Beyond Belief

It is estimated that 1 in 7 UK couples struggle to conceive but what impact do religious beliefs and cultural practices have on those who can not or choose not to have children. Aleem Maqbool speaks to Lizzie Lowrie about her experience of baby loss and miscarriage and how her faith and church community brought both challenges and support. Her story sparks a discussion on what it means to live wit...

Whether to drugs, alcohol, smoking, pornography or something else entirely, addiction comes with a perceived stigma that can make seeking help difficult. In a religious context there are competing factors that can have an impact on recovery. Some faiths impose prohibitions on certain behaviours which can discourage people from admitting to a problem but there are also methods of helping those who...

Rabbi Jonathan Romain's son, Benedict, died tragically and suddenly in January. In the grieving process his faith, community and the rituals of Judaism have all played a part. He speaks to Aleem Maqbool about his experience and his response to bereavement. His story leads to a panel discussion on the place of faith, religion and ritual within the grieving process, whether it is a help or a hindran...

"I didn't choose to forgive. It wasn't that I tried and tried to forgive. There was a moment when I thought, what on earth does this word 'forgiveness' even mean?" Julie Nicholson's daughter, Jenny, was killed in the 7/7 London Bombings. Julie has not forgiven Jenny's killer which has led to conflict with what was expected of her in her role as a parish priest. She tells Aleem Maqbool about the di...

'My faith has been a constant in my life through good times and bad. There have been times where I've received death threats for being gay. But could I get married in a gurdwara? No.' For Jasvir Singh CBE, barrister and community activist, his Sikh faith has always been the cornerstone of his life. But when he got married in 2022 to his partner Nick. he couldn't have a religious ceremony. Speaking...

"I couldn't pretend anymore that I felt the same way. I did doubt. It was as good as saying I'd lost my faith." Aleem Maqbool meets Kat Wordsworth, who tells her story about doubt in her Christian beliefs and how it's affected her life and health. She now shares her experiences and thoughts on doubt on a social media account, with followers also contributing their experiences and she's about to pu...

Lily Ebert was 20 when the Nazis deported her from her Hungarian hometown to Auschwitz. Remarkably she survived, and so did her faith. Now a 99 year old grandmother, she tells Aleem Maqbool how the Judaism of her childhood, sustained her in the most horrific circumstances. Her moving story sparks a discussion on the impact that the Holocaust had on Jewish belief and practice and how the repercussi...

'You don't find meaning through the end of a telescope.' So says Professor Brian Cox, particle physicist and one of the best communicators of modern science today. Speaking to Aleem Maqbool, Brian shares his view on the relationship between religion and science. Not a believer himself, he thinks the perception of conflict between them is wrong. Aleem reflects on Brian's comments with a panel of th...

“I wouldn't have become an athlete if I didn't think it was something that God wanted me to do.” Jonathan Edwards still holds the triple jump world record 27 years after leaping to victory in 1995. He has taken home gold at the Olympics, World and European Championships and the Commonwealth Games. His success, he says, was driven by the belief that he was “in tune with a supernatural being that cr...

"I put my pants and toothbrush in a bag, and I never went back." On a wet and windy November night a Carmelite nun, Lisa, leaves the convent, her home for 24 years, after a monk asks her to marry him. With so few people now living in religious communities, what's the future for Britain's monks, nuns, friars and sisters? Aleem Maqbool brings together three people who have experienced life in a reli...

Exploring the faith behind the pomp and pageantry of the Queen's funeral. Millions will have watched the historic funeral service from Westminster Abbey and the Committal at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was laid to rest. For some, the services will be full of meaning and resonance. Others will be less familiar with the Christian rituals that have evolved o...

Anglican Bishops are starting to consider what 'redemptive action' for the horrors of slavery could look like. The history of the transatlantic slave trade casts a long shadow. Over three million black Africans were transported in British ships to a life of slavery. The legacy of a practice that spanned three centuries has been keenly felt in recent years, from the aftermath of the killing of Geor...

Margaret Atwood tells Ernie Rea about the role of faith in her seminal novel and how her fiction, written nearly 40 years ago, resonates in a post-Roe v Wade world. Atwood's novel about a dystopian future in a fundamentalist regime has been turned into a hugely popular TV series, about to start it's fifth season. It's also been adopted by activists protesting against restrictions on female rights...

Last month’s attempt on Salman Rushdie’s life brought the world’s attention back on Iran and the death sentence imposed on the writer by Ayatollah Khomeini more than three decades ago. More recently, Iran has been in the news with reports of crackdowns on perceived dissidents: women who choose not to wear the hijab and members of other religions especially the Baha'is. The Islamic Republic of Iran...

Can our morning coffee routines, the Saturday parkrun, or a daily walk in nature be sacred? Ernie Rea explores how ritual, repeated actions done the same way every time, long associated with religion, is being employed by those outside of faith practice. There are now apps that can help build mindful rituals into your day, workplaces are designing ceremonies to build community amongst colleagues....

Modest clothing is a multi-billion dollar trend, with designers seeking inspiration from cultures where dressing modestly is the norm. There are millions of images tagged as #modestfashion on Instagram or Tik Tok, from prairie dresses to designer hijabs. Ernie Rea explores the religious reasons from the Abrahamic faiths about why some cover up, and asks if our ideas of modesty are changing. He's j...

How easy is it for autistic people to believe in God? The National Autistic Society describe autism as a lifelong developmental disability that affects how people communicate and interact with the world. They say 1 in 100 of us may be autistic and the diagnosis of autism has risen dramatically in recent decades. How are religious organisations responding to the needs of a growing number of their c...

She wears a necklace of severed human heads with blood dripping from their necks. Her tongue is bright scarlet and sticking out. She carries a bloodied sword. Meet Kali, a Hindu goddess who is one embodiment of the Hindu principle called Shakti, meaning energy, power or force. Who is Kali and what does she represent? We’re embracing some of the ideas of shakti in the West. You can take kundalini y...

As Muslims around the world celebrate Eid, Ernie Rea hosts a panel on the beliefs and culture of the Uyghurs, a majority Muslim people in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, North West China. Human rights organisations have accused China of committing crimes against humanity against the Uyghur people and the US government has accused the Chinese government of genocide. For over eight years, there h...

In a society that’s becoming increasingly secular, why are some young people embracing a ‘full fat’ version of faith? During the pandemic a UK poll showed that those in Generation Z are more likely to believe in God than their millennial peers. A new study of British Catholics has found that younger believers show a greater degree of religious commitment than their elders. Whilst those ticking ‘no...

On Easter Sunday, as children hunt for chocolate eggs, the words 'Christ is Risen. Alleluia!' are proclaimed from every church pulpit. The day of Jesus Christ's Resurrection is the most joyous day of the Christian calendar. A message of death defeated, salvation secured, is the cornerstone of the faith of nearly one third of the world's population. But how do the faithful understand this extraordi...

In the past two years faith communities have lived through an unprecedented experiment. With places of worships closed for long periods, they've been forced to adapt digitally. Not everyone could do so fulsomely, with some acts of worship prohibited by religious teachings. As restrictions have lifted many are finding that the faithful are not rushing back, although there are exceptions. How did it...

Days before Russian troops entered Ukraine in late February, President Vladimir Putin gave an impassioned address to the Russian people attempting to justify what he was about to carry out. He referred to Ukraine as 'an inalienable part' of Russia's 'spiritual space'. It's one of many references to faith and religion interwoven into the Russian narrative of the 'special military operation' in Ukra...

In 1699, Guru Gobind Singh (the 10th Sikh Guru) formed the Sikh Khalsa and announced that its first five members should wear the 5Ks to demonstrate their devotion to their faith. Today the 5Ks are still symbols of Sikh identity: Kesh (uncut hair), Kanga (a wooden comb), Kara (steel bracelet), Kirpan (sword) and Kachera (cotton underwear). To discuss the importance of the 5Ks, Ernie Rea is joined b...

In the popular imagination, Satan is often a figure of evil with horns, hooves, frightening face and wings. But in scripture he does not conform to this stereotype. In Islam (in the form of Iblis) and in Christianity, he is a fallen angel - different to ‘the Satan’ of the Hebrew Bible – but all in sacred writings he is a Tempter and/or Adversary. How has our view of him changed over the centuries...