WHAT is sin? That was the question the first edition of a new series of Radio 4’s Beyond Belief asked this week, well timed for Easter week. “A deliberate act with the intention of offending God and offending another person, or doing wrong to another person,” suggested Dr Gemma Simmonds, Director of the Religious Life Institute in Cambridge and sometimes prison chaplain. “Sin is acting in evil,” according to Sikh psychologist and author Davinder Panesar. No mention of leaving the top off the milk, surprisingly.
Ideas are one of the things radio can handle much better than television (admittedly not always obvious if you only listen to phone-in shows). And even for dyed-in-the-wool atheists like me, articulations of religious and theological thought can be compelling. Often, they are far more sophisticated and progressive than you might imagine.
Looking at the story of Adam and Eve, for example, Robyn Ashworth-Steen, Rabbi at Manchester Reform Synagogue, suggested: “I see the garden of Eden as being a liberation story. I see it as Eve stepping up against the patriarchy and against a closed world that doesn’t allow her to experience having a voice or awareness of what’s around her.”
It’s about time Eve got some good press.
Other important questions raised this week. What’s the science behind making the perfect cup of tea? That was the question asked by Dr Hannah Fry on Lauren Laverne’s show on Tuesday morning. You should put the teapot to the kettle, she suggests, the water must be hot (which is why tea from a coffee shop is always rubbish; the temperature is set for coffee), the water should be freshly boiled. Oh, yes, and brew for three minutes. I hope my mother-in-law reads before my next visit. Whenever that might be.
Look out for: Visit the Radio Garden website. A handy, global link to radio stations around the world. I’m rather taken with the music policy of Fresh FM in Benin City right now.
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