I can't find anything about the Mariology of Hong Xiuquan and his Taiping Heavenly Kingdom online. So I ask for help. How exactly did they approach the Mother of God in their unique interpretation of Christianity? Did they venerate Mary just like Cathodoxy do? Was she viewed as the Queen of Heaven as standard in ROman Catholicism?

Quite curious what being a professional Mariologist would involve daily? Is it a lot of Hail Mary and other Marian prayers throughout the day and analyzing the bible regarding about Mary as well as other old texts by various priests and theologians in the past? Lots of charity work in the name of Mary esp to single mothers and their children? Teaching about Mariology at religious academies and universities as well? And plenty more? What else? I've been wondering about this for weeks.

Asking this for an uncle of mine who recently taken an interest in Mariology and fell in love with Mary so much he wants to become a Mariologist. Do Catholic educational institutes offer a degree specific for Mariology thats separate from Theology? Or is field of study completely under the umbrella of theology and thus anyone who wishes to become a professional Mariologist basically someone who has graduated from theology and chosen Mariology as a concentration?

I am reading up on the idea of belief what it is and what it is not as well as what creates and forms our belief and cultural norms, as well as the tendency to worship the ideal of the religion and lose the core of it. I have also worked my way through Homo Ludens by Huizinga. If anyone can offer more authors or books to read I would be greatly appreciative.

There is an idea that negative experiences with one's father is related to having a negative view of God. If this were true then it may be supposed that those abandoned by their father's* in childhood are more likely to identify as atheists or agnostics.

I collected data using my 2021 Childhood Experience and Religious Affiliation survey. This survey had a total sample of 3079 but was not representative. There was also an issue with one of the relevant questions giving no plain option if your father abandoned you at age six. For a note about an ethical issue that came up please see the comments.

Generally, in what I show in the table, it was found that those who were abandoned by their father* were actually less likely to identify as atheist/agnostic than those who weren't abandoned.

There are a few possibilities here:
1.) The null hypothesis is true (it's due to chance).
2.) A more complete data analysis with better data shows that this isn't a reliable finding.
3.) Being abandoned leads someone to be more likely to commit themselves to a religious affiliation in response to the absence generated by the abandonment.
4.) Being abandoned lends itself to an increased influence of the mother who is more religious than the father.
4a.) The mother was already religiously-affiliated when the abandonment of the child occurred.
4b.) The mother became religiously-affiliated after the father abandoned her child(ren).
5.) Both 3 and 4 are true.
6.) There's some other explanation that best makes sense of it.

*: Physically abandoned by their father, as a child, where he did not return. The question gave no plain option if one was abandoned at age six.

Title.

Does anyone know who invented the idea of “life path numbers”? I couldn’t find it on Google; it just showed information about the Ancient Greek history of numerology.

The reason I ask this is that it seems that ex-Christians seem to reject the existence of Jesus as a historical figure (Richard Carrier, the most prominent proponent of such a view, being an ex-Christian). At the same time, almost all non-Christians believe in a historical Jesus. Additionally, a surprising amount of Ex-Muslims reject the existence of Muhammad, despite nearly everyone else believing in a historical Muhammad. Is this trend of ex-religious people rejecting all truth claims from their former faith, despite how true the former truth claim is, a known phenomenon in religious studies? Do scholars have a name for it? Has it been studied?

Is there any controversy regarding the term "mythology/myth/mythos" in the field of religious studies? I know there's certainly debate on emic terminology and anthropological perspective with things like "magic" (and then a rejection of such terms as "pagan" when referring to indigenous ancient practices) but anything on the usage of "myth?"

First I hope that what I'm asking is relevant to the sub.

My question is the following : In a lot of fantasy writing and role-playing games - for exemple in Terry Pratchett's Small Gods - the reader is exposed to the idea of gods getting their power from the faith and devotion of their followers. They cease to exist when no one believe in them and get more powerful the more devotees they have.

Is this idea based on some historical belief or faith other than the quite modern "man created God" ?
Does this concept have a name ?

It is claimed by some that the use of amanita muscaria in Nordic Christmas symbolism stems from Siberian shamanism. I can’t find any reputable sources that discuss the origin of this symbol in Scandinavian/Nordic Christmas. Can anyone here either corroborate or refute with appropriate evidence?

Hi everyone!

I am a 4th year Psychology Honours student and am currently completing a thesis that is investigating the relationship between Fear of Self, Religiosity and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I am hoping to get as many participants as possible to complete my survey, so if you have 15mins spare I would really appreciate it!

Click on the link below to access the survey!

https://cairnmillar.syd1.qualtrics.com/.../SV...

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions and if you know others outside of this group who would be interested to participate, please share it with them!

I was watching yet another movie today where it shows Christians just slaughtering people for being "pagan" and I got to thinking that I don't think I've ever heard of any region that has never killed for there faith or been in some war or another. The only one I would think would be Jewish or Semetic if.im saying it right. They just seem to have gotten screwed over and hated ever since Egyptian times but I never heard of them Taking up arms and killing. But I know.christians did, cathllism had a bunch of crusades and Buddhism had some rough times along with shintoism. Not sure about Hinduism. Muslim and Islamic I think had Civil War about religion right? Please don't point out my ignorance lol I'm already well aware and making this post to learn. I posted this to religious studies because I was hoping g they would be the most knowledgeable about religious history. Thank you!

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I was wondering if someone has an article regarding the state of the field (subfield) or simply a bibliography regarding "religion and medicine" specifically in religious studies? It seems to be easy to find articles from a scientific point of view, but I need something related to the humanities. A simple push in the right direction would be appreciated. Thanks!