hello 21 years ago I presented the very first edition of beyond belief do we now know more or
less about the beliefs of those around us and what role might religion play in Britain in
the next two decades Sita tsuchak is a true written religious studies at Eaton College
she's also a teacher at the Hindu Academy which provides online courses in Hindu Dharma hello so
let's start with that the loss of faith the 2001 census was the first to ask people about religion
and it discovered that almost three-quarters of us described ourselves as Christian just 15 percent
had no religion the latest data we have is from the British social attitudes survey last year and
it suggests that over half the population have no religion just over a third say they're Christian
and of those only one in three is Anglican Sita it may surprise our listeners to hear that Hinduism
is third in its size behind Christianity and Islam and the religious makeup of the UK a very
substantial presence in Britain today fantastic I know that that's really reassuring to hear and um
I think one of the wonderful things about Hinduism the central sort of philosophical part of Hinduism
is this pluralistic approach because within the fold of the Hindu Faith there are so many
sectarian movements and they all sit together in harmony it's really wonderful that there is such
a diversity of different spiritual approaches not just within Hinduism but across the world through
Christianity through Islam and actually what we promote is the idea that they all eventually leads
to the same destination here I mean I knew her dad who taught me would little know about Hinduism
great man and I would say that I agree with the pluralist essence at the heart of many great all
the great faiths but also I think we shouldn't shy away from the fact that there are also intolerant
and exclusivist interpretations of all our major world Faith fundamentalist interpretations which
Christina has alluded to as well and I think some of those challenges we still need to Grapple with
see Tim uh yes no thank you so much and it's wonderful you know my dad very well so yes I
mean this is the thing is sometimes when we get too sort of fixated on doctrines and dogmas and
all the structures which surround religions we tend to focus our attention on that rather than
on the spiritual heart of all of these wonderful traditions because throughout history throughout
the world we've had incredible individuals who have had the most amazing spiritual experiences
and as Humanity we want to try and preserve and protect what these individuals have said and
we create these structures which is a source of identity it gives us a sense of purpose but having
said that then we then Focus all our energies on these differences rather than focusing on the
heart of all of these religions which talk about the same Divinity um I'm going to interrupt you
there because there we it's very easy to pretend that all is wonderful that we all believe the same
things at heart but the reality is that the last 20 years for religions has been disastrous in this
country it has exposed the divisions between us and if you ask the man in the street what
he thinks of Muslims very likely somewhere along the line he will Express suspicions of extremism
911 was clearly the jumping off point for beyond belief the idea was that we had a huge degree
of religious illiteracy in this country and that people needed to learn about the various religions
which make up our country do you think we know more or less about religion AI than we did 20
years ago Sita Hinduism is the exception in this country because as I understand it the degree of
belief among Hindus has been increasing over the years and there has been no dropping away
of young people yes I think that's the wonderful thing about Hinduism is that you can think of God
as a personality in the sky and that appealed to previous generations to our grandparents and
great-grandparents but the other very interesting aspects of Hinduism is that it incorporates the
idea of thinking of God not as a person but as a principle which underpins the whole universe we
get rid of all the sort of philosophical baggage which comes with God as a person because if God
is meant to be all compassionate and all loving why is there such tremendous suffering happening
not just in the human Kingdom but in the animal kingdom and the whole living Kingdom but with
the idea of God as a principle and we say that every living thing is a spark of divinity on
Earth the responsibility lies squarely on our shoulders if we see an issue in front of us we
are Divine we are the spark of God and it's our responsibility to do something about it so I think
this non-theistic Hinduism is becoming incredibly popular we're not so concerned about the tops and
tales of religion yes we have all these rituals and we have all this colorful mythology but you
don't need to follow it or believe in it to be a Hindu so the last 20 years have been
this time of Rapid technological advancement we have touched on the growth of social media
but one consequence of that has been the amplification of hate and fundamentalism
online sawing Division and I want to ask how can people of Faith counter the narrow ways in which
religion is used now and let me come to you first Sita I mean that's the thing with social media it
can be incredibly polarizing and when you put in Google searches for something negative it will
keep offering suggestions for even more negative things so I think the way that faiths can really
counter this is by trying to present material which is inclusive which talks about the same
Unity behind all the apparent diversity which is there so anything which encourages us to
mix with our fellow human beings and focusing on the similarity of our human condition and
actually that's what all religions are trying to do we've been discussing change and religion is
going to change radically again in the next 20 years in one sentence I'd like to tell me one
change that you would like to see within your own faith community Sita so I think the time has come
Living God here and now and that can really Foster
beautiful Community relationships and be all Interfaith dialogue it has been an
enormous pleasure thank you for listening for the last 21 years and from me goodbye