Beyond Belief
Episodes
Episodes of Beyond Belief
Mark All
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The first Gallup national poll into religion was carried out in 1935. Ever since - but especially with the arrival of the internet - pollsters have fed a hungry media the latest statistics about belief in God and church attendance. How importan
It is said that behind every great man there is a great woman. The Prophet Muhammad was married many times; but for 25 formative years, he remained faithful to one woman, Khadijah. She is widely recognised as the First Muslim and her story may
Is it a religious duty to give to beggars? If you go into the centre of a city like Yangon or Bangkok, you will also come across people begging. Among them will be fine robed Buddhist monks with their begging bowls. They're highly respected me
Is the sermon dead? In a digital age when the ten second soundbite is the favoured means of communication, it is too much to expect people to sit through a ten or twenty minute talk with no means of interaction? Joining me to discuss The Sermo
Ernie Rea and guests discuss B.R. Ambedkar's role in forming modern India.It's 70 years since the new country of Pakistan was born ; followed the next day by an independent India. There can be few who are unaware of the seminal role played by
Discussion programme in which guests from different faith and non-faith perspectives debate the challenges of today's world.
What's the relationship between religion and hip hop? Since its emergence from the south Bronx in New York in the mid-1970s, hip hop culture has radically transformed music and the arts in America, and across the world. Hip hop is more than ra
The Moon has been venerated since the dawn of religion. Has Space exploration diminished its allure?Ernie Rea's guests are Professor Ronald Hutton from Bristol University, Professor Monica Grady from the Open University, Edgar Mark Williams, a
In the 200th anniversary year of the death of one of Britain's finest novelists, Ernie Rea considers the religious world of Jane Austen and how it is reflected in her novels.Ernie is joined by novelist and priest Marie-Elsa Bragg, the social
Who do we think we are? Ernie Rea and guests discuss our fascination with our ancestors. Is there a contemporary spiritual need that finds an answer in tracing our roots? Ernie is joined by Else Churchill, from the Society of Genealogists: Juli
As President Obama joins Angela Merkel to celebrate the Reformation 500 Anniversary, Ernie Rea and guests discuss the religious climate in Germany. The Reformation left Germany with a predominantly Catholic South and Protestant North; but tod
On Good Friday, next week, the story of Jesus' arrest, trial and crucifixion will be read in Churches across the country. In the Passion according to St John, Pontius Pilate famously asks: what is truth? An intriguing moment which resonates wit
The Seal of the Confessional is the absolute duty of Catholic priests not to disclose anything they learn from people who come to them for confession. But is there a moral imperative to do so if they discover a crime has been committed? For s
The reading of a passage from the Koran at Glasgow's St Mary's Cathedral during its Epiphany Mass earlier in the year caused an almighty row. The verses, which were read out by a local Muslim student, denied the divinity of Jesus and brought a
Science fiction has perhaps been unfairly dismissed by many critics and academics; seen by some as a niche genre, not befitting the elite group of literary works deemed to be 'high art'. While some examples of science fiction could be criticise
One in four people has a mental disorder at some point in their life, according to government figures. In a speech earlier this year, the Prime Minister, Theresa May, said mental health had been "dangerously disregarded" as secondary to physica
70 years ago Pakistan was born out of the partition of the Indian sub-continent, at the end of British colonial rule. It was created to meet the demands of Indian Muslims for their own homeland. The Constitution states that all laws are to conf
Maths and religion are both ways of seeking order and understanding in the world. Numerologists who like to find significance in every number believe that 2016 was always going to be a bad year because of that combination of numbers - 2 0 1 6.
This year sees the 500th anniversary of the moment when Martin Luther sparked the Reformation by - tradition has it - nailing his 95 theses to a church door in Wittenberg. Ernie Rea and guests discuss what led Luther to take this step, how his
Boxing Day sales in UK in 2015 amounted to 3.7billion pounds. In Beyond Belief today Ernie Rea and guests discuss religion and consumerism. Ernie is joined by Jeremy Sinclair, one of the founders of Saatchi and Saatchi, Keith Hebden director of
Thirty years ago a Bishop could still hit the headlines by saying that he didn't believe that Jesus was born of a virgin. While this doctrine is still strongly held in some parts of the church it is rarely discussed outside of theological circl
The recent case of a terminally ill 14 year old who won the right to have her body cryonically frozen after death in the hope that science would eventually find a way of restoring her to healthy life raises all kinds of ethical questions about
Churchgoing in the UK is in steep decline, but between 2005 and 2012 attendance rose by 14% and that is down to immigration. One in seven church services in London are not conducted in English. Many of the new worshippers are Poles and other Ea
A new term of abuse has emerged on social media, Zio, a shortened form of Zionist. Meanwhile the evidence suggests that anti Semitism is on the rise in Britain. There have been high profile cases of politicians who have been disciplined for ant
A newborn prefers the face of its mother to that of other people within a day of being born; the experience of being in love involves gazing at the face of the beloved. Face to face encounters are at the heart of human intimacy for most people
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