Some people see secularism as a positive personal orientation which focuses on the here and now, and is concerned with people and nature, life and ...

They are growing in numbers and are known to most sociologists of religion as the "nones", people who have "no religion". They either have not been raised in a traditional religious household or simply abandoned religion altogether. Most "nones" feel no n

What is place of scholars and education in the fight against religious extremism? This week on the Inquisitive Minds Podcast, we discuss a blog post by Calogero Miceli and an Op-Ed by André Gagné which seek to answer this important question. Are scholar

In this episode, we continue last week's discussion on the possible connections between Homer and the gospels. We also look at how several Hebrew Bible stories were imitated by the writers of the story of Jesus. Some of the examples discussed are taken fr

The idea that the gospel writers imitated ancient classical texts has been explored by several authors. D.R. MacDonald has written a book explaining how the New Testament gospels were the product of mimesis, and that Homer's Iliad and Odyssey served as fo

On this week's podcast, we take things on a lighter note. Since the Paris attacks at the beginning of January, we have been putting off discussing some of the books we read over the holidays. This episode is a bit more laid-back than usual, as we share so

In this episode of the Inquisitive Minds Podcast, we take some time to go over questions that emerged from the tragic events in Paris which happened on January 7-11, 2015. We ask: "Are there limits to free speech?" Can we critique and speak out against an

For our first podcast of 2015, we decided to have a special episode on the Paris shootings which happened on Wednesday, January 7th. The offices of the satirical newspaper "Le Charlie Hebdo" was attacked by terrorists who managed to kill 12 people and inj

This week we decided to tackle an issue that often comes up in discussions with people about the meaning of religious texts. Believe it or not, some people of faith sometimes label us as fundamentalists! Why? Because we seemingly read the Bible and the Qu

It has been quite an exciting journey into Hector Avalos' important book, Fighting Words. The Origins of Religious Violence. In this last episode dedicated to this topic, we briefly review Avalos' last few chapters where he provides a synthesis and some s