Özet:

One of the main goals of the world religions is to acquire their followers a sound physical and mental life. However, since the eighteenth century some philosophers and scholars claimed that when people’s educational levels increased, and scientific and technological developments prevailed in the societies, religions would be disappeared in the societies and they would be the remembrance of the past. But, the real situation became completely different from those of their thoughts. As people become more educated and scientific and technological developments advanced further, people began to give greater importance to the religious beliefs and practices. While the Psychology of Religion saw religion as an irrational thing in the past, now it accepts religion as a social support and a powerful mechanism in mental and even physical health. This article examines the relationship between religion and mental and physical health. For this purpose, it first traces the historical development of the relationship between religion and science, second presents some developments in this area in developed countries and finally, tries to evaluate this positive relationship between religion and mental and physical health based on some empirical research done in mostly in the United States of America.

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