Religion, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 30, 2011

Spirituality Helps Chronically Ill Men and Women Differently

Spirituality improves health outcomes for both men and women who are facing chronic illnesses, but in different ways, a new study shows. Being involved in religious or spiritual activities improves women's mental health, while men experience better physical health as well as improved mental health. Numerous previous studies have shown...

Aug 31, 2011

Belief in God Boils Down to a Gut Feeling

For many people, believing in God comes down to a gut feeling that a benevolent deity is out there. A study now finds that gut feelings may be very important in determining who goes to church every Sunday and who avoids the pews. People who are generally more intuitive in...

Oct 31, 2012

Evangelicals Becoming More Devout, Catholics Less So

Evangelical Protestants have become more devoted to their religious beliefs over the last three decades, even as Catholics have become less attached to their faith, new research finds. The denominational differences come even as religious affiliations have decreased overall in America, with the number of people who claim no religious...

Aug 31, 2012

Is Anti-Muslim Film a Hoax?

A 13-minute amateur trailer for the film Innocence of Muslims depicts the prophet Muhammad as a womanizer, child molester and criminal. Though the clip had been available for at least several weeks on the Internet, protests over the film last week erupted in nearly two dozen countries, and several American...

May 31, 2012

Mysterious Bones May Belong to John the Baptist

A small handful of bones found in an ancient church in Bulgaria may belong to John the Baptist, the biblical figure said to have baptized Jesus. There's no way to be sure, of course, as there are no confirmed pieces of John the Baptist to compare to the fragments of...

Mar 31, 2012

Did Shroud of Turin Inspire Spread of Christianity?

A hoax or a miracle? The Shroud of Turin has inspired this question for centuries. Now, an art historian says this piece of cloth, said to bear the imprint of the crucified body of Jesus Christ, may be something in between. According to Thomas de Wesselow, formerly of Cambridge University,...

Mar 31, 2012

Older People Hold Stronger Belief in God

Across the world, people have varying levels of belief (and disbelief) in God, with some nations being more devout than others. But new research reveals one constant across parts of the globe: As people age, their belief in God seems to increase. The new study is based on data collected...

Feb 28, 2013

Does Religion Matter for Couples?

Helen Fisher, biological anthropologist and chief scientific advisor for Chemistry.com, contributed this article to LiveScience’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Happy Easter, if you are Christian. Happy spring weekend to the rest of you. I have just returned from the highlands of New Guinea where Christianity has taken hold among...

Feb 28, 2013

Easter Science: 8 Facts About Jesus

He may be the most famous man who ever lived, but surprisingly little is known about his life. This Sunday (April 1), more than 2 billion Christians will celebrate Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead. While there is no scientific way to know whether that supernatural event at the heart...

Dec 31, 2014

Mummy Mask May Reveal Oldest Known Gospel

This story was updated at 9:54 a.m. ET on Feb. 9. A text that may be the oldest copy of a gospel known to exist — a fragment of the Gospel of Mark that was written during the first century, before the year 90 — is set to be published....

Nov 30, 2016

Why Is Santa Always White?

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. It is that time of year again: People are dusting off their holiday decorations in order to make their homes and public spaces festive. It is also the time...

Mar 31, 2019

Jesus wasn't the only man to be crucified. Here's the history behind this brutal practice.

The most famous crucifixion in the world took place when, according to the New Testament, Jesus was put to death by the Romans. But he was far from the only person who perished on the cross. In antiquity, thousands upon thousands of people were crucified, which at the time was...

Sep 18, 2017

Satan's Enigma: 'Possessed' Nun's 17th-Century Letter Deciphered

The message — indeed devilish — describes God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit as dead weights, the researcher said. It was penned by Sister Maria Crocifissa della Concezione, a 31-year-old nun living at the convent of Palma di Montechiaro in Sicily. On Aug. 11, 1676, she was found on the...

Sep 22, 2017

Apocalypse Now? Doomsday Predictions Are Just Recycled Bogus Theories

Old doomsday predictions never die. They just get recycled. Just six years after radio preacher Harold Camping promised the apocalypse, and five years after the end of the Mayan calendar was supposed to extinguish life on Earth as we know it, new doomsday predictions have arrived. This time, they come...

Oct 20, 2017

Church that Worships AI God May Be the Way of the Future

You might soon be able — if you're so inclined — to join a bonefide church worshiping an artificially intelligent god. Former Google and Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski, according to a recent Backchannel profile, filed paperwork with the state of California in 2015 to establish Way of the Future, a...