Real-world issues about religion

A Conversation article, looking at what constitutes a ‘miracle’ for the Catholic Church.

A Conversation article that considers whether Creationism qualifies as a conspiracy theory.

Julian Baggini in The Guardian muses on the dissonance between faith and the rational mind when it comes to the Easter story, cautioning non-believers not to be lazily dismissive of concepts and explanations we consider implausible.

A Conversation article, in which a New Testament scholar outlines what ‘biblical inerrancy’ is.

A Big Think article, which considers which matters more to Christian belief: the physical reality of Jesus, the message he communicated.

In this short Big Think video, Dr. Michio Kaku discusses the distinctive purposes of science and religion, and how there are two Gods – one ‘personal’, and one related to the order and harmony of the universe.

This Aeon article considers the concepts of ‘immanence’, and how it influenced the way Martin Luther King viewed the world, and informed the way the Civil Rights Struggle was approached.

An AP article, looking at the split in the Catholic Church over whether President Biden should be denied the Eucharist because of his government’s support for abortion.

A Big Think article, looking at the Inglehart-Welzel World Cultural map, which arranges nations according to their values and religious outlooks.

An AP article, considering the news that the Catholic Church says it cannot permit the blessing of a same-sex unions because they are inherently sinful.

A Guardian article, thinking about how people in Britain no longer identify as Christian – but are also reluctant to label themselves as atheists.

An Independent article which reports on the reaction to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s assertion that representations of Jesus shouldn’t always be white.

A National Geographic article, exploring how Christmas has developed over time in different cultural contexts.

A Conversation article, examining research that investigates the link between people’s religious and non-religious affiliations, and their gender.

An Atlantic article, considering the closeness of religious and scientific beliefs about the universe. 

A New Statesman article, which explores the way in which science and religion try to achieve the same aims, via similar thought processes.

A New Humanist article, which tracks how our imagery of the devil has changed over time, and how it mirrors our own society.

Pope Francis has approved a change to the Lord’s prayer, outraging some of his followers, but pleasing others. This Christian Post article considers the reasons for both reactions, and what this says about the development of religious ideas over time.

An Aeon article, which looks at the extent to which Buddhism can be updated for the modern world – particularly in terms of its belief in reincarnation.

This History Today review of Ethan Shagan’s new book, The Birth of Modern Belief, considers that it isn’t just the concept of religion that has changed over time, it is also the concept of belief.

A Conversation article, questioning the popular perception of Buddhism as a religion devoted solely to peace.

Nat Case at Aeon considers how it is possible (for him, at least) to be both an atheist and a Quaker. As he explains, this has much to do with the search for ‘truth’.

This Big Think story focuses on the assertion of Dartmouth physicist Marcelo Gleiser that labelling yourself an atheist – in other words, stating that something does not exist when you have no evidence either way – is incompatible with a scientific outlook.