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Religion
The script creator
Pau Cin Hau dreamt of an alphabet for a language that had never been written down. So began the religion of Laipianism
Bikash K Bhattacharya
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Anthropology
Witches around the world
The belief in witches is an almost universal feature of human societies. What does it reveal about our deepest fears?
Gregory Forth
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Values and beliefs
My leap across the chasm
After years of debate and contemplation, I’ve come to think a heretical form of Christianity might be true. Here’s why
Philip Goff
video
Meaning and the good life
‘Everydayness is the enemy’ – excerpts from the existentialist novel ‘The Moviegoer’
2 minutes
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Nations and empires
The paradoxes of Mikha’il Mishaqa
He was a Catholic, then a rationalist, then a Protestant. Most of all, he exemplified the rise of Arab-Ottoman modernity
Peter Hill
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Religion
Conscientious unbelievers
How, a century ago, radical freethinkers quietly and persistently subverted Scotland’s Christian establishment
Felicity Loughlin
video
The ancient world
The six priestesses who kept the flame of ancient Rome alight at risk of death
5 minutes
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Religion
Inventing Hindu supremacy
Vinayak Savarkar ridiculed Gandhi, preaching that anti-Muslim violence was the only means to unite India into a nation
Mihir Dalal
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Religion
There was no Jesus
How could a cult leader draw crowds, inspire devotion and die by crucifixion, yet leave no mark in contemporary records?
Gavin Evans
video
Human rights and justice
Witch hunts persist as a horrifying, deadly reality in pockets of rural India
24 minutes
video
Art
The overlooked polymath whose theatrical oeuvre made all of Rome a stage
30 minutes
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Religion
Indomitable Sufis
Once a centre of Afghan culture, Sufism seems to have disappeared in the maelstrom of war and upheaval. But still it survives
Annika Schmeding
video
Religion
Hear from blasphemes, sceptics and free-thinkers in this ‘tour of medieval unbelief’
52 minutes
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Religion
Secularism in Iran
Postcolonial intellectuals and Iran’s rulers agree that secularism is just Western imperialism in disguise. They are wrong
Patrick Hassan & Hossein Dabbagh
video
The ancient world
Meet the absentee gods and nefarious spirits of ancient Mesopotamia
6 minutes
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Religion
Praying in shoes
The Sunni movement of Salafism was born at the beginning of the 20th century, with the goal of modelling life on the 7th
Aaron Rock-Singer
video
Religion
How Jewish leaders in the US are fighting abortion bans on religious grounds
24 minutes
video
Values and beliefs
How the plight of holy cows is used to radicalise teenagers in small-town India
24 minutes
video
Spirituality
Trek alongside spiritual pilgrims on a treacherous journey across Pakistan
6 minutes
video
Religion
From God’s shoes to satellites in heaven – children weigh in on religion
8 minutes
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Nations and empires
The Arab Kingdom
Amid the chaos of the First World War, a new pan-Arab empire was proclaimed. It faltered, but its historical lessons remain
Adam Mestyan
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Religion
Miracles not magic
It took a tremendous effort to distinguish early Christianity from the finely tuned world of pagan beliefs and rituals
Martha Rampton
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History
Warfare as mercy and love
The daggers that knights carried to the crusades help us understand why they thought of holy war as an act of love
William Chester Jordan
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Thinkers and theories
A philosophy of secrets
Jacques Derrida was fascinated by the figure of the Marrano Jew, whose identity could barely be told even to themselves
Peter Salmon