Meditation, detox cleanses, sound baths, plant-based medicine ... these things were not invented by Gwyneth Paltrow.

According to an entry in the Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine, a religious ritual is any repetitive and patterned behavior that is prescribed by or tied to a religious institution, belief or custom ...

The residents of ancient Pompeii performed regular religious rituals using fancy imported incense resins that came from far beyond the borders of the Roman Empire. These sacrificial offerings are ...

The Easter Bunny is a much-celebrated character in American Easter celebrations. On Easter Sunday, children look for hidden special treats, often chocolate Easter eggs, that the Easter Bunny might ...

Our lives are redolent with rituals, from personal to promulgated, from silly to serious, from religious to civic and secular. In The Politics of Ritual, Molly Farneth casts a determined eye on the ...

On New Year's Day, millions of people in Japan visit Shinto shrines to pray for good fortune. In summer, many return to their ...

Some are. But many are not. Around a fifth of “nones” express consistently negative views of religion. They say it does more harm than good in society, encourages superstition and causes division.

When he talks about the role of religion in the founding of the United States, historian Gregg Frazer does not attract eager ...

A man burns joss sticks in a cemetery during the Ching Ming Festival, or Grave Sweeping Day, in Hong Kong. (Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images) How we did this For this report, we surveyed 10,390 ...

Co-authored with Dr. Ken Baskin. Few things are more important to human psychology writ large than religion. But what does this concept really mean? The more deeply we investigate it, the odder ...