A panel of religious leaders, policymakers and journalists met on 20 April 2016 at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva to discuss questions including the idea of a 'European identity' and the contributions made by faith communities and secularism.
A Manifesto for Secularism was recently launched at a conference in London. While the aim, to counter the religious right, is positive, I have reservations about some aspects.
Scotland is getting it wrong. This is the bold assertion of Blossom: What Scotland Needs to Flourish, a passionate polemic on Scottish culture, society and politics (including key issues like land reform) by award-winning journalist Lesley Riddoch.
We live in an era where people are inquisitive about spirituality, but hugely distrustful or even hostile towards ‘organised religion’, especially in its Christian forms.
Not speaking unless you can improve on silence is something with which most Quakers are comfortable. This may mean holding your peace even when you have an opinion.
Classifying communities and their practices and values as ‘religious’ often has the effect of marginalising them from the mainstream of public debates on justice and the proper ends of the good life, says scholar Timothy Fitzgerald. Such classification has the effect of clothing secular reason with the misleading aura of neutral objectivity, he suggests.