Religion has helped science, as well as hindered it.
In the 1960s, the Temple established nine residential care facilities for the elderly and six homes for foster children in the Redwood Valley.
Peoples Temple / Jonestown Gallery/flickr
Throughout the movement’s history, African Americans and whites lived, worked and protested side-by-side. It was one of the few long-term experiments in American interracial communalism.
Emile Durkheim who taught at Sorbonne University is considered a founder of modern sociology.
Emile Durkheim helped to lay the foundations of sociological thought and theory. He spoke of our current condition as being influenced by social structures and institutions.
Freddie Mercury, born Farrokh Bulsara, came from a family of Zoroastrians.
atelier nerodimARTE/flickr
A national survey of over 1,300 congregations found that religious leaders struggle to balance security concerns with carrying out a mission to be open to the communities they serve.
Rally organized by HIAS, a Jewish group that supports refugees, outside the White House.
Ted Eytan/Flickr
The idea of welcoming the stranger is central to Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Today, that engenders a responsibility to shield refugees and other immigrants from violence and oppression.
An Amish girl chases a cow from the outfield during a baseball game in Bergholz, Ohio, April 9, 2013.
AP Photo/Scott R. Galvin
Many Americans view the Amish as living simply and in touch with the land, but their views about the environment are complicated and not always ‘green.’
A “rationalist” assembly in Washington DC, 2011. “Nones” or “none of the above” groups are growing.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP
In many European societies, the non-religious are a sizable part of the population, often silent but growing in number.
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.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara on October 17.
Turkish Presidential Press Office/EPA
In France, expressions of spirituality are rare in workplace, but the situation has evolved since the 2010s. How important is this phenomenon and what are the impacts on the organisations?
The prime minister’s pentecostal faith champions a simplistic reading of the Bible - but that can lead its followers to a narrow view of the world.
Gareth Lee outside the Supreme Court in London, as five justices at the UK’s highest court unanimously ruled that the Christian owners of a bakery did not discriminate against the gay rights activist on the ground of sexual orientation.
PA Images
If Quebec’s new premier succeeds in passing ‘secularization’ legislation by wielding the notwithstanding clause, it will come at the cost of civil rights and the protective capacity of the Charter.
The deeply religious Scott Morrison is Australia’s first Pentecostal prime minister.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
The new prime minister has said he believes ‘the Bible is not a policy handbook’. However, his faith has certainly had an influence on his worldview.
Sex-ed can equip and empower young people to make healthy and safe choices about their sexuality for themselves and for others.
Simeon Jacobson/Unsplash
The notion that religious groups are opposed to sex-ed is simply not true. And our youth need it more than ever to take control over their lives, their bodies and their decisions.
Richard Dawkins, author, evolutionary biologist and emeritus fellow of New College, University of Oxford, is one of the world’s most prominent atheists.
Fronteiras do Pensamento/wikipedia
In 1968 the Protestant Left lost its political clout over their opposition to the Vietnam War – and opened the door for the rise of the modern Religious Right.
A religion sociologist discovers that his criticism of the Church is based on lies.
Shutterstock
The real lessons of Jesus Christ as outlined in the Bible are socialist. But the Church, a veritable old boys club, doesn’t teach us that.
Cases of so-called ‘forced conversions’ of Hindu women to Islam have been at the forefront of Pakistan and Indian news. But what about the women’s own choices?
J.S
Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity