Reading Our Times

<p>Buddhism is often seen in the West as a religion of peace and serenity - rarely, if ever, associated with violence. But that comforting image has obscured a darker and more complex reality playing out across...

<p>European Christian politics is not new. Indeed, the religion has been an integral politcal factor for 1700 years. But something has changed over the last 20 years.</p><p>Increasingly, a secularised form of Christian...

<p>Christian Nationalism seems to be on the rise - particularly in the US, but increasingly in Europe. The phrase, however, is often used vaguely and carelessly.</p><p>Indeed "Christian nationalism" can be something of...

<p>We live in an increasingly nationalistic age, with globalisation stumbling and international institutions disregarded. But we have been here before.</p><p>Nations have existed for centuries, but it's only in the last...

<p>Human beings need a sense of purpose but differ strongly on whether that purpose is discovered or created, on whether the universe itself has a purpose or whether purpose is just the result of a hyperactive human...

<p>What is the ultimate nature of reality? And how best to describe it? Is it fundamentally smooth and continuous, flowing seamlessly from one state to another? Or is it discrete, composed of distinct, separate units...

<p>Consciousness is famously called the “hard problem” and it elicits a very wide range of (sometimes very strongly held) opinions. </p><p>These range from the idea that it is little more than a trick played on us by...

<p>Everyone has heard of quantum physics. Many of us can parrot its key ideas – uncertainty, entanglement, collapsing the wave function, something to do with a cat…</p><p><br /></p><p>But when it comes to really...

<p>The performance of Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time in a freezing WW2 prison camp is one of the most famous moments of 20th century music.</p><p>The piece and performance spoke to audiences movingly...

<p>The idea of transcendence is common, perhaps even universal, among human beings. But what it means (if anything) is much more debatable. </p><p>There are different ways of understanding transcendence, some orthodoxly...

<p>Many of the New Atheist arrows fired in the religion wars of 2000s and 2010s hit their target well and hard. The question is, was it the right target?</p><p>Believers often claim that atheists don't believe in the...

<p>Recent decades have seen the gene as supreme in all discussions of what life is and how it works. Whether selfish, co-operative or eternal, it's genes that matter.</p><p>But that picture is changing, in favour of a...

<p>Reading our Times is back – and this series we’re getting metaphysical. </p><p>We're going to be talking about the building blocks of life, the universe and reality, with scientists, philosophers, theologians and...

<p>Western societies have fallen out of love with (having) children, and all too often this is treated as a policy problem. But in reality, it's a much deeper personal and philosophical one. </p><p>What has changed in...

<p>Choice is so important to who we are in the West is no longer feels like something we do, so much as something we are. Deny someone choice, and it feels like you are challenging their very humanity. </p><p>Where does...