Atheists should point out that life without God can be meaningful, moral and happy.

Big sporting events and spectacles might give the national morale a shot in the arm, but they are too transient and taste-specific to stand as robust symbols of nationhood.

Any celebration meal to which guests are invited, be they family or friends, should be an occasion for generous hospitality.

No one who has understood even a fraction of what science has told us about the universe can fail to be in awe of both the cosmos and of science.

Wellbeing is a notion that entails our values about the good life, and questions of values are not ultimately scientific questions.

To a certain extent all philosophers have been involved in a systematic questioning that undermines confidence and certainty. Philosophy as a whole unleashed skeptical forces which, outside of the tightly controlled environment of a rigorous philosophical debate, led a lot of people to throw their hands up in despair and think 'what's the point?'. A lot of the public perception of philosophy is that it leaves you with no answers, and more confused than you were at the beginning.

Whatever the truth is about the extent to which truth is respected in the future, it is going to depend partly on what we do. More important than making predictions is doing things which help bring about this respect.