Research by political scientists Frederick Solt, Philip Habel, and J. Tobin Grant (all Southern Illinois University) suggests that greater economic inequality correlates with greater religiosity, a correlation which they argue stems from the rich using religion to discourage wealth redistribution. Read more
University of Alabama criminologist Kent Kerley argues that frequent attendance at religious services while incarcerated predicts reduced prison deviance. Read more
Psychologist Eugene Subbotsky (Lancaster University, United Kingdom) has compiled a series of studies to argue that belief in magic begins in the consciousness of children (who explicitly accept it) and then persists by living in the subconscious of adults (who explicitly deny it). Read more
Daniel Ansted, contributor to ScienceOnReligion.org, recently conducted an interview with his former mentor and well-known philosopher Michael Ruse. Read more
Focusing specifically on how grandmothers pass on their religious values to their granddaughters, psychologists Denise Lewis, Desiree Seponski, and Thomas Camp studied how beliefs are transmitted down family lines. Read more
The U.S. is backwards and religious, while Europe is filled with enlightened atheists. Right? Not so fast – according to ethnologist Sabine Doering-Manteuffel (University of Augsburg ), Europeans are increasingly interested in occult practices such as astrology, past-life regression, and fortune-telling. Read more
Sociologists Elaine Ecklund and Kristen Lee found that some atheist scientists bring their children to church because they want to give their children religious choice, have a religious spouse, or think that religious communities will give their children moral bearings and community. Read more
New research from the University of British Columbia shows that certain styles of meditation may increase the accuracy of subjection impressions and reports about the body, raising new questions about the use of first-person data in science. Read more
Medical experts Ferric Fanga, (University of Washington School of Medicine), R. Steenc (Medical Communications Consultants), and Arturo Casadevall (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) discovered that 67.4% of biomedical and life-science journal retractions were due to misconduct, that is, deliberate number-fudging. Read more
Ever get the feeling you're not alone even when there's no one around? Researchers from the University of Connecticut and Arizona State argue that our tendency to sense eerie presences is an important part of normal social living. Read more
Science On Religion
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