The Dalai Lama has told his Facebook followers that “religion is no longer adequate” to satisfy all the ills of the world. The Tibetan Buddhist leader, who has 4.3 million Facebook fans, posted this status update on Monday last: “All the world’s major religions, with their emphasis on love, compassion, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness can Read more
There is no conflict between evolutionary biology and belief in God, two professors have asserted during a session on faith and science during the international Rimini Meeting in Italy. The annual event, in the northern Italian resort city of Rimini, brings together international experts on religion, politics, economics, science and the arts to debate cutting-edge Read more
On Tuesday, the New York Times put together a remarkable chart showing that, with the naming of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential running mate, there are now no white protestants among this country’s top leaders in Washington. Both Joe Biden and Paul Ryan are Catholics (as are six of the nine Supreme Court justices and House Speaker John Boehner), Read more
Sir Lloyd Geering believes there are good reasons for teaching religion in schools. He thinks parents’ confusion about the word “religion”, can make them more likely to remove their children from religion classes. “I think ‘religion’ is probably a word that is confusing the whole situation. What we really should be talking about is culture. Read more
Chicago is calling Christchurch filmmaker Cody Packer, whose documentary on a reclusive West Coast religious community has garnered widespread critical acclaim. Packer’s film Gloriavale has won Best Documentary at the 2012 Chicago CineYouth International Student Film Festival and will be shown at the Chicago International Film Festival in October. Packer, 20, and fellow Christchurch Polytechnic Read more
Parents are at a crossroads over whether religion lessons should be allowed in the classroom. Hundreds of primary schools “close” during class time so religious teachers can come in and teach Bible-based values, and parents must opt out if they do not want their children to attend. A group of rationalists has launched a campaign Read more
Religion at work has profound effects, according to the findings of a study by the University of Wollongong. “They wanted to find out whether people’s religious beliefs influenced their behaviour at work. The answer was: yes”, says James Adonis, as he reflects on how religion has influence in the workplace. Read James Adonis’ article Image: Vimeo Read more
Church buildings are becoming a feature of the property market as church organisations cope with changes on a number of fronts. Many older churches are up for sale as congregations dwindle, populations shift, traditional designs prove unsuitable for the uses congregations want to put them to and ageing buildings require high maintenance and possible earthquake Read more
Church attendance my be declining, but real individual religion has undergone a huge revival in the past 30 years. Look for the religion section of almost any bookshop in Britain, and you’ll find it’s been subsumed under “Mind, body and spirit”. The reason is simple: what we call religion has changed – dramatically – in Read more
Know your enemy, ran the headline in a recent editorial of New Scientist: “To rule out God, first get to know him.” God, New Scientist seems surprised to find, is still everywhere. Try as we might to reduce the Almighty to the small “god” promoted by secularists, we can’t seem to rid ourselves of Him. Read more