Religion is back. The Falling Towers were only the opening thunderclap of the 21st century. Pundits tell us that what secular ideologies Communism, Nazism were to the 20th century, religious
openDemocracy, and this column, is about dialogue, human rights and democracy itself. None among its guiding spirits or its readers can relish conflict. Yet dialogue can be difficult, rights do
To my surprise I discover that I have been writing this column for almost two years now. Time to reflect on it. Summer in upstate New York is almost over.
There are two current nightmares about American politics and religion: the left/liberal nightmare and the conservative nightmare.
Both appear to have some truth in them.
But they are contradictory,
I find a lot of people who dont like the word religious use the word spiritual. But they seem to have a clearer idea of what it means than
I guess several readers found my last openDemocracy column weird. There, I wrote that social change artists could use some religion.
Two readers wrote excellent objections on the Discussion page.
Social change artists need religion.
Artists? The headline said the left.
Well who knows what that means anymore. I mean everyone pursuing the arts of social change.
Like anti-globalisers?
Of
I am not a believer. But I am surprised when my fellow agnostics dismiss religion as so much hooey. Dangerous hooey, of course, these days.
I understand that religion can
Like everyone else, I have been overwhelmed by the efforts of every media pundit, blogger and letter-writer to affix meaning to the photos of the abuses at Abu Ghraib.
I
Video games? Those testosterone infested death-fests?
My son, 15, is a video gamer. Lets not use the word addict. The only reason I am not one is that I
When our beliefs fail, what do we do?
Many Rwandans are leaving Catholicism for Islam. The number of Muslims has doubled since the genocide to about 15% of the population,
So there was Francis Fukuyama having the chutzpah to push his end of history thesis in Tel Aviv. Few places in todays world look less like the end of
