Everything we think we know about religion is wrong

Heslington Lecture

Despite religion’s supposed irrelevance to politics and society in Europe and North America, public discourses in the West remain obsessed with whether religion is growing or declining. Newspaper headlines in 2025 declared that both things were true. How is that possible? And why do we care so much?

Our obsession with this issue reveals some implicit assumptions about what we think religion is and what it tells us about humanity. Religiosity or lack thereof is a sign of humanity’s inherent capacity for growth. If we are becoming less religious, then we are advancing, evolving and developing. If we are becoming more religious, then we are regressing, becoming more ignorant and irrational.

But what if religion isn’t a bellwether for humanity’s evolution? What if religion is just like economics, or politics, or gender, or ethnicity – another element of our social fabric that we need to study so we can understand the world better? What if religion isn’t growing or declining but is rather shifting and changing? What if everything we think we know about religion is wrong?

Join Professor Erin Wilson as she explores these questions, challenging our preconceived ideas about what “religion” is and considering what it means for humanity in the 21st century.

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