowe ...High Gods · Ancestor Worship · Religion and Morality · Reincarnation
[15]
Hunter-Gatherers and the Origins of Religion - PMC - PubMed Central
May 6, 2016 · The universality of religion across human societies (Brown 1991) suggests a deep evolutionary past. The human ability to create complex ...
[16]
Religion – Discovering Cultural Anthropology
Religion includes cosmology, belief in the supernatural, rules of behavior, and rituals. It is central to most cultures and is studied by anthropology.Defining Religion · Theories Of Religion · Religious Practitioners
[17]
The Cognitive and Evolutionary Psychology of Religion
Aug 5, 2025 · The following reviews recent developments in the cognitive and evolutionary psychology of religion, and argues for an adaptationist stance.
[18]
The evolution of religious belief in humans: a brief review ... - PubMed
This review explores developments in the evolutionary cognitive psychology of religion and provides critical evaluation of the different theoretical positions.
[19]
The cognitive science of religion | BPS - British Psychological Society
Apr 19, 2011 · Some cognitive scientists of religion suggest that once religious ideas and practices emerged in human groups, they endowed these religious folk ...
[20]
The Etiology of Stability and Change in Religious Values and ... - NIH
Studies pertaining to the heritability of religiosity in adolescents show little evidence for a genetic contribution, with environmental influences accounting ...
[21]
Common genetic influences underpin religiosity, community ...
Genetically-informative studies of religiosity have indicated that the strength of religious belief is moderately heritable (h2 = .30–.45: Bouchard, 2004, ...
[22]
Religion and cooperation across the globe - ScienceDirect.com
Empirical studies have documented a positive relationship between religion and human cooperation with non-kin, inside and outside the lab (Tsang et al., 2021; ...
[23]
Genetic and Environmental Influences on Multiple Dimensions of ...
Aug 10, 2025 · In this regard, twin studies have suggested that people vary in their susceptibility to religious conversion (Bouchard, Lykken, McGue, Segal, & ...
[24]
[PDF] The Psychology of Religion - Gratitude Works
Aug 6, 2002 · The psychology of religion studies the cognitive and affective basis of religious experience, and the psychological bases of religious belief, ...
[25]
The Cultural Psychology of Religiosity, Spirituality, and Secularism ...
Jan 23, 2021 · Cultural psychology has raised awareness of religiosity, spirituality, and secularism in people's psychological lives.
[26]
The Evolutionary Psychology of Religion
According to surveys by ethnographers, religion is a human universal. In all human cultures, people believe that the soul lives on after death, that ritual can ...
[27]
Full article: Religious rituals as tools for adaptive self-regulation
Jul 15, 2016 · Religious rituals can be seen as psychological exercises that strengthen people's capacity for self-control.
[28]
Religion and mental health - PMC - PubMed Central - NIH
It has been reported that it can produce changes in personality, reduce tension and anxiety, diminish self-blame, stabilize emotional ups and downs, and ...
[29]
[PDF] Comparative Analysis of Ritual in World Religions - Journals
Aug 21, 2025 · Examples include annual ritual, which renacts the stories of faith. Such rituals include the Christian Eucharist, Muslim. Hajj and Jewish ...
[30]
10 Overlapping Rituals Among Abrahamic Faiths - Zwemer Center
Muslims pray towards Mecca, Jews pray towards Jerusalem, and historically Christians pray towards the East. All three religions are considered Abrahamic and ...
[31]
Cultural Evolution of Religion, Spirituality and Ritual: Impacts On ...
Mar 18, 2024 · From the classic gene-centred view of evolution, cooperation is a mystery. This paper reviews the cultural evolutionary approach, ...<|separator|>
[32]
Spirituality, religiousness, and mental health: A review of the current ...
Rosmarin et al[52] prospectively investigated 47 psychotic patients and found that positive religious coping predicted a reduction in depression and anxiety ...
[33]
Is religion beneficial for mental health? A 9-year longitudinal study
Religious practices and beliefs may benefit mental health through their influence on appraisals of and coping with major life stressors (Harrison et al., 2001; ...
[34]
The SAGE Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion - Taboo
Taboo refers to the explicit prohibition of an act (as well as the discussion of such acts or related words) on the grounds that it is deemed either too ...Missing: major | Show results with:major
[35]
Analysis of taboos as a basic principle of religious beliefs in ... - Skhid
Jul 29, 2018 · It is indicated that all the spheres of life in primitive societies are regulated by sacred taboos which replace law, ethics and religion. In ...Missing: prohibitive avoidances major scholarly sources
[36]
[PDF] Taboos and Identity: Considering the Unthinkable
Other taboos relate to dietary restrictions like. Halal and kosher diets for Muslims and Jewish people, eating beef by Hindus, or cannibalism in most societies.
[37]
65 Examples of Taboos (Cultural, Religious & Food)
Examples of Religious Taboos · Working on the Sabbath – In Exodus 35:2, Jews and some Christians are warned that “you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest”.
[38]
Why do religious leaders observe costly prohibitions? Examining ...
Religious leaders refrain from sex and food across human societies. Researchers argue that this avoidance influences people's perceptions of leaders' underlying ...
[39]
Religious Affiliation and Health Behaviors and Outcomes - NIH
Feb 15, 2016 · Religion can have a positive effect on health by directly influencing the health habits of individuals through the prohibition of health ...
[40]
The cognitive origin and cultural evolution of taboos in human ...
Feb 1, 2024 · In the anthropological literature, taboos are often associated with religious practices, carrying a sense of 'sacred prohibition' (Lisiansky ...Missing: major | Show results with:major
[41]
[PDF] American Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences
A B S T R A C T. K E Y W O R D S. This article provides an insight into the origins of primitive religious prohibitions (taboos)and their role in society.
[42]
[PDF] Religion - Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology
Rites of passage and rites of intensification are an important part of many religious traditions, but these same rituals also exist in secular (non-religious) ...
[43]
8. Religious attendance and congregational involvement
Feb 26, 2025 · One-third of US adults say they attend religious services in person at least once or twice a month, while 18% report attending services a few times a year.
[44]
Religious Change in America - PRRI
Mar 27, 2024 · In 2023, nearly one-quarter of Americans (24%) attend religious services, either virtually or in person, at least once a week, a 7 percentage ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[45]
impact of religious involvement on trust, volunteering, and perceived ...
Apr 24, 2023 · We find that frequency of religious service attendance on average has a positive impact on generalized trust, volunteering, and perceived cooperativeness.
[46]
Why Religion Matters: The Impact of Religious Practice on Social ...
Strong and repeated evidence indicates that the regular practice of religion has beneficial effects in nearly every aspect of social concern and policy.
[47]
Religious Communities and Human Flourishing - PMC
Participation in religious services is associated with numerous aspects of human flourishing, including happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical ...
[48]
Attendance at Religious Services, Prayer, Religious Coping, and ...
Previous longitudinal studies have consistently shown an association between attendance at religious services and lower all-cause mortality.
[49]
Frequency of Private Prayer Predicts Survival Over 6 Years in a ...
Jul 29, 2023 · Those who prayed on a daily basis or more were significantly more likely to survive over 6 years (Hazard Ratio = 1.48; 95% Confidence Intervals: 1.08–2.03)
[50]
The effect of spirituality and religious attendance on the relationship ...
Positive religious coping has been found to be related to positive outcomes for psychological well-being, while negative religious coping is related to distress ...Missing: solitary | Show results with:solitary
[51]
Signs of Decline & Hope Among Key Metrics of Faith - Barna Group
Mar 4, 2020 · Among the interesting stories in the data is that private practices of faith—such as prayer and Scripture intake—aren't sliding as much as ...
[52]
Religious Attendance and Loneliness in Later Life - PMC - NIH
May 3, 2012 · Religious attendance is associated with higher social integration and support, which are linked to lower loneliness, potentially protecting ...Missing: solitary | Show results with:solitary
[53]
Religiosity and spirituality in the prevention and management of ...
Oct 10, 2023 · The effect sizes were minimal. Participation in religious practices may protect young people against depression and, to a lesser extent, anxiety ...Missing: solitary | Show results with:solitary
[54]
10. Prayer and other religious practices - Pew Research Center
Feb 26, 2025 · Overall, 13% of Americans say they participate at least once a week in prayer groups, Bible-study or other scripture-study groups, or religious ...
[55]
Full article: Religiosity in the major religious cultures of the world
In social surveys, the central indicator for measuring public religiosity is participation in religious rituals in churches, mosques or temples. Table 3 shows ...Missing: communal evidence
[56]
Religious tourism etiquette - BBC
Jun 17, 2011 · Take off your shoes and hats before entering. · Stand when monks or nuns enter. · Don't touch Buddhist monks, especially if you are female. · Ask ...
[57]
How should one approach Hindu temple worship (mandir darshan)?
Aug 25, 2025 · Remove footwear as a mark of respect · Wash hands and feet for ritual purity · Circumambulate (pradakshina) the sanctum · Offer sincere prayers ...
[58]
Synagogue Customs and Etiquette
Behavior in a synagogue should be appropriately respectful. ... Out of respect even non-Jewish guests should follow the custom of the synagogue and wear a kippah.
[59]
Deciphering the religious orientation of a sacred space
The present research assesses the hypothesis that variability in terms of the design of these sacred spaces may guide the cognitive and emotional experiences of ...
[60]
Practicing Religion in Places of Worship - Dummies.com
Mosques: Places of ritual prostration. The word mosque comes from the Arabic masjid, which means a place of ritual prostration, and that, in a nutshell is ...
[61]
The Laws of Synagogue Etiquette - Chabad.org
One may not be lighthearted in synagogue and one must avoid to speak idle talk and to joke around while in synagogue. It is self-understood that prohibited talk ...
[62]
Worship and Ritual Practices in the New Testament
In this chapter I will survey some of these rituals and worship practices. These include topics such as prayer, hymn singing, sacramental meals, the ritual ...Missing: etiquette | Show results with:etiquette
[63]
A sacred commitment: How rituals promote group survival
Rituals are meaningful actions marked by rigidity, formality, and repetition. · Group rituals promote cognitive, affective, and behavioral group commitment.
[64]
Etiquettes of Mosque: Islamic Manners Every Muslim Should Know
Aug 5, 2025 · Avoid idle talk, loud laughter or disruptive behavior during prayer and dhikr · Keep voices low, especially in prayer halls · Prohibit gossip, ...
[65]
The Islamic prayer (Salah/Namaaz) and yoga togetherness in ...
An attempt to combine yoga and its practices with Salah has been made for intervening and preventing the problems of mental health as an expeditious tool.
[66]
5 facts about prayer - Pew Research Center
May 4, 2016 · Even among those who are religiously unaffiliated, 20% say they pray daily. Women (64%) are more likely than men (46%) to pray every day. And ...Missing: behaviors | Show results with:behaviors
[67]
Full Length Article Do religious practices improve one's mood? Daily ...
Daily religious behaviors showed salutary main effects on daily affect and buffered associations of daily stresses and uplifts on affect.
[68]
The Dynamics of Prayer in Daily Life and Implications for Well-Being
Some research suggests that prayer buffers the effects of stress and can act as a coping mechanism that indirectly promotes well-being by diminishing negative ...
[69]
Religion in Everyday Life - Pew Research Center
Apr 12, 2016 · In this report, “highly religious” respondents are defined as those who say they pray daily and attend religious services at least once a week.
[70]
The Mediatization of Religious Practices in Urban Daily Life - MDPI
This paper will examine how urban believers—mainly Catholics and evangelicals—are reconstructing and negotiating their religious identity and belonging, as well ...
[71]
13.4 Rituals of Transition and Conformity - OpenStax
Feb 23, 2022 · Associated most commonly with birth, puberty, marriage, and death, these rituals can be prolonged ceremonies during which the individual ...
[72]
(PDF) Birth Rituals: A Cross-Cultural View - ResearchGate
Sep 14, 2017 · The author provides a detailed description of these rituals, paying special attention not only to the birth itself, but also to the rituals and ...Missing: marriage | Show results with:marriage<|separator|>
[73]
Life-Cycle Rites of Passage
Life-cycle rituals only gradually became an explicit axis of concern in Abrahamic religions while some of the cultural materials for this focus are ancient.
[74]
[PDF] Review of empirical studies on impact of religion, religiosity ... - ERIC
The purpose of this article is to review the empirical researches supporting the positive impact of religion, religiosity and spirituality as protective ...
[75]
[PDF] Religion and the Everyday Ritual of Home Life - BYU ScholarsArchive
Apr 18, 2007 · The study of rituals and routines has emerged in an effort to better understand the daily processes of family life. Bossard and Boll (1950) ...
[76]
Religious-service attendance and subsequent health and well-being ...
Aug 13, 2020 · Religious-service attendance has been linked with a lower risk of all-cause mortality, suicide and depression. Yet, its associations with other health and well ...
[77]
People with Religious Affiliations Live Longer, Study Shows
Jun 13, 2018 · A new nationwide study of obituaries has found that people with religious affiliations lived nearly four years longer than those with no ties to religion.Missing: empirical | Show results with:empirical
[78]
(PDF) A Meta-Analysis of Religion/Spirituality and Life Satisfaction
Oct 5, 2022 · Each dimension of religion/spirituality was significantly and positively associated with life satisfaction: religiosity (r = .16, 95% CI .14–.17 ...
[79]
Religion, Spirituality, and Health: The Research and Clinical ...
First, religion provides resources for coping with stress that may increase the frequency of positive emotions and reduce the likelihood that stress will result ...
[80]
Congregations in Context: Clarifying the Religious Ecology of Crime
Apr 17, 2025 · Results show that per capita religious congregations are associated with lower crime rates, most consistently in areas of high socioeconomic disadvantage and ...
[81]
Crime and religion: An international comparison among thirteen ...
The findings revealed that more religious countries have lower crime rates than less religious countries, at least regarding property crimes.<|control11|><|separator|>
[82]
What is OCD & Scrupulosity? - International OCD Foundation
Although more research is needed to truly answer this question, there is currently no evidence to link scrupulosity to a specific religion.
[83]
The Role of Religiosity and Guilt in Symptomatology and Outcome of ...
Because religious themes are often salient in OCD, it is possible that the development of this disorder in some individuals are influenced by religious factors.
[84]
Obsessional beliefs, religious beliefs, and scrupulosity among ...
A study of an OCD sample found individuals with OCD–S were more likely to report that symptoms negatively impacted their religious experience than individuals ...
[85]
Spirituality and negative religious coping, but not positive religious ...
Our findings indicate negative effects of scrupulosity on mental health, and a mediating role of negative religious coping on this relationship. Spirituality, ...Missing: solitary | Show results with:solitary
[86]
What role do religion and spirituality play in mental health?
Mar 22, 2013 · Empirical studies of many groups dealing with major life stressors such as natural disaster, illness, loss of loved ones, divorce and serious ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[87]
Child Fatalities From Religion-motivated Medical Neglect | Pediatrics
Apr 1, 1998 · Objective. To evaluate deaths of children from families in which faith healing was practiced in lieu of medical care and to determine if ...
[88]
Child fatalities from religion-motivated medical neglect - PubMed
When faith healing is used to the exclusion of medical treatment, the number of preventable child fatalities and the associated suffering are substantial ...
[89]
Faith-Based Medical Neglect: for Providers and Policymakers - PMC
Oct 9, 2020 · A substantial minority of Americans have religious beliefs against one or more medical treatments. Some groups promote exclusive reliance on ...
[90]
Most states' child abuse and neglect laws have religious exemptions
Aug 12, 2016 · Child abuse statutes in 34 states, D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico allow an exception if medical treatment for a child conflicts with parents' ...
[91]
Religion, Spirituality, and Mental Health | Psychiatric Times
Jan 10, 2010 · Negative psychological effects of religious involvement include excessive devotion to religious practice that can result in a family breakup.
[92]
Religious Struggle and Life Satisfaction Among Adult Christians
Several recent findings suggest that supernatural, interpersonal, and intrapersonal religious strains may negatively influence other dimensions of life. For ...
[93]
Social Consequences of Religion
But religions are often associated with negative social outcomes like intolerance and conflict. How can we increase the social dividends associated with ...
[94]
Government Restrictions on Religion Stayed at Peak Global Level in ...
Dec 18, 2024 · The GRI comprises 20 measures of restrictions, including efforts by governments to ban particular faiths, prohibit conversion, limit preaching ...Countries with high or very... · Countries with high GRI scores...
[95]
USCIRF Releases Updated Blasphemy Factsheet and Blasphemy ...
Sep 14, 2023 · This report lists the 95 countries with legislation criminalizing expressions insulting or offending religious feelings, figures, or symbols.
[96]
Globally, government restrictions on religion peaked in 2021; social ...
Mar 5, 2024 · In 2021, the global median level of government restrictions on religion was 3.0 on the Government Restrictions Index – up from 2.8 in 2020.
[97]
Why Early Christians Were Persecuted by the Romans | History Today
In its first two centuries of existence Christianity witnessed the persecution of many of its members by officials of the Roman Empire; the causes of these ...
[98]
Religious Tolerance and Persecution in the Roman Empire
Then, in 297, Emperor Diocletian initiated one last terrible Christian persecution. Diocletian had come to power at a time of crisis.
[99]
Religion and Society: Religious Persecution | Research Starters
The paths of many religions are stained with the blood of martyrs. The Jewish prophet Isaiah, for example, is reported to have been sawn in half. The early ...
[100]
The global crisis of religious persecution - GIS Reports
Aug 25, 2023 · According to one report, last year at least 360 million Christians experienced “high levels of persecution and discrimination.” Worldwide, 13 ...
[101]
New report exposes the scale of blasphemy laws worldwide
Jan 30, 2025 · Report reveals that 'blasphemy' laws exist in at least 89 countries across the globe, affecting 57% of the global population.
[102]
World Watch List 2025 · Serving Persecuted Christians Worldwide
The World Watch List is Open Doors' annual ranking of 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution, with 310m Christians facing very high or ...Persecution Trends · Research & Reports · Arise Africa
[103]
The 50 Most Dangerous Countries for Christians Get More Violent in ...
Jan 15, 2025 · Increasingly, these hostilities have crippled the local church, according to the 2025 edition of the World Watch List (WWL), released today by ...
[104]
6 facts about religious hostilities in the Middle East and North Africa
Jul 7, 2016 · Muslims also faced harassment in 17 out of 20 countries surveyed, unchanged from the previous year. About 800,000 more people were displaced ...Missing: majority | Show results with:majority
[105]
Total countries with 'very high' government restrictions on religion ...
Mar 5, 2024 · 19 countries and territories had “very high” government restrictions on religion in 2021 – the same as in 2020.
[106]
Religious Persecution Rising: Islam Threatens Religious Minorities ...
Jun 15, 2015 · All religious faiths are victims of persecution somewhere. In this supposedly enlightened, tolerant age, people routinely are brutalized, jailed, and killed.
[107]
[PDF] NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM
This paper challenges conventional views of violent religious extremism, particularly those that emphasize militant theology. We offer an alternative analysis ...
[108]
Proportion of terrorist attacks by religious and right-wing extremists ...
Nov 2, 2017 · Terrorism and Violent Extremism · Counterterrorism and Countering ... religious extremists (from 9% to 53%) in the United States. The ...
[109]
[PDF] 2024 Global Terrorism Index - Institute for Economics & Peace
Feb 17, 2024 · Almost 2,000 people were killed in terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso from 258 incidents, accounting for nearly a quarter of all terrorist deaths ...
[110]
A Multidimensional Analysis of Religious Extremism - PMC
We develop a model of religious extremism in theological, ritual, social, and political dimensions of religion based on the variety of Islamic groups in ...
[111]
[PDF] The Root Causes of Violent Extremism - Migration and Home Affairs
Also, individuals exposed to peer violence or family dysfunction (7) may be more susceptible to violent extremism. (1) Radicalisation Awareness Network.
[112]
Christian Nationalism and Political Violence: Victimhood, Racial ...
Jan 4, 2022 · Additional research suggests, “The role of religion as a potential driver of violent extremism is significant, but religion usually interacts ...
[113]
Global Terrorism Database (GTD) - START.umd.edu
The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) documents more than 200000 international and domestic terrorist attacks that occurred worldwide since 1970.
[114]
How Religious Restrictions Have Risen Around the World
Jul 15, 2019 · Religious violence by organized groups includes the actions of religion-related terrorist groups, religion-related conflict, and the use of ...
[115]
[PDF] poverty, Development, and Violent extremism in Weak States
Philippines, and Somalia have been exploited by violent extremists seek- ing refuge from the law or easy recruits among a battle-hardened, idle population of ...
[116]
[PDF] Radicalization into Violent Extremism I: A Review of Social Science ...
A 2009 U.S. Presidential Task Force on Confronting the. Borum: Radicalization into Violent Extremism I: A Review of Social Scien. Produced by The Berkeley ...<|separator|>
[117]
The Problem with Prayer Research | Christian Research Institute
In 1872, Francis Galton inquired into the practice of intercessory prayer and concluded that it was not particularly efficacious. He came to this conclusion by ...
[118]
Prayer and healing: A medical and scientific perspective on ... - NIH
Prayer has been reported to improve outcomes in human as well as nonhuman species, to have no effect on outcomes, to worsen outcomes and to have retrospective ...
[119]
Freud and Other “God-Killers” Are Here to Stay
Oct 2, 2017 · If there is one constant in Freud's intellectual life, it is his adamant opposition to religion, especially the Judaism that was his family's ...
[120]
The Critical Insights of Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud on Religion
Sep 24, 2023 · For Nietzsche, religion suppressed human potential and promoted life-denying values. For Marx, religion functioned as an opiate that dulled the ...
[121]
Extravagant Rituals or Ethical Religion (Micah 6:68)? Ritual ...
Micah argues that ethical religion is not about extravagant rituals, but about personal duty and responsibility for fulfilling that duty in society.
[122]
The Prophetic Critique of Sacrifice - WTC Theology
Prophets critiqued sacrifice, stating God desires mercy, not sacrifice, and that injustice, not the system itself, is the real issue.
[123]
https://oxfordre.com/religion/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-67
[124]
Dangers of Religious Traditions - Hobo Theology
Here, Jesus gives an example of how disastrously their obsession with religious traditions plays out. The example is the tradition of Corban. Now, the ...
[125]
Discontent with the Roman Catholic Church | Western Civilization
The Protestant Reformation was the schism within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other early Protestants.
[126]
Are there supposed to be any rituals in Christianity? - Got Questions
Jan 4, 2022 · The only “rites” the New Testament church is commanded to observe are the ordinances: baptism by immersion (Matthew 28:19) and communion (1 Corinthians 11:25).<|separator|>
[127]
Anthropology of Magic II: Frazer and the Golden Bough
Mar 15, 2019 · Frazer repeats Tylor's idea that magic and religion are a fallacious earlier stage of science, and even claims that magic is identical to ...
[128]
God and the Anthropologists - First Things
Mar 1, 2015 · Rather, the early influential anthropologists (Tylor, Frazer) were rigidly anti-religious thinkers, whereas the latter luminaries in the ...
[129]
Durkheim's Sociology of Religion: Themes and Theories - jstor
Religion is central to Durkheim's theory of society, and his work laid most of the foundations of the sociology of religion. Daring and brilliant though hi.<|separator|>
[130]
https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.7312/king14542-029/html
[131]
Reading: The History of Religion | Sociology - Lumen Learning
Durkheim is generally considered the first sociologist who analyzed religion in terms of its societal impact. Above all, he believed religion is about community ...
[132]
1.2 Historical overview of religion and psychology - Fiveable
Psychology of religion has evolved from ancient philosophy to a distinct field, exploring how religious beliefs shape human behavior and experiences.
[133]
The history and current status of the psychology of religion and ...
Religion and spirituality were major concerns of the early American psychologists. Many of the early psychologists sought to give reductionist explanations.
[134]
Religious thought and behaviour as by-products of brain function
Religious concepts activate various functionally distinct mental systems, present also in non-religious contexts, and 'tweak' the usual inferences of these ...
[135]
(PDF) "What's HIDD'n in the HADD?" - ResearchGate
Aug 7, 2025 · Some sort of hyperactive agency detection in the human mind is responsible for the origin and spread of beliefs in superhuman agents such as gods, spirits and ...<|separator|>
[136]
The origin of belief in supernatural agents - Medium
May 25, 2023 · Drawing upon prior work by CSR researchers, Justin Barrett hypothesized that human cognition includes a hyperactive agency-detection device ( ...
[137]
The Behavioral Genetics of Religiousness - Taylor & Francis Online
May 25, 2011 · Behavioral genetic methodology is described and twin and adoption studies of religiousness are reviewed.<|separator|>
[138]
Evolutionary explanations for religion: An interdisciplinary critical ...
Apr 20, 2021 · Theories that hypothesise that religious phenomena (beliefs and practices motivated by beliefs) have evolved as human dispositions or cultural ...
[139]
The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Religion
Jan 1, 2021 · The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Religion offers a comprehensive and compelling review of research in religious beliefs and practices.
[140]
Research - Andrew Newberg
To look at the neurophysiology of religious and spiritual practices, we used a brain imaging technology called single photon emission computed tomography ...
[141]
[PDF] The Neuropsychology of Religious and Spiritual Experience
A number of different types of studies have been performed to try to specifically investigate the neurophysiological correlates of spiritual experiences.<|control11|><|separator|>
[142]
The neuroscientific study of spiritual practices - PMC - PubMed Central
Mar 18, 2014 · The purpose of this paper will be to provide a perspective on the current state of the research evaluating the neurobiological correlates of spiritual ...
[143]
Religious and spiritual experiences from a neuroscientific and ...
We will summarise the rapidly expanding knowledge about the neuroscience of meditation and prayer, near-death experiences, ecstatic epilepsy, psychedelic ...
[144]
Credition—An interdisciplinary approach to the nature of beliefs and ...
Creditions is an umbrella term that signifies the neural subfunctions that constitute the category of processes of believing.Missing: modern | Show results with:modern