Religion

Live Science keeps you up to date on the discoveries and insights around religion, from how religious beliefs impact a person's health, to the reasons some people believe and others are atheists, to the history of religion.

Related Topics: Culture, Paranormal, Anthropology, Dead Sea Scrolls

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Thai people floating a lamp in Yee Peng festival in Chiang Mai,Thailand.

What is culture?

By Stephanie Pappas, Callum McKelvie published

Reference Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.

A black and white photograph taken in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943 during World War II. It shows Jews, both adults and children, held at gunpoint as SS troops look on.

What is genocide?

By Tom Metcalfe published

Acts of genocide — trying to partially or completely destroy an entire people or group — have been committed countless times throughout history.

Here we see the Tian Tan Buddha (the Big Buddha). It is the world’s tallest outdoor seated bronze Buddha. The giant statue is sitting cross-legged, with one hand resting on his knee (palm up) and one hand held out in front of him, palm facing outwards. The statue is surround by a number of dark green trees, which only reach up to its knee. The morning sky is blue with a few clouds.

The Buddha: History, meditation, religion and images

By Tom Garlinghouse last updated

Siddhartha Gautama, better known as the Buddha, was a spiritual teacher who lived during the fifth and sixth centuries B.C. in India and founded the Buddhist religion.

A mask of the rain god Chac decorates the facade of a pyramid at North Acropolis, in Mayan ruins, located in Tikal, Guatemala.

The Maya: History, civilization & gods

By Owen Jarus, Jessica Leggett last updated

The Maya civilization stretched throughout Central America and reached its peak during the first millennium A.D.

The barnacle-encrusted blade dates to the Crusader era, 900 years ago.

900-year-old Crusader sword discovered off coast of Israel

By Brandon Specktor published

A diver found a trove of medieval artifacts on the Mediterranean seabed, including a 900-year-old sword wielded by a crusader knight

Is yoga a religion? image shows woman doing tree pose before a sunset

Is yoga a religion?

By Eve Boggenpoel last updated

Feature Many people take up yoga to boost their flexibility, but is yoga a religion?

Concept art of quantum mechanics, theory of superstrings.

What God, quantum mechanics and consciousness have in common

By John Horgan published

Theories that try to explain these big metaphysical mysteries fall short, making agnosticism the only sensible stance.

People at a church service

Why does Christianity have so many denominations?

By Donavyn Coffey last updated

Schisms within the church have led to more and more denominations over the millennia.

silhouette of a person thinking

Atheists and believers have different moral compasses

By Laura Geggel published

The moral compass of believers and atheists is calibrated differently.

In a stained glass window panel in Canterbury Cathedral, Eilward of Westoning is castrated and blinded for stealing to pay off his debts. Thomas Becket then appeared to Eilward in a vision and healed his wounds, regenerating what Eilward had lost.

Stained-glass 'graphic novel' reveals miracles of Archbishop of Canterbury

By Mindy Weisberger last updated

Thomas Becket's miraculous acts — presented "graphic-novel-style" in stained glass — leave Canterbury Cathedral for a museum exhibit.

An image shows a 16th Century copy of a painting known as Salvator Mundi and attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. The copy was recently stolen from its home museum and recovered.

Italian cops recover stolen da Vinci replica no one knew was missing

By Rafi Letzter last updated

A stolen copy of a da Vinci painting has turned up in an Italian apartment, even though no one knew it was missing. The museum where it was kept had been shuttered due to COVID-19.

The painting Poem of the Soul by Jannot

Can science 'prove' there's an afterlife? Netflix documentary says yes.

By Stephanie Pappas published

The new Netflix series 'Surviving Death' marches through an array of paranormal phenomena, some unprovable, some debunked and some genuinely mysterious.

A person is silhouetted against the sun

What led to the emergence of monotheism?

By Isobel Whitcomb last updated

It depends on your definition of monotheism.

The "Fearless Girl" statue was installed in front of the bronze "Charging Bull" in New York City for International Women's Day in March 2017, to draw attention to the gender pay gap and lack of gender diversity on corporate boards in the financial sector.

Why women make way less than men do in more religious places

By Stephanie Pappas published

The more religious a country or state, the bigger the gap in earnings between men and women.

The god house was strongly built of beams and walls of wood; some lasted for hundreds of years. It included a central tower, patterned on Christian churches seen in lands further south.

1,200-year-old pagan temple to Thor and Odin unearthed in Norway

By Tom Metcalfe last updated

The remains of a 1,200-year-old pagan temple to the Old Norse gods such as Thor and Odin have been discovered in Norway.

An image shows part of the Virgin on the Rocks. The hidden baby Jesus is in the right side of this frame.

Hidden baby Jesus revealed under Leonardo da Vinci’s 'Virgin of the Rocks'

By Rafi Letzter published

Baby Jesus and his wings are just some of the images hidden beneath da Vinci's "Virgin of the Rocks".

a painting of Basina of Thuringia marrying Childeric I, by a 15th century painter

The Catholic Church Made You 'Weird.' That's Not a Bad Thing.

By Stephanie Pappas last updated

The policies of the medieval Catholic clergy may be responsible for modern psychology in the West.

The 10-inch-tall panel portrait "The Mocking of Christ" shows Jesus surrounded by a horde of unhappy men.

Jesus Painting Bound for the Dump Is Lost Renaissance Masterpiece Worth $27 Million

By Brandon Specktor published

A 13th-century painting that hung over an elderly French woman's hot plate for years has sold at auction for $26.8 million.

The Dream, engraving by James Marshal for the Violin Sonata in G minor or the Devil's Trill, by Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770). Budapest, Zenetorteneti Muzeum

Root of Humanity's Belief in Evil Possibly Found

By Mindy Weisberger published

Spiritual belief in evil may stem from people's attempts to explain and avoid infectious diseases.

Cyber army of robots.

'Terminator' Android Preaches Buddhist Wisdom at Ancient Japanese Temple

By Tom Metcalfe published

This android preaches Buddhist wisdom from the heart.