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
If governments are to maintain public support for their military ventures, war narratives must be kept simple and consistent. The underlying message must not change: the West is always the innocent victim of terrorism, never its perpetrator.
Showing his stripes: visiting a favela in Brazil in 2013.
Tânia Rêgo/Agência Brasil
The pope’s encyclical turns climate change into a moral discussion by focusing on the disproportionate impact of climate change on poor countries and regions.
Australians are surprisingly bad at thinking about the place of religion in society.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
Australia has an apparent conflict between religious freedom and sexual anti-discrimination legislation. It is particularly prominent in three areas: marriage, education, and social service provision.
The sacrament of marriage that takes place in the eyes of God is a separate process from the state’s legal recognition of the coupling.
Shutterstock/MNStudio
The sacrament of marriage does not depend on the law, which exists only to regulate the rights and responsibilities arising from the practice. For religious believers, same-sex marriage won’t change their union.
A miniature orc from the popular role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.
Bart Heird/flickr
If the commands of reason really do require a god, then that god exists beyond reasonable doubt. Agree? Disagree? Read on …
What possesses a Queensland teenager like Oliver Bridgeman to go to fight in Syria? Online propaganda is not an adequate explanation on its own.
Facebook
Simplistic views of terrorist recruitment focus on online messages to Western youth. Foreign fighters are coming from many other countries, lured by many means, and we need more sophisticated responses.
The earliest sources, including Paul’s letters, show very little interest in the mythological details of heavenly existence.
Wikimedia Commons/ Probably Valentin de Boulogne: Saint Paul Writing His Epistles.
Interpretations of Paul the apostle’s texts provided the basic fund of imagery that continues to inform popular opinion about what Christians mean when they talk about “heaven”, or “hell”.
Which religion fits you?
Religion thumbprints via SunnySideUp/www.shutterstock.com