The rising or continued high percentage of people in many countries who reject any religious identification, and the growing secularity of most public institutions in these places, points to the need to better understand this increasing ‘nonreligion.’

The Nonreligion in a Complex Future research project, an international effort based at the University of Ottawa, seeks to do just that: figure out what this nonreligion is besides an absence, measure its presence, and assess its impact in our societies. In this presentation, University of Ottawa professor Peter Beyer will discuss a selection of the specific research projects that the NCF is undertaking to concretely address these issues, with special emphasis on a survey project that is about to be launched — a survey that aims to measure this ‘nonreligion’ positively: not just what it is not (it isn’t religion or any of its cognates like spirituality), but what it may positively be.

In the context, he will also look briefly at parallel NCF projects, on trekking, on community gardens, and on migration; as well as other current research that has recently been conducted on this question in the British Columbia area, this in order to situate the NCF efforts more locally.

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