Richness In Diversity

What is religion? And in the first decade of the first century of the new millennium, is it needed or necessary? There is no doubt that we still have it and that it is practised the world over by many hundreds of millions, perhaps thousands of millions, in some way or another. Is it desirable or undesirable, a good thing or a bad thing? Should we be religious or should we rather be anticipating the eventual demise of religion and doing what we can to hurry it along? Is it an essential part of human life or is it some unfortunate baggage from our past which should be consigned to a place in our history? Is it essentially about how we behave, our ethical behaviour, especially towards one another? Or is it more about some fundamental dimension of life with which we in modern - or, indeed, post-modern - society have lost touch, but which, if we were in touch with it, would redirect the whole of our lives?

These are the sorts of questions that will be addressed in this section, plus a review of the diverse nature of religion and spirituality in the city.

Religious Identification in the City

	All people	Christian	Buddhist	Hindu	Jewish	Muslim	Sikh	Other religions	No religion	Religion not stated
Brighton & Hove	247,817	146,466	1,747	1,300	3,358	3,635	237	2,106	66,955	22,013
Brighton & Hove as a percentage		59.10	0.70	0.52	1.36	1.47	0.10	0.85	27.02	8.88
South East as a percentage		72.78	0.28	0.56	0.24	1.36	0.47	0.36	16.50	7.46
England & Wales as a percentage		71.75	0.28	1.06	0.50	2.97	0.63	0.29	14.81	7.71