ABC Religion & Ethics

Under Aboriginal tradition, there are no meaningful separations between land ownership, natural resource management, cultural heritage and religious practice. So the recent debates surrounding freedom of religion, focussed as they are on the state's extension of its jurisdiction over religious institutions, must be extended to include the claim of spiritual sovereignty by the First Nations.

After four months of sewing until her fingers tingled, Theresa Ardler has a graduation cloak that tells a story dating back many generations.

If we rely too heavily on the concept of rights to do much of the ethical work, we will find ourselves ethically illiterate in the characterisation of the terrible wrongs people suffer. We will then undermine the prospects of the kind of conversation between the peoples of the earth that would give us reason to hope that we could become genuinely a community of nations.

From dangerous sweatshops to 'blackface' sweaters, the fashion industry is never far from an ethical quagmire. So, is there a way to buy clothes with a clear conscience?

Indigenous people's sense of belonging is derived from an ontological relationship to country derived from the Dreaming. The premise of colonisation ― that Australia belonged to no one ― informed the relationship between Indigenous people and the nation-state from its very inception. And it continues to do so.

Modernity may be disenchanting, argues philosopher of religion Jason Josephson-Storm, but that does not mean that it is wholly disenchanted. The modern world remains full of religion, even among its most modern expressions.

Democracy in Australia, Europe and America seems a little unhinged at the moment. Is it because irrationality is coded into the DNA of Western civilisation? Quite possibly, says one philosopher.

The identities of all nine of the Sri Lankan jihadists who attacked various locations on the island on Easter Sunday have now been released. Because Sri Lanka hasn't had a history of political violence associated with al-Qa'eda or Islamic State, these attacks initially seemed strange. But upon closer inspection, a familiar story begins to emerge.