If “God is dead”, what place do meaning and morality have in our lives? And why do new forms of belief continue to sprout and grow?

In this issue of IAI News, we explore the ongoing proliferation in new forms of belief. Sociologist Eileen Barker charts the return of the pagans across the UK, US and Europe while, much more worryingly, journalist John Lloyd issues a wake-up call to the reality of terrorism and the existential threats facing western culture and values. “Put together money, expertise and an Islamist-nihilist philosophy,” he says, “and you have a weapon of huge destructive power.”

In the light of such religious debates, three contributors tackle our relationship with meaning and reality. Each accepts that there is a world out there that, in principle at least, we can understand and engage with. But the question is: how? One answer is through the imagination: If our imaginations shape our reality, asks behavioural scientist Dylan Evans, do we need to conjure new visions of better worlds? Or will this impede real progress?