ABSTRACT
Depending on the point of view, religious beliefs and convictions may be seen as anything from deeply true, pious and spiritually signi cant to delusion, superstition and fantasy. Whatever relations religious beliefs and convictions have to the material world of matter, beliefs and convictions are normally very strongly held. Psychological experiments demonstrate how religious and sacred beliefs and values are actually increased when threatened or questioned – or compromised by o ers of money for modi- ed commitments. O ering cash to people for relinquishing a sacred value will most likely make them respond with resentment. e reason seems
to be that convictions and beliefs are deeply normative and in uence the ways in which humans perceive their worlds, and in this way are fundamental to the worldview and ethos of the individual and groups.
