Like most major interfaith events, the recent "Many Heavens, One Earth" gathering here in November was marked by considerable pageantry.
At the heart of human experience lies an essential yearning for self-definition and self-understanding. Developing a conception of who we are, for what purpose we exist, and how we should live our lives is a basic impulse of human consciousness.
The inequities and injustices that are likely to occur on a global level because of climate change mean that world leaders must carefully examine the moral and ethical dimensions of global warming, said Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
We, the undersigned non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council, leaders of the world's religions, and other members of civil society, urge the governments of the world to participate in the UN High Level Event on Climate Change through representatives at the highest level and unequivocally call on them to...
Tierney Sutton is hardly alone among jazz vocalists in trying to bring a spiritual dimension to her music. Some trace jazz back to African-American spirituals in the 1800s. More recently, musicians from Duke Ellington to John Coltrane have touched on spiritual themes.
During her time in Iran's notorious Evin prison, journalist Roxana Saberi met a number of fellow women prisoners who gave her strength and inspiration as she faced the interrogations of her keepers and the harsh conditions of the jail itself.
The UN Secretary General released in October a report expressing strong criticism of Iran's human rights record, voicing concern about the use of excessive force after the recent presidential election, the harassment of women's rights activists, the ongoing execution of juveniles, and the continued persecution of minorities, including Bahá'ís.
The approval of a strongly worded resolution on human rights in Iran sends a powerful signal to the Iranian government that the world is gravely concerned about how Iran treats its citizens, said the Bahá'í International Community.
The Bahá'í writings state: "We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions."
Early in their latest book, journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn offer this startling fact: a straightforward calculation of male-to-female ratios shows that at least 60 million women and girls are "missing" from global population figures.
World religions pledge concrete action on climate change
Identity and the search for a common human purpose
Ethics are "missing dimension" in climate debate, says IPCC heade
Jazz singer Tierney Sutton takes a spiritual look at "Desire"
A glimpse of conditions faced by Bahá'í prisoners inside Iran's Evin prison
Review: Stories from the front lines in the most underreported conflict of the century