This chapter explores the worldview of individuals who reject religion but, rather than placing their faith in science (scientism), put it in humanity, embracing the humanities and culture, and affirming that human beings are persons born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Building on the discussion started in Chapter 1 of how invisible agents can shape young women’s lives, Chapter 2 focuses on how young women engage with Pentecostalism to realise auspicious futures. Calabar is well-known for its numerous churches, which render the city a highly competitive and cacophonous religious marketplace. The chapter details how young women, simultaneously enticed by and fearful of novel charismatic practices, must learn to navigate the city’s plural church landscape. Ever curious, young women are often left wondering whether, by attending certain ministries, they are unwittingly harming their attempts to realise the destinies they believe God has planned for them. Drawing on local discourses of ‘spiritual confusion’ and ‘fake pastors’, the chapter highlights how unknown forces might cause deep-seated anxieties in young women as they attempt to grow up but that doubts over what cannot be seen do not stop young women from participating in what they themselves see as questionable Christian practices.

The final chapter summarizes, offers concluding remarks, and suggests some challenges that worldview studies will face in the future. It also suggests how we, as reflective individuals, can develop an intellectually and existentially satisfying worldview.

This chapter examines the core convictions of the New Spirituality, the worldview of individuals often referred to as “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR). The SBNR would maintain they are nonreligious, although they tend to believe in the divine or our inner divinity and that we have an inborn capacity to know the divine or the deeper spiritual realities of the cosmos.

The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination is the oldest UN human rights treaty, and for over forty years, the Committee overseeing its implementation, CERD, has had the power to decide individual communications. Despite this long history, a settled evidentiary framework has not materialised yet. The Committee rarely discussed evidence, and when it did, the results could differ markedly: In Dawas and Shava v. Denmark (2012), a case on mob violence, the Committee did not directly engage with the evidence, which led to a resurfacing of evidentiary questions during the follow-up phase, when they could no longer be addressed. Far preferable is the approach adopted in Zapescu v. Moldova (2021), dealing with discriminatory employment practices, where the Committee discussed the standard of proof for procedural violations and the necessary evidence. More elaborations of this kind are needed for a clear evidentiary pathway to emerge.

This introductory chapter illustrates why evidence in the individual communications procedure of the United Nations human rights treaty bodies (UNTB) is an issue requiring reflection and clarification. The chapter firstly contextualises this central topic of this book by broadly introducing the UNTBs’ mandates, composition and ways of working, as well as some general features of their individual communications procedures. Indications are given of how this legal, institutional and procedural setting interacts with the handling of evidence by the UNTBs, as well as some of the key questions it raises. The chapter further outlines some of the particular research challenges encountered in tackling the questions at the heart of this book, and how they have been addressed. It then goes on to introduce the four-part structure of the book and its ten chapters, including the final chapter, containing recommendations. Finally, this introduction discusses cross-cutting themes which emerge from the contributions.

This chapter presents an examination of central commitments found in some Buddhist traditions. The aim is to identify a Buddhist worldview that differs from the others considered in this study and thus constitutes a genuine alternative to them.

This chapter reviews the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s (WGAD) approach to issues of evidence and burdens of proof. It aims to provide a useful point of comparison with the UNTBs’ evidentiary procedures. The WGAD has developed an increasingly sophisticated approach to evidence, providing strong incentives for other decision-making bodies to take up its conclusions and procedures. In this chapter, the following arguments are substantiated: first, that the Working Group’s increasingly formalised and standardised approach to evidence reflects the maturing of the Working Group and its entrenchment in the ecosystem of human rights bodies; second, that its nuanced evidentiary approach can serve to enhance its credibility with states and claimants, in order to increase compliance rates; and third, its detailed approaches to evidentiary standards and challenges could provide precedents for UNTBs with individual claims mandates to follow a similar approach.

This chapter explores the concept of a worldview and provides a helpful definition. Additionally, the differences between religious and secular worldviews are examined and explained.

Chapter 5 examines the popularity of sewing shops and apprenticeships amongst fashion-conscious young women on tight budgets. Focusing on materiality, the chapter develops the book’s discussion of how uncertainty is employed in future-making strategies by considering how young women engage with counterfeit commodities and use skilful artistry to reveal – or bring forth in material form – the individuals they believe God intends them to be. Focusing on young women’s desire for bespoke clothes, which they often create for themselves after learning how to sew, the chapter highlights how young women avoid clothes sold in the market not because they are fakes or imitations of global brands but because, as mass-produced commodities, they deny young women their uniqueness and risk making them a counterfeit of someone else. As the chapter explores, making bespoke clothes that are fashionable does not depend only on individual inspiration but, ironically, requires young women to carefully imitate others’ designs. Detailing how young women make clothes by skilfully copying current trends and mirroring the contours of their own bodies, the chapter discusses the art and ethics of imitation.

Developing the previous chapter’s focus on the artistry involved in imitation, Chapter 6 focuses on how young women’s skilful use of make-up palettes and other beauty practices can simultaneously transform their physical appearance and social status. The chapter follows young women’s efforts to evoke a particular urban feminine beauty ideal, which is summed up not in one particular ‘look’ but rather in the ability to constantly transform the self. While appearing effortless, this cosmopolitan aesthetic requires young women to navigate confusing make-up markets and the undesirable effects of fake cosmetics, as well as the infrastructural and social stresses that shape the beauty salon experience. It also requires them to avoid being instantly ‘made down’ by the gazes of other young women. Showing how young women’s beauty practices not only sit within an ever-shifting social and material terrain but also actively contribute to the inconsistencies and ambiguities of urban life, the chapter argues that beauty and uncertainty, far from being incongruous concepts, play a significant role in shaping each other in Calabar.