Religion rules the world because it plays a major role in shaping the politics and culture of the most influential and powerful nation on the planet – the US.

At the same time, religion organises all of our lives and helps us to make sense of who we are and where we are going, even if that organising belief is the love of a football club or shopping.

Religion also has power in an inverted sense (anti-power power) because on a spiritual level the poor of the planet are considered to have greater favour with God because God is biased towards the materially weak.

So whether at the White House, on the football stands, in the shopping centre, or amongst the poverty-stricken ghettos, in one way or another, religion always rules.

Read on …

Robert Beckford shows us why religion rules the world. He is a lecturer in African diasporan religions and cultures at The University of Birmingham and has presented several programmes for Channel 4, including Who Wrote the Bible?