God Forbid

On the 50th anniversary of JRR Tolkien’s death, we take a closer look at how Catholicism influenced his writing, his relationship with God, and the wondrous cosmos he created in his legendary stories.

What do Jains, Zoroastrians and Baha'is believe? – We explore beliefs, history and rituals, to the challenges facing their communities today.

Spirituality on social media: How TikTok is changing the way we engage with religion

Just what did God look like and how did he lose his bodily self?

There’s been a battle going on over when, how, or even if, our children should be taught about sex and sexuality in schools.

Is Australia a secular state, where religion is truly separate from politics? 

Can we be truly religious and wealthy at the same time?

For RN's Flesh week, a look at Sikh hair practices and Jewish circumcision.

Is organised religion predisposed to discrimination?

There's a long history of comedians making jokes about religion, but where is the line drawn between offensive and funny?

An acclaimed poet and an Anglican minister discuss being up close and personal with death, and the lessons it taught them about time, the value of care, and life itself. 

In a world where everything is screaming for our attention, we find out how reading offers a refuge from distraction, nourishes us and feeds our souls.

Should we be worried about deathbots? Why does 'ghosting' cause so much grief? And, do our online personas go through reinvention — or reincarnation — in our search for relevance? This is part two in our series on the digital life span.

Can 'authenticity' exist on Instagram? Is it OK for 'mumfluencers' to monetise their children? And why are teens turning to TikTok to share trauma stories? We're diving into the metaverse for a special two-part series on how we're memorialising our lives online. 

If repairing our long-fractured relationship with the animal world is the key to our survival, what is the way back?

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi last visited Australia in 2014, to much fanfare. Since then, major political and religious conflicts have played out in India, and within the Indian diaspora, over the rise of Hindu nationalism.

One of the big promises of artificial intelligence was the supposed end to the drudgery of work. But the rapid advance of AI in the workplace has raised an urgent question: just who are we without the work we do?  If it turns out work is in fact an intrinsic part of our humanity, is there anything at all we can do to protect it? 

On God Forbid, we scale the spiritual mountain with a Buddhist nun and Anglican priest and ask, what really is the highest state that humans can reach? 

The 'manosphere' is an online network of misogynistic groups. Concerningly, their violent and demeaning messages about women are appealing to a section of young men. On God Forbid, we explore the manosphere and masculinity in the digital age.

Does a religious childhood inspire an appetite for spirituality in adulthood, or aversion to doctrine, or some messy blend of the two?

One in five of us are in a neuro-minority. But stigma remains, along with deficit models in understanding neurodiversity. So how do we shift this thinking? And what can we learn from unique ways of seeing and being in the world?

Exactly where do ideas and creative inspiration come from? And how do we explain when someone is 'blocked'; when the creative line goes dead? And what can be done about it?

Three millennial comedians on growing older, meaning-making at mid-life and the case for optimism. 

Today's world of transportation means that planes, trains, cars, and electric scooters get us to our destination. Yet we still walk and run off our own steam – but often without destination. Not always for a clear goal, but for the journey itself. On God Forbid, join James Carleton and the panel for the final in our three-part series on daily rituals. They find out, where we are really going when...

In Australia, the sea encapsulates more than the landmass but our culture, too