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PODCAST

God Forbid

Religion: it’s at the centre of world affairs, but profound questions still remain. Why are you here? What happens when you die? Does God matter? God Forbid seeks the answers.

religion & spirituality philosophy

All Episodes

0:54:06

Religious Rebels 02 | Giordano Bruno: Imagined the...

God Forbid ·

2025/11/07

A former Dominican friar who dared to say the universe had no centre — and paid with his life.Born in 16th-century Italy, Giordano Bruno broke with Church teachings to imagine an infinite cosmos filled with countless worlds. To him, God was not confined to heaven or hierarchy but alive in every corner of creation. The Inquisition saw it differently. After years of imprisonment and interrogation, Bruno was burned alive in Rome in 1600. Was he a reckless heretic or a visionary

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0:54:06

Religious Rebels 01 | Joan of Arc: Mystic, warrior...

God Forbid ·

2025/10/31

A teenage peasant who claimed to hear the voice of God — and changed the course of European history. At just seventeen, Joan of Arc convinced the French prince to let her lead an army against the English, turning the tide of the Hundred Years’ War. But her victories came at a price: captured, accused of heresy, and burned alive at nineteen. Was she a divinely inspired saviour or a dangerous fanatic? Centuries later, her story still provokes questions about faith, gender, and power

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0:54:07

Near-death experiences: myth or mystical?

God Forbid ·

2025/10/23

What’s on the other side of the near-death experience?

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0:54:07

Was Jesus a real person?

God Forbid ·

2025/10/16

Only half of all Australians understand Jesus to be a real person who lived at a time and place in history, according to the latest Australian Community Survey.Two in 10 Australians said Jesus was a mythical or fictional character while three out of 10 didn’t know.Their doubts stand in contrast to those of ancient historians, classicists and New Testament scholars, who universally accept that Jesus was a real person in time and place in history.The question here is ontological:

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0:54:07

Why do human animals fly planes and build cities?

God Forbid ·

2025/10/09

What separates humans from other animals? It’s not our brain hardware. It’s our always changing brain software.For so long, humans believed our brain power separates us from animals: since the earliest human species, our brain size has tripled.But our brains haven’t grown for 30,000 - probably 300,000 years.So, why are we the ones who build cities and fly to space? Michael Muthukrishna calls it our collective culture.As every generation passes our operating system gets a free

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0:54:07

Could whales be Gods?

God Forbid ·

2025/10/02

In the Pacific Ocean right now grey, humpback and southern right whale populations are increasing.This is important for us all ecologically. But for some of us, even more is at stake.Because around the world, from the equator to the Arctic, from Russia to New Zealand, throughout history and today, humans revere whales, as spiritual ancestors and as harbingers of fortune and protection.And as we’ll learn, some communities and traditions even worship whales as gods. Which makes their

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0:54:07

The ethics of witchcraft and hexing the far-right

God Forbid ·

2025/09/26

Two days prior to the assassination of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, a group of writers at US-based feminist magazine, Jezebel, published an article stating that they 'Paid Some Etsy Witches to Curse Charlie Kirk’. The magazine has since pulled the article, on the advice of their lawyers, so as not to cause any confusion about their stance on political violence of any kind. Is it ever ethical to wish harm on someone, even if that harm is theoretical or supernatural

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0:54:06

Writing on the body: desecration or worship?

God Forbid ·

2025/09/19

The art of marking the body – by piercing the flesh and pushing ink into the wound – the tattoo has an uneasy relationship with religion.It's sometimes seen as a desecration of the body, but equally, the tattoo is venerated as a rite of passage as a form of worship.Then there are tattoos in the secular context. They so common in Australia now, it’s actually hard to find a body under the age of 40 without NOT permanently marked by ink. It’s a fascinating form of human expression,

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0:54:06

Why the origins of Christianity still matter today

God Forbid ·

2025/09/12

Two thousand years ago, Christianity was an obscure movement with no wealth, power, or friends in high places. Yet within a few centuries, its radical commitment to human dignity, charity and non-violence transformed the Roman world and helped shape the civilisation we live in today.How did a powerless sect became the most influential religion on Earth? From ancient plagues and persecution to today’s debates about faith and society: can Christianity still turn the world upside

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0:54:06

Gen Y and Gen Z are finding God

God Forbid ·

2025/09/05

It’s hard to believe that one in three young Australian adults go regularly to worship services – more than any other age group. But it’s true and men are leading the charge.It’s a puzzle, because it breaks two longstanding rules of religion: believers are typically female and old.Remember back in 2000. Even the most optimistic priest wouldn’t have predicted that would change. The Cold War was over, religion was set to fade way – replaced globally with rationalism, liberalism and

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0:54:06

God, the Big Bang & the fortunate universe

God Forbid ·

2025/08/29

We live in a universe that sustains life – but what are the chances of that? And scientists now believe that if the laws of physics were different by just a fraction – our universe would be either empty, simple, or long ago extinct.If the strength of gravity or the mass of an electron was different by even the tiniest amount, the universe as we know it would not exist. So tiny even that the difference itself is almost beyond comprehension.Why has this cosmic fine tuning come about

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0:54:06

Truth and trust in a post-truth world

God Forbid ·

2025/08/22

Truth used to be something we argued about. Now we can’t even agree on what it is. In a world of fake news and alternate facts, we each claim our personal truth, our own competing version of reality.So, how does science, religion, and philosophy help us navigate truth when certainty is elusive?What does it mean to live in a time when truth itself feels fractured? When the world is so complex – that we yearn for trust as much as truth? And how do we navigate moral or epistemic

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0:54:06

Can celibacy actually make us purer and closer to God?

God Forbid ·

2025/08/15

Can celibacy actually make us purer and closer to God? What is it about sex that gets in the way of our divinity?What do some of the world’s major religions say about celibacy or even require of it’s devotees?And, with the very noticeable global decline in the birth rate, are we already seeing a trend towards a more chaste life? If so, can abstinence draw us closer to our spiritual selves?GUESTS:Dawn Eden Goldstein is a theologian, canon lawyer and author of TheThrill of The

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0:54:06

Is God in the machine?

God Forbid ·

2025/08/08

Can we know God through machines? Can machines know God? And could machines, one day, become godlike themselves? While AI is still in its infancy, it is evolving at lightning speed, and ingraining itself in our lives. From writing our emails, creating our budgets and even serving as our therapists, society is embracing AI as part of our everyday lives. But what about faith? Our spirituality, our souls, our connection to God - these are elements of the human experience that can’t

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0:54:06

How should our leaders behave?

God Forbid ·

2025/07/30

With the Coldplay "kiss cam" fiasco and two corporate careers in tatters we ask the question: Should leaders be held to a higher personal standard than the rest of society? Beyond the memes and outrage, what does this moment reveal about how we expect leaders to behave — not just at work, but in public and online?And what does ethical leadership look like in an era where CEO pay is high, but trust is low? Guests:Dr Tim Dean, philosopher and ethicist from the Ethics CentreDr Nelly

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0:54:07

The Language of God: Literacy, Power, and the Sacred...

God Forbid ·

2025/07/25

Is God multilingual? Does the divine speak Hebrew? Arabic? Latin? Or is it something more mysterious?This week on God Forbid, we’re asking: who gets to speak the language of God? And what happens when only a select few can read the sacred texts? From ancient scrolls to colonial classrooms, religion has often been shaped — and controlled — by language and literacy.Guests:Prof Halim Rane, a scholar of Islamic theology and the sociology of religion from Griffith University, his latest

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0:54:06

Reality TV, Mormon wives, and guilty pleasures

God Forbid ·

2025/07/18

What do dancing Mormons, blind dates, and superyachts have in common? They've all featured on so-called ‘reality TV’ shows. But just how ‘real’ are they? Some argue reality tv is anti-feminist – yet the genre is consistently popular with young women, and a new reality TV show is breaking records with religious women at the centre of it – The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.It's not the first time The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints has been featured on reality TV, and

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0:54:06

We live in a world where horror is all too real. So...

God Forbid ·

2025/07/11

55 horror movies came out last year - more than one a week - the most of any year this century.But why would make-believe horror double its box office share in a decade which has seen real existential fear: wars, pandemics, and natural disasters.And what do movies that scare us have to do with religions that comfort us?Well, they’re both interested in what you believe, ask questions about evil, and want your attendance on a Sunday morning.GUESTS:BARBARA CREED Professor of Screen

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0:54:07

What binds us together as Australians?

God Forbid ·

2025/07/03

The Prime Minister says our cultural diversity is a strength and calls for "progressive patriotism".But global turmoil is making it's way to our shores in the form of demonstrations and violence on our streets. What does the future hold for the ties that bind us together?And what IS progressive patriotism anyway?GUESTS:Prof, the Rev Peter Kurti, Director, Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society program, Centre for Independent Studies. His recent paper is The Ties That Bind:

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0:54:06

Can the Dalai Lama's Tibet ever be self-determined?

God Forbid ·

2025/06/27

With His Holiness the Dalai Lama turning 90 this month, every day that passes brings his succession closer. When he dies, the religious power struggle over his replacement will certainly be at the top of the Communist Party’s agenda.So what might lie in the future for Tibet in it's ongoing struggle for autonomy from Chinese rule?Is there a middle way that could be acceptable to both sides in the dispute?GUESTS:Dr Lobsang Sangay was the leader of the Central Tibetan Administration

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