‘What difference would it make to human life if a celestial event were unequivocally linked to the very night of Jesus’ birth?’
Nathan Rupert/Flickr
What difference would it make to human life if a celestial event were unequivocally linked to the very night of Jesus’ birth?
A Christmas service in Manhattan.
Mike Segar /REUTERS
How should we celebrate Christmas during a time when religious extremism inspires terrorist attacks and young people are abandoning the church?
Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.
20th Century Fox
Film sagas like Star Wars transcend the screen, connecting viewers to their pasts, to one another and to the hero within.
Enrico Strocchi
To avoid coming a cropper like the Church of England, religious groups should follow these handy hints.
Church members wait to hear Hillary Clinton speak, December 1 2015.
REUTERS/Marvin Gentry
Donald Trump is Protestant, Bernie Sanders is Jewish and Ted Cruz is a Southern Baptist. But do such religious affiliations mean anything?
An open and honest discussion about radicalisation cannot ignore the alienating impacts of racism and Islamophobia, starkly on display at this vandalised Muslim prayer centre in Brisbane.
AAP/Tertius Pickard
A frank debate about the causes of extremism and terrorism would acknowledge uncomfortable issues like the alienating impacts of racism, Islamophobia and Western military actions and foreign policy.
Shadow boxing. Will levelling the playing field work?
Orin Zebest
Removing names from CVs is a start, but we need to do much more to beat discrimination.
Islamic State billboards in Raqqa.
Reuters/Nour Fourat
The group believes that it represents a religion – denying that won’t get us anywhere.
An exorcism being performed in Fafe, Portugal.
Jose Manuel Ribeiro/Reuters
The belief in demonic possession – often thought to be a relic of The Dark Ages and the Salem Witch Trials – remains surprisingly mainstream.
A replica of the Temple of Solomon, built by the Brazilian evangelical “Universal Church of the Kingdom of God” in Sao Paulo.
Reuters/Nacho Doce
Members of a church expect to find mutual support from one another - emotionally and spiritually. This is not the case at the South African branch of The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.
Police commandos from India’s northern state of Punjab take part in a laughter exercise during a yoga session.
Ajay Verma/Reuters
Does yoga in the West constitute cultural appropriation? We talk culture, pride and 50 years of Light on Yoga.
‘Jesus loves you,’ Nevada.
Jonas Witt/flickr
Twenty-three percent of Americans say they are not religiously affiliated. Our core values may be encouraging us to reject organized religion.
Should Humanism be a core part of the syllabus?
aga7ta/www.shutterstock.com
To include Humanism as one of six core religions to study, would do it an injustice.
Calls for Islamic reform overlook the political motivations of extremism, and attack fundamental religious practices.
Elias Pirasteh
Calls for a reformed, modern Islam will not combat the political and social motivations that underly radical and extremist ideologies.
Paris’ famed Notre Dame Cathedral was in lockdown after terrorist attacks across the city killed more than 100 people.
EPA/Ian Langsdon
Islam, like Christianity, has a capacity for violence and a capacity for peace, and neither is in essence peaceful or violent.
Hot ticket.
Reuters/Toby Melville
Narendra Modi’s visit to the UK has gone swimmingly – but the situation at home is far from placid.
Sorry for being so naughty.
imtmphoto /Shutterstock
While children from religious households may seem less generous according to one piece of research, seen in another light these traits may be a good thing.
Sean Davis/Flickr
Among unfamiliar languages, cultures, cuisines, jobs and neighbourhoods, what does it take for migrants to establish a sense of home?
Melisandre, a witch inspired by early modern history, burns Mance Rayder in Game of Thrones.
© HBO
While Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin openly draws on medieval and early modern history in the worlds of his books, his subversive depictions of witchcraft make his female characters both intriguing and powerful.
Looking to the cosmos to find our place in the universe.
Milky Way from www.shutterstock.com
Proponents of Big History say science provides a better sacred story for humanity than traditional faiths. Will this lead to an era of better stewardship of the environment?