Here we host debates on values, ethics, philosophy, spirituality, religions, and belief systems. There has never been a more important time to understand ourselves and one another better.
'They do not vilify our ideas, they vilify us' : a reply to Salman Rushdie
The right to blasphemy is not the right to religious hate. Shakira Hussein draws on her own multi-religious background to challenge her childhood hero, Salman Rushdie.
I believe in nonzero
The “cooperation-plus-competition” that shapes life on earth, from microbes to the internet, gives Dave Belden optimism about the human future.
Defend the right to be offended
“The moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.” Salman Rushdie sounds the call for a new enlightenment.
A life-affirming universe
The universe is creative and regenerative as well as brutal and finite – just like humans. In this lies a consolation that is open to believer and atheist alike, says Dave Belden.
Sin and tsunamis
The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 provoked the first modern discussion about the causes of natural disasters – fate, science, God, or human failure. What lessons does the world need to learn from the Asian tsunami 250 years later?
When tsunamis destroyed one of Europe’s greatest cities in 1755, there was as yet no science of seismology. Governments did not yet expect to take responsibility for the results of natural disasters or “acts of God”. People thought it was God’s punishment – though they differed on how people had sinned.
Israel, Palestine, and campus civil wars
Middle-east politics has viciously divided Columbia University and London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. Stephen Howe maps the battlefields and proposes good rules for the conduct of the “knowledge wars”.
Candles at Christmas
The tastes of Christmas past, and the religious beliefs at the festival’s core, remain alive in Dave Belden’s memory.
Welcoming liberal Islam
If even reformist Muslims find a chilly welcome in Europe, what hope for dialogue across boundaries of belief?
From 'velvet revolution' to 'velvet <em>jihad</em>'?
Could the peaceful triumph of Czechs and Slovaks over communism fifteen years ago offer a model of democratic revolution to religious fundamentalists today?
The long divide
A revival of the progressive religious tradition could be the key to Democratic recovery in the United States, says Dave Belden.
The war for Muslim minds: an interview with Gilles Kepel
From Fallujah and Peshawar to Amsterdam and Paris, is radical, militant Islam winning or losing its political battle for the support of the world's Muslims?
Against polarisation
The left is guilty of political paranoia that drowns reasoned argument. But it is the failures and dangers of Bush’s post-9/11 policy that leave Dave Belden with a clear choice in the presidential election.
Jacques Derrida, a Cambridge epiphany
Across a dozen years, the experience of hearing Jacques Derrida lecture remains for Candida Clark an indelible invitation to a new way of seeing.
Jacques Derrida: life beyond the margins
“What I learned from Jacques Derrida was simply to examine everything in the most fundamental way.” A young journalist from Mississippi recalls the life-changing impact the Algerian-born philosopher made on her – and what happened when they met.
God, war and presidents
Does doubt lead to better judgment – and more just wars – than blind faith? Dave Belden on the difference between Abraham Lincoln and George W Bush.
This week's editor
Europe from the bottom up
European debate
Democratic Wealth
Nuclear non-proliferation
oDRussia at journalismfestival .com
Mali - the plot thickens
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Remote control war
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Conference coverage from 50.50
Articles exploring the themes of the fourth international Nobel Women's Initiative conference May 28-31. Jennifer Allsopp and Heather McRobie will be reporting for 5050
Articles exploring the themes of the fourth international Nobel Women's Initiative conference May 28-31. Jennifer Allsopp and Heather McRobie will be reporting for 5050
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Window on the Middle East
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Lis Howell On broadcasting
Dan Hancox Revel, Riot and Rebellion
Martin Rose Bliss Was It in that Dawn to Be Next Door
Vron Ware Up in Arms
Jim Gabour Sunday Comics
James Warner Standing Perpendicular, as books do
Markha Valenta Inter Alia: religion, politics, culture
Paul Rogers on Global security
Mary Kaldor on Human security
Lis Howell On broadcasting
Dan Hancox Revel, Riot and Rebellion
Martin Rose Bliss Was It in that Dawn to Be Next Door
Vron Ware Up in Arms
Jim Gabour Sunday Comics
James Warner Standing Perpendicular, as books do
Markha Valenta Inter Alia: religion, politics, culture
Paul Rogers on Global security
Mary Kaldor on Human security
