In mid-August, a few hundred people took to the streets in Burma’s capital, Rangoon. Since then, the world has watched an unfolding drama on its TV screens. At least, those that have TV are watching. Others are listening to their radios, or reading newspapers, leaflets, emails and blogs (or web logs). Over fifty years ago, when they wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they didn’t anticipate the World Wide Web and its effect on international communications.

It is like Daniel going into the lions’ den, though Professor Richard Dawkins might not appreciate the biblical comparison. Britain’s leading atheist is spearheading a campaign in America to challenge the dominance of religion in every day life and in politics, insisting that the millions of US godless deserve to be heard too. Atheists in the US “have been downtrodden for a very long time. So I think some sort of political organisation is what they need”, he said.

TV to see, tonight (Monday 1 October), 9pm on BBC2. This World gains exclusive access to a Sharia court and its characteristic judge, Judge Isah, in the state of Zamfara in northern Nigeria. Some British Muslims want Sharia law implemented in the UK. Sharia law is already practised informally in parts of Britain to resolve Islamic divorce, inheritance and family disputes. Now some Muslims want their laws to work alongside the existing legal system.

I recently emailed my MP, Tim Yeo, about the Governments plans to increase the number of faith schools. This was his reply: Thank you for your e-mail of 11th September about the expansion of state sector faith schools. I appreciate the concerns that you outline in your letter over the impact of faith schools on community cohesion. Clearly, there is a balance to be struck between the rights of parents to educate their children in a religious manner and the need to promote community cohesion.

Suffolk Coastal MP John Gummer came across the Humanist stand at the Conservative Party Conference and had a bit of a tantrum, as reported on the new website of Lancashire Secular Humanists: As John Gummer came upon the British Humanist Association’s campaign stand in the exhibitors gallery at the Winter Gardens this afternoon he was clearly heard to say to his companion “Do you know there is nothing I hate more than these Humanists”.

The teaching of evolution is becoming increasingly difficult in UK schools because of the rise of creationism, a leading scientist is warning. Head of science at London’s Institute of Education Professor Michael Reiss says some teachers, fearful of entering the debate, avoid the subject totally. BBC NEWS | Education | Teachers ‘fear evolution lessons’. Tags: Creationism, Evolution, Science+teaching

This is from a book called “Primary teaching in Sunday schools (School of service series)” by Jean Heppell James, published by the Scripture Union & C.S.S.M in 1962. Click on the image to see a larger version. I imagine that quite a few Humanists were subjected to this sort of nonsense in their youth. Tags: Sunday+school, Indoctrination

Libby Purves writes in the Times Online: Interesting debate opened up by Theos – their research shows major cutbacks in hospital chaplain services. No cause, they say, for secularist triumphalism: chaplains do not primarily exist to offer prayers or communion but “to answer needs that are simply human: coping with the death of a loved one, the suffering of a child, the fear that comes with injury or sickness …”

E-mail: mail@suffolkhumanists.org.uk Event description: I’ll be talking to BBC Radio Suffolk presenter Rachel Sloane about the anti-Humanist comments made by John Gummer MP at the Tory party conference. The broadcast should start at 8 am. Not sure how long it’ll last. Mr Gummer is being invited to participate or to send a statement. Rachel met Suffolk Humanists in December 2006 and recorded a feature for her Sunday morning series on Suffolk faiths.

I receive a weekly email from Laurie Taylor about his programme on Radio 4, Thinking Allowed. Today’s sounds interesting: You’ve probably had one of these moments yourself. There you are, sitting quietly across the table from a new acquaintance who seems to have all the necessary qualifications to become a new friend. They’re reasonably attractive, fairly clever, quite funny, and nicely self-deprecating. They have some good stories to tell and seem refreshingly free of prejudice.

Suffolk Humanist Nathan Nelson has taken a short break in Laos during his prolonged stay in Siem Reap, Cambodia, where he’s been doing voluntary work. We’ve had rain; they’ve had more rain. You can follow Nathan’s adventures on his blog. Tags: Nathan+Nelson, Blog, Cambodia, Laos

Former US-President Al Gore has won a Nobel prize for his Climate Change work, but presumably this won’t impress Dover school governor Stewart Dimmock, who tried to ban the film from being shown in schools. He didn’t succeed but a judge ruled that, if shown in schools, the film must be accompanied with guidance “giving the other side of the argument”, which will gladden the hearts of climate change deniers everywhere.

We reported that Newfoundlanders had banned faith schools, and a Conservative politician was fighting an election with the promise to bring them back. He lost. The Canadian province of Ontario had an election this week, which resulted in a change of administration. The Liberals have taken over the reins of power after the Conservatives foolishly promised they would create a system of taxpayer-funded religious schools. The electorate reacted with extreme hostility to the idea, proposed by the aptly named Conservative leader John Tory.

Speaking at a lecture at Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre, [Rowan] Williams described religious belief as ‘naturally self-critical’ which was a point that contemporary critics such as evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, often missed. ‘There are specific areas of mismatch between what Dawkins may write about and what religious people think they are doing,’ he said. Williams was referring to Dawkins’s book, The God Delusion, in which the atheist scientist attacks God ‘in all his forms’ arguing that belief in a supernatural entity is irrational.

One of the key religious themes of Philip Pullman’s award-winning series of children’s novels, His Dark Materials, has been watered down to appeal to a wider audience in the new Hollywood film version of the first book. The original story’s rejection of organised religion, and in particular of the historic abuse of power in the Catholic Church, has been altered to avoid offending followers of the faith in the UK and in America.

Libby on the Laxfield (Suffolk) Festival of Tolerance. Why haven’t we heard about this before? You don’t doom a man for what he believes, even if you think he’s wrong. You don’t let a neighbour be persecuted, even if he’s not of your faith. Thus 450 years later Laxfield holds a festival of tolerance to show solidarity with those long-dead ancestors. Zero tolerance for religious intolerance | Libby Purves – Times Online.

The National Secular Society has called on the Government to permit employers to declare their workplaces to be secular after another incident of conflict over religion emerged. National Secular Society – Make The Workplace Secular Tags: NSS, Religion+at+work, Discrimination

E-mail: mail@suffolkhumanists.org.uk Event description: Exhibition and reflection for World Aids Day (Sat 1 December) at St Nicholas Centre, Ipswich. People of all faiths and none (including me) have been invited to contribute to the reflection. HIV and AIDS are still are still an enormous problem, nationally and internationally. In the UK, many sexually active people are complacent about the risks of unprotected intercourse. In developing countries, millions of children are orphaned by AIDS.

An un-Christian dust-up is under way between John Gummer, the Catholic Tory MP, environmentalist and cow eater, and the British Humanist Association. Each accuses the other of dishonesty. The humanists claim that Gummer attacked them a fortnight ago at their stall in Blackpool. “He walked up to us and said loudly how much he hated us,” says the BHA chief exec, Hanne Stinson. “He was shouting that we, because of our beliefs about living a good life without religion, had no right to be there; that the Conservative Party is a Christian party.

Margaret Nelson led a discussion at a Suffolk Inter-Faith ResourceForum of Faiths on16 October 2007**. The others speakers were Manwar Ali (Muslim), Robin Herne (Pagan) and Shpetim Alimeta (“thinker” of Albanian origin). For those who don’t know me, I’m a Secular Humanist. I make that qualification because in the States there are Religious Humanists as well as Secular Humanists. However, in Great Britain and other countries where there are Humanist organisations that are part of the International Humanist & Ethical Union, Humanism is totally non-religious.

Death is not the end and soldiers need to be spiritually better prepared for war, according to the head of the British Army. General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, said that Christian leaders and chaplains in the Army needed to equip soldiers for the spiritual issues at stake. “In my business, asking people to risk their lives is part of the job, but doing so without giving them the chance to understand that there is a life after death is something of a betrayal,” he said.

Suffolk County Council’s Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE) will discuss guidance for teachers on the discussion of Creationism and Intelligent Design in RE lessons. We wonder if some RE teachers may not be as informed about the scientific facts as they should be, and if their religious beliefs may influence their approach to the subject. We advocate training in basic science for RE teachers. We welcome any evidence about good or bad examples of RE teaching when this subject has arisen.

That little man with the round face on the BBC’s business news interviewed a retail boss this morning, who looked forward to the ringing of tills in the run-up to Christmas. He expected people to go out and run up their credit card bills, as usual. It set me thinking; every year, someone will ask what we Humanists do at Christmas. Since we’re not religious, what does it mean to us?

Not for the first time, the Society of Homeopaths (top patron, HM The Queen) has reacted to criticism with threats. What they don’t do (because they can’t) is come up with any evidence that their critic was wrong – in this case, Dr Andy Lewis, who… … runs a website called Quackometer; he criticised the Society of Homeopaths (Europe’s largest professional organisation of homeopaths) in no uncertain terms. In his opinion, they do not enforce their own “code of practice” (you’re not even allowed to imply you can cure a named disease!

Those strongly in favour of faith schools often cite the rights of religious parents, as taxpayers, to ensure that their child has State schooling within a school that promotes their faith. However, in areas where faith schools are over-subscribed, there is a real risk that non-religious parents, who are also taxpayers, do not have the same rights of access. Also, should the number of faith schools substantially increase, many parents may lose the right to ensure that their child goes to a community, non-faith school.

Richard Dawkins says that it is “the awakening of women” that will solve the problem of “the worldwide menace of Islamic terrorism and oppression”. His remarks came while praising Mina Ahadi, winner of this year’s NSS Irwin Prize for “Secularist of the Year”. Mina Ahadi is an Iranian woman who was forced to flee her native country after leading a campaign against the compulsory veiling of women. Because of her resistance to the clerical regime, her husband and four of her colleagues were executed, and she only narrowly escaped the same fate.

From the blog “LOL god (putting the fun back in religion)” – a collection of cartoons about the absurdity of Intelligent Design. Enjoy. Tags: Intelligent+design, blog, Humour, Cartoons

Evan Harris MP, honorary associate of the National Secular Society, who’s fought for abortion rights, gay rights, and all the other rights that the Daily Mail thinks we shouldn’t have (Harrumph! This country’s going to the dogs!), has been subjected to a character assassination in the Daily Mail. He must be doing something right. Dr Evan Harris hardly fits the mould of cuddly Liberal Democrat MPs, who are usually so desperately anxious to be all things to all people.