Losing My Religion

“Trying to keep up with you / And I don’t know if I can do it / Oh no, I’ve said too much / I haven’t said enough.” by REM

- Josh Sims

It stands as what might often seem to be a solitary symbol of the unity between the world’s religions. The Haus der Religionen, in Bern, Switzerland brings together worship rooms for eight faiths in a single building. “It was a local project that we never expected to get such publicity for,” says Anne Hampel, spokesperson for the Haus, which was inaugurated five years ago with the intention of encouraging those of different faiths to mingle and converse. “The Swiss government now likes to bring international dignitaries here on visits. But really it’s a laboratory for something that hasn’t been done before, a space to allow people to get to know each other beyond the borders of religion.”

It’s an important gesture in times of growing religious violence around the globe: Islamic extremism in the Middle East, the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria, and the persecution of Muslims in Myanmar and of Christians in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the Pew Research Center, last year more than a quarter of the world’s countries experienced a high incidence of hostilities motivated by religious hatred.

It was, perhaps, ever thus, some say out of a perversion of core teachings, others because religions underscore certainties and sanctify martyrdom. And when, despite a broad and gradual shift towards secularism—according to 2015 figures, 16 percent of the global population now describe themselves as having no religious affiliation at all (which isn’t to say they’re all atheists)— the remaining 84 percent of the world’s population do identify themselves with a religious group.