Premier François Legault, left, and Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister of immigration, diversity and inclusiveness, are seen at the provincial legislature in late March 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
An evolutionary biologist makes the case that there’s no reconciling science and religion. In the search for truth, one tests hypotheses while the other relies on faith.
‘It’s really difficult to live as a rock musician in Bangladesh,“ says Samir Hafiz, a guitarist in the heavy metal band Warfaze.
Facebook
For decades, Bangladesh had a very vibrant – and highly political – rock scene. But the genre is struggling to survive the country’s crackdown on dissent and increasing Islamic conservatism.
The crucifix is seen inside the the National Assembly in Québec in November 2013. The Québec government has been criticized for pushing for a niqab ban while defending the presence of the crucifix in the legislature.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
Québec is pushing to ban public servants from wearing religious garb even as the crucifix hangs in its legislature. It’s ironic and hypocritical for a province that prides itself on secularism.
Nick Cave performing with The Bad Seeds in Budapest in June. His song lyrics, with those often melancholy, churchy organ chords, are dripping in references to what might be called sacredness.
Zoltan Balogh/EPA
The enquiry into sacredness is not over, it’s just beginning for the 21st century, and in wildly disparate modes and places. In music, Nick Cave, Hozier and Dr G. Yunupingu have led the way.
Nearly 40 percent of voters in Costa Rica supported an anti-gay evangelical for president. Maybe progressive Costa Rica is more like its troubled neighboring countries than it once seemed.
While France and the US both guarantee individual religious freedom, the two nations’ approach to religion in the public sphere and the separation between church and state are profoundly different.
A Pakistani humanist has been denied asylum in Britain because he couldn’t identify Plato or Aristole. The state is illiterate when it comes to atheism.
Is religion inherently violent? Some believe so, but secular individuals and institutions have proven to be just as violent.
(Shutterstock)
Many think that violence is central to religion, but some scholars argue it’s meaningless to single out religion rather than socio-economic factors when assessing violent acts.
Secular people, including atheists, in Indonesia have to assume multiple identities: they step into a religious persona for the religious family and friends, and a real one for trusted peers.
School children wave a South African flag after visiting the Nelson Mandela house museum in Soweto.
Reuters/Henry Romero
The judgment recognises that religion plays a large role in South African society. The right to follow a religion is embedded in the constitution. This means that South Africa isn’t a secular state.
Moral disputes are a product of independent minds with independent agendas. Thus, there is little reason to see ourselves as unbiased sources of righteousness.
Children from the Rainbow-Hill Christian school at former South African President Nelson Mandela house in June 2013.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Moha Ennaji, International Institute for Languages and Cultures
The recent burqa ban in Morocco highlights tensions between radical Salafists and a moderate Islamic government that has taken steps to further women’s rights.
We are a secular nation, yet we acknowledge god in our Constitution. When it comes to religion, Australians tend to be pluralist and (relatively) tolerant.