religion

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Teen Dies After 68-Day Fast, Family Faces Homicide Charges

13-year-old Aradhana Samdariya was taking part in ancient religious ritual

(Newser) - For more than two months, a 13-year-old in India took part in an extreme religious fast, reports the BBC . Early this month she called off that fast, but she fell into a coma two days later and died of cardiac arrest on Oct. 4—and now her parents, well-off jewelers...

'After School Satan Club' Coming to Portland School

But it's about teaching science, not worshiping Beelzebub

(Newser) - Normally, an elementary school adding an after-school program isn't cause for national headlines. Things are little different when the program is called the After School Satan Club. The Portland chapter of the Satanic Temple has just been approved to establish the club at Sacramento Elementary School in Portland, the...

Texas County Agrees to Take Crosses Off Cop Cars

Gov. Greg Abbott had supported decals, but nonprofit's suit said they were 'unconstitutional'

(Newser) - A group known for fighting for the separation of church and state has won a victory against Brewster County, Texas, reaching a settlement that has county cops agreeing to remove decals with crosses on them from police cars, Reuters reports. In response to a suit filed this year by the...

Church of Scotland OKs Gay Marriage for Its Ministers

But they still won't be able to perform gay marriages

(Newser) - The Church of Scotland has voted to let its ministers enter same-sex marriages—though it says it "maintains its traditional view of marriage between a man and woman," the AP reports. The church's general assembly voted Saturday to allow congregations to "opt out" from traditional teaching...

Tennessee Lawmakers: We Want Bible as State Book

It's up to Gov. Haslam whether bill is 'unconstitutional,' 'sacrilegious,' or neither

(Newser) - Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has a bill coming his way that has the Bible nominated as the official state book, a move critics say would be both "unconstitutional and sacrilegious," per Nashville Public Radio . The state Senate approved the holy tome 19-8 Monday night, which could make Tennessee...

Women More Devout Than Men: Study

Gender gap in Pew study may be explained by both nature and nurture

(Newser) - Every pope, Jesus, Moses, Muhammad, and most other major religious leaders have been men, and many religions have either only recently let up restrictions on women officiants or continue to ban them, the Guardian notes. Yet a new study from the Pew Research Center finds that women are the ones...

'Moral Symbols' at Work Can Keep Bad Bosses in Line

'Righteous' quotations, religious items can help workers avoid unethical requests

(Newser) - Could the whole subprime mess have been avoided if bankers had some inspirational Gandhi quotes laying around? That's the question the Chicago Tribune asks after reviewing a study that shows employees who display "moral symbols"—an "ethically righteous quote" or religious item like rosary beads—are...

One Key to Civilization&#39;s Rise? Fear of an Angry God
One Key to Civilization's Rise? Fear of an Angry God
study says
Feb 12, 2016 9:09 AM CST

One Key to Civilization's Rise? Fear of an Angry God

It's why strangers work together, say researchers

(Newser) - The belief in all-seeing and punitive gods may be a huge factor in how modern civilization came to be. So report researchers in the journal Nature after studying nearly 600 individuals from eight communities, including plant cultivators on the South Pacific island of Tanna, wage laborers on Fiji and in...

11 Least Religious Cities in the US

Yup, Sin City makes the list

(Newser) - Haven't yet found God and don't plan to? You might feel right at home in Portland, San Francisco, or Seattle. Those are the least religious cities in the country, according to a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute picked up by MarketWatch . Here are the 11...

Scalia: God Is Good to US Because US 'Honors' Him

'Unlike the other countries of the world'

(Newser) - Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Saturday the idea of religious neutrality is not grounded in the country's constitutional traditions and that God has been good to the US exactly because Americans honor him. Scalia was speaking at a Catholic high school in a New Orleans suburb. Scalia is...

The Surprising Traditions of Jewish Christmas Eve

Toilet paper, abstinence, and persecution

(Newser) - For many people—religious and non-religious alike—Christmas Eve means hot cocoa with family, watching Love Actually, or furiously wrapping last-minute gifts. But for centuries of Jews, Christmas Eve was all about abstinence, tearing toilet paper, and the occasional poker game. Slate has a fascinating look at the little-known—even...

Study: Fires Seem to Observe Religion, the Workweek

Australian researchers find weekly pattern to global wildfires

(Newser) - And on the seventh day, the wildfires rested. That’s what Australian researchers discovered after using NASA satellite images to track global fires—both naturally occurring and human-caused—from 2001 to 2013 as part of a new study . They found that there are fewer fires on Sundays—the Christian day...

Zooey Deschanel Converts to Judaism

Sources say she made the move for husband Jacob Pechenik

(Newser) - Zooey Deschanel is now Jewish. Sources tell Us she converted to Judaism for her Jewish husband, Jacob Pechenik. Prior to that, she didn't feel strongly about religion: Her mother is Roman Catholic and her father is Quaker, and she once explained, "I don't attach myself to any...

Study: Religion Makes Children Less Generous

Some kids just really don't want to share their stickers

(Newser) - Religion makes people more generous and empathetic toward their neighbor, right? Wrong, according to a study published Thursday in Current Biology. Forbes reports researchers found children from religious backgrounds are actually less altruistic than children from secular households. Researchers tested more than 1,100 Christian, Muslim, and nonreligious children between...

Student Claims Teacher Forced Class to Admit God Isn't Real

District says her story is more fiction than fact

(Newser) - "Today I was given an assignment in school that questioned my faith and told me that God was not real," Texas seventh-grader Jordan Wooley told the Katy school board Monday. The Houston Chronicle reports Jordan was complaining about a critical-thinking skills assignment in which students were tasked with...

Teen Recounts Deadly Church Beating

He testifies that ordeal lasted more than 6 hours

(Newser) - His voice barely audible in court, 17-year-old Christopher Leonard gave his first public account Wednesday of the violence last week that sent him to the hospital and killed his 19-year-old brother Lucas . He testified that after an eight-hour Sunday service Oct. 11, pastor Tiffanie Irwin asked the Leonard family and...

Cops: Teen Beaten to Death Wanted to Leave Church

Witness claims he confessed to witchcraft

(Newser) - Some chilling details have emerged in the death of a man who was beaten for hours in what the Word of Life Christian Church called a "counseling session." Police say church members have told them 19-year-old Lucas Leonard's ordeal lasted more than 10 hours and the "...

Cops: Teen Beaten to Death at Church 'Counseling Session'

6 church members—including victim's parents—arrested

(Newser) - Six members of a mysterious church in upstate New York were arrested Monday after a 19-year-old man died following a severe beating during a "counseling session," CBS News reports. Among the arrested were the victim's mother, father, and sister. His 17-year-old brother had also been beaten and...

Woman Marries Jesus, Becomes Consecrated Virgin

Indiana resident isn't a nun, will remain in secular society

(Newser) - Well, it should save on honeymoon airfare, anyway. A 38-year-old Indiana woman married Jesus Christ over the weekend, becoming one of his approximately 3,000 living wives worldwide, CBS News reports. The process is known as becoming a consecrated virgin and is relatively rare within the Catholic Church, with only...

Want Good Mental Health? Get Religion
 Want Good 
 Mental Health? 
 Get Religion 
NEW STUDY
Aug 13, 2015 8:14 AM CDT

Want Good Mental Health? Get Religion

Joining a religious organization has a bigger impact than volunteering or sport

(Newser) - Attending a church, synagogue, or mosque may be better for one's mental health than engaging in sports, furthering one's education, or volunteering. So say researchers at the London School of Economics and Erasmus MC, who studied the effects of these four types of activities on the mental health...

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