Prominent arguments against same-sex marriage have been based on history, tradition, human rights, and social scientific research into health and welfare. The role of religion has been less explicit.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are under the spotlight at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
Jehovah’s Witnesses do not report child abuse to authorities. Instead, they convene an in-house judicial committee, which is fraught with difficulty because they rely on a “two-witness rule”.
The discovery of Kepler-452b raises questions that go to the heart of religion.
NASA/AAP/ Artist's impression of Kepler-452b.
Kepler-452b’s discovery last week has raised the perennial question: are we alone in the universe? While the find’s scientific import is huge, it also poses questions that go to the heart of religion.
Senators Cory Bernardi and Penny Wong faced off in a debate on same-sex marriage on Wednesday.
AAP/Stefan Postles
The same-sex marriage debate between senators Cory Bernardi and Penny Wong exposed four myths about marriage that have plagued recent debates worldwide.
A protester outside the US Supreme Court of Appeal objects to gay marriage. An incident at a Cape Town university has raised issues of religious freedom.
REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
The furore around freedom of sexual orientation vs religious freedom at a South African university should lead to deeper thinking about Christianity’s historical role in promoting liberalism.
Saudi Arabia has been careful not to appear overly oppressive of groups like Islamic State for fear of antagonising its own constituents.
Reuters
Saudi citizens supporting Islamic State are not the result of a coherent plan directed by its rulers, but the overflow of a long-standing system used to maintain its domestic legitimacy.
In a marriage, a man and a woman beget children who are ‘flesh of their flesh’.
Shutterstock/Kati Molin
The reality, for all intents and purposes in areas like the law, superannuation and dealing with financial matters, is that same-sex couples have the same rights as heterosexual couples.
Volunteers prepare food for victims of flood affected areas in Jammu and Kashmir at Golden Temple, Amritsar.
Raminder Pal Singh/EPA
From post-earthquake Nepal to serving the homeless poor in the UK, food services offered by Sikh temples contribute to public life and humanitarian relief.
Among certain minority religious communities, there’s a focus on homegrown or locally grown food.
'Hands' via www.shutterstock.com
Yes, environmental racism is still a problem, but recent research shows that minority groups care about protecting the environment because of the positive experiences they’ve had.
Reclaim Australia supporters at the April rallies displayed a mix of liberal and anti-Muslim slogans.
Irfan Ahmad
If Reclaim Australia were rallying Muslims, the liberal media would examine its religious inspirations. Yet the media treat its supporters as disgruntled individuals rather than Christian representatives.
How can we incorporate philosophy in our daily lives?
Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P.
Does God exist? Is piety worth it? Can violence be justified? Philosophy can offer a way to engage with these questions on which there are often widely differing beliefs.
Marriage is now the yardstick by which genuine acceptance of homosexuality is measured.
AAP/Julian Smith
Opponents of same-sex marriage have turned the debate into one that is about far more than just extending the term “marriage” to already existing long-term relationships.
One needs to understand the differences in their Islamic movements to make sense of events over recent decades in Egypt and Iran.
EPA/Mohamed Messara
People sometimes overlook their profound differences if social forces unite them in a common, often ill-defined desire. Hostility to Muslims is creating an imagined solidarity that Islamists can exploit.
Presenting misinformation to our children about sex, sexual health and relationships is a risky practice.
from www.shutterstock.com.au
Religious exemptions to the anti-discrimination act should end to ensure fear mongering and misinformation are not present in our schools.
In elevating the status of animals, the Pope looks back to Francis of Assisi’s example and looks ahead to the prospect of environmental catastrophe.
Flickr/Enrique López-Tamayo Biosca
In suggesting the ultimate restoration of all creatures in his recent encyclical, Pope Francis is breaking with the weight of Western philosophical and theological tradition.
Religions can promote division and inequality in our societies.
Reuters/Akhtar Soomro
Call me old-fashioned if you like, but I’ve always found it a bit difficult to take men who go to work wearing silk dresses, lots of jewellery, and improbably large hats terribly seriously. Plenty of people…
Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity