Press

Select press and media coverage of Understanding Unbelief and affiliated work can be found below. For press enquiries, please email info@understanding-unbelief.net

Autumn/Winter 2019

Harvard Divinity Bulletin: Lives of UnbeliefPhotographs and interviews by Aubrey Wade

August 2019

BBC future: ‘Tomorrow’s Gods: What is the future of religion?’ Part of the BBC’s Future series about the long view of humanity, which aims to stand back from the daily news cycle and widen the lens of our current place in time.

May- July 2019

Select press related to the Cultures of Unbelief conference, the Capstone Conference of the Understanding Unbelief programme and the 2019 NSRN conference in Rome and the release of first Understanding Unbelief report: Atheists and agnostics around the world: Interim findings from 2019 research in Brazil, China, Denmark, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States

Exhibition ‘The Unbelievers’ by Aubrey Wade at the Gregorian University Rome installed for the Cultures of Unbelief conference. Photo credit Lois Lee.

Patheos/The Secular Spectrum: ‘Understanding Cultures of Unbelief for religious’ (13 July 2019)
NSRN: ‘Event report: Understanding unbeliefs and reclaiming enchantment: The 2019 Cultures of Unbelief conference’ (21 June 2019)
Der Standard: ‘Auch viele Atheisten glauben an Übernatürliches’ (Many atheists believe in the supernatural) (8 June 2019)
Big Think: ‘Atheists still believe in the supernatural, new report finds’ (7 June 2019)
Religion Media Centre: ‘Understanding Unbelief: Comments on The Atheists and agnostics around the world interim findings report’ (7 June 2019)
Newsweek Japan: ‘日本の無神論者は最も「超自然を信じない」──6カ国での大規模調査’ (Japanese atheists and agnostics least likely to believe in the supernatural, large scale survey in six countries finds) (7 June 2019)
NewsLetter: ‘Atheists do not feel life is devoid of any meaning’ (7 June 2019)
Theos ‘What do unbelievers believe?’ (6 June 2019)
The Times ‘Most atheists believe in the supernatural, study finds’ (3 June 2019)
World Religion News ‘Study shows most atheists and agnostics believe in the supernatural’ (3 June 2019)
BBC radio 4 Sunday Programme Lois Lee interviewed about the findings of the interim report (Starts at 01.50) (2 June 2019)
Spiegel Online ‘Woran glauben eigentlich Ungläubige?’ (What do non-believers believe?) (31 May 2019)
NewScientist ‘Most atheists believe in the supernatural, despite trusting science’ (30 May 2019)
MailOnline ‘Most atheists and agnostics BELIEVE in the supernatural and ‘undelying forces of good and evil’ despite rejecting religion in favor of science study finds’ (30 May 2019)
Friendly Atheist/Patheos ‘Research Presented at Vatican Shows That Anti-Atheist Stereotypes Are Inaccurate’ (28 May 2019)
Mail Online ‘Non-believers do not lack morality, research suggests’ (28 May 2019)
Belfast Telegraph ‘QUB helps in study that disputes view atheists lack morals’ (28 May 2019)
RTE ‘Non-believers in God do not lack morality – report’ (28 May 2019)
Premier ‘Non-believers don’t lack morality, research suggests’ (28 May 2019)
News Letter ‘Non-believers do not lack morality, new research suggests’ (28 May 2019)
ABC (Spain) ‘El Vaticano acoge un congreso mundial sobre no creyentes’ (28 May 2019)
BBC News Brazil ‘Por que o Vaticano, coração da Igreja, sedia a maior conferência sobre ateísmo no mundo’ (28 May 2019)
Group La Provincia (Buenos Aires) ‘Ateos, agnósticos y creyentes no son tan diferentes entre sí, según un estudio’ (27 May 2019)
University of Kent News Centre ‘The Vatican and Kent host major atheism conference’ (28 May 2019)
EurekAlert! ‘Vatican hosts major atheism conference with University of Kent’ (27 May 2019)
BBC Radio 4 Sunday programme documentary piece from Rosie Dawson looking back at the history of the first Vatican’s first conference on atheism and other forms of ‘unbelief’ in Rome in 1969 and forward to the Cultures of Unbelief conference and release of the first findings of the Understanding Unbelief programme (starts at 30.50) (26 May 2019)

April 2019

Understanding Unbelief’s participation in the second The Religion in the Media Festival, London 30 April 2019

Church Times ‘No excuses for negative portrayals of religion in the media’ (26 April 2019)

March 2019

Coverage of Miguel Farias’ research at Coventry University

Premier ‘Religious belief cannot ease Brexit stress, study finds’ (22 March 2019)
MailOnline ‘Faith in God or science won’t alleviate your stress over future events, psychologists say – contrary to the belief that a higher power or ideology can help us deal with life’s difficulties’ (21 March 2019)

February 2019

Announcement of Understanding Unbelief’s capstone conference in Rome May 2019

Religion News Service ‘Fifty years later, Catholic Church reckons again with unbelief’ (18 February 2019)
University of Kent News Centre ‘Kent and the Vatican to host atheism conference’ (14 February 2019)

September 2018

Why atheists are not as rational as some like to think

Dr Lois Lee for the Conversation discusses the science of atheism:

The Conversation ‘Why atheists are not as rational as some like to think’ (27 September 2018)
Newsweek ‘God versus science: atheists aren’t as rational as you might think’ (27 September 2018)
The Metro ‘Why atheists are not as rational as some like to think’ (2 October 2018)
The Conversation Indonesia ‘Mengapa ateis tidak serasional seperti yang diduga banyak orang’ (9 October 2018)

March 2018

Europe’s Young Adults and Region

This report from Understanding Unbelief programme co-lead Dr Stephen Bullivant for the Benedict XVI Centre and the Institut Catholique de Paris explores religious affiliation and practice among young adults in Europe using data from the European Social Survey.

World Religion News ‘Europe is moving away from organised religion’ (1 April 2018)
The Guardian ‘Christianity as default is gone’: the rise of a non-Christian Europe’ (21 March 2018)
BBC News ‘70% of young Brits are ‘not religious’ (21 March 2018)
The Guardian ‘So Christianity is no longer the norm? Going underground will do it good’ (22 March 2018)

January 2018

The conundrum of how to prove you hold a nonreligious worldview

Understanding Unbelief programme lead Dr Lois Lee discusses the need for better understanding and representation of non-religious worldview in public institutions in the UK following denial of asylum to Pakistani humanist Hamza bin Walayat who failed to identify Plato and Aristotle as humanist philosophers.

The Conversation ‘The conundrum of how to prove you hold a nonreligious worldview’ (26 January 2018)

November 2017

British Nonreligion

Dr Lois Lee explores the limitations of current survey methodologies in measuring the nonreligious population in Britain.

Church Times ‘Take the beliefs of the non-religious seriously’ (3 November 2017)

September 2017

British Nonreligion

Select press coverage of the finding of the 2016 British Social Attitudes (BSA) Survey that unbelievers’ now comprise 53% of the UK population.

The Economist ‘A majority of Britons now follow no religion’ (9 September 2017)
Church Times ‘British pass another milestone on the journey away from faith’ (4 September 2017)

July 2017

Spiritual But Not Religious

Dr Miguel Farias considers unbeliever’s interest in spiritual practices like meditation.

Psychology Today ‘Am I an Illusion? Atheists is search of the spirit- through meditation’ (12 July 2017)

May 2017

British Nonreligion

Select press coverage for Stephen Bullivant’s report, ‘The “No Religion Population of Britain”. Research funded by the Department of Evangelisation and Catechesis of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. Published by the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society.

The Observer ‘Nearly 50% are of no religion – but has UK hit ‘peak secular’? (14 May 2017)
BBC Radio 4 ‘Breakaway’ Anglican church’ (14 May 2017)
The Telegraph ‘Anglican church congregation numbers have ‘stabilised’ (14 May 2017)
The Herald ‘Study finds Scotland one of the least religious areas in the UK’ (14 May 2017)
Mail on Sunday ‘Rising patriotism and pride in being Christian sees Church of England congregations grow’ (14 May 2017)
Catholic Herald ‘A quarter of ‘non-religious’ Britons admit to praying’ (14 May 2017)
The Times ‘Exodus from Church of England slows at last’ (15 May 2017)
Metro ‘Nearly half of us are non-religious- as Christians ‘convert’ into unbelievers’ (15 May 2017)
Russia Today ‘Losing my religion? Secular Brits now outnumber Christians, but Islam and Hinduism growing’ (15 May 2017)
The Christian Post ‘Dramatic fall of Christianity in UK continues: 26 Christians abandon faith for every one new convert’ (15 May 2017)

April 2017

Is atheism a religion?

New Scientist writer Graham Lawton talks to Understanding Unbelief’s Dr Lois Lee; Dr Jonathan Lanman; and Dr Miguel Farias, and other leading scholars, about the study of atheism.