In traditional worldviews, the natural environment was replete with sacred powers. With a holistic worldview, people interacted with nature and sacred manifestations through ritual practices, and organized their lives in spaces suffused with supranormal beings. Nowhere is this more evident than...

This paper suggests a rational explanation for extreme voluntary sacrifice in situations in which the state of the world when the decision must be made is observable only by the agent. Such explanation is the cult of martyrs, heroes, and saints. This cult may get out of control and fuel...