There's something soothing. There's something paradisial about water.

Hello, I'm Neil McGregor. For the whole of human history, believing and belonging have gone

together. In this series of podcasts, I'm looking at objects and at places to see how those shared beliefs have helped build communities and how they can also divide them.

The series is called Living with the Gods and it's about faith and about society, but it's essentially about how we live with each other.

This episode is about water.

This is the BBC.

Entering Salisbury Cathedral from the Great West Door,

the first thing you encounter is a large bronze basin in the shape of a cross.

It's brimming with water which pours from each one of the four arms. And there's great significance in having this water here at the entrance to the

church. This is, after all, a baptismal font. And water is the entrance, the door through which every Christian

enters not just the faith, but the Christian community. People can live together only where

there's water. So it's no surprise that running water, living water, has a symbol that slakes the

thirst of all, that both binds the community and cleanses

the individual, plays a major role in faiths from ancient Egypt and the Aztecs to Jews

and Christians, Hindus and Muslims.

There's something soothing. There's something paradisial about water.

Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic Studies in Edinburgh.

Water greets you as you enter the mosque in Cairo,

just as it welcomes the visitor to Salisbury Cathedral,

where the bishop, Nicholas Holton, performs baptisms.

Round the font, there's the passage from Isaiah,

for I have called you by name, you are mine.

...