In today’s Guardian, Phil Hall writes about humanist funerals, and why he finds them much more satisfying than … … religious funerals, where a stranger usually officiates and witters on about heaven, often fail to commemorate a life well lived properly. Religious funerals can be a whimpering anti-climax. He goes on, In contrast, the humanist funerals in our family were completely satisfying and eclectic. They looked backwards and allowed us to see the lives of our loved ones clearly.

While the BBC Trust deliberates today on whether to allow more Humanist broadcasting, including Thoughts for the Day, Humanist peers debated the issue last night. One of the speakers, Baroness Massey of Darwen, said, Humanism is growing in strength. It has growing public recognition in non-religious ceremonies such as marriages, funerals and baptisms. This has made significant contributions to public policy. The moral values held by humanists are weighed and considered.

Although there were representatives of other faiths at the Cenotaph this morning, the religious part of the remembrance ceremony was Christian, as usual. Today and on Tuesday (Armistice Day, 11th November), Christian ceremonial will predominate, regardless of the fact that services personnel are of all faiths and none, and that those who join them on Remembrance Day are also a diverse cross-section of society. To be wholly inclusive, such ceremonial should be completely secular, allowing those who are religious to have separate ceremonies afterwards.

The recent Intelligence Squared debate – ‘The Catholic Church is a Force for Good in the World‘ – when Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry soundly thrashed Anne Widdicombe and Archbishop Onaiyekan, is now online. Watch and enjoy.

A few of the stories that have caught my eye on the Interweb this week: * As an antidote to the depressing news that a significant proportion of British people think that creationism ought to be included in school science lessons, we can celebrate a development in education. Evolution will be in the national curriculum for primary schools when the new version is published soon. Andrew Copson from the BHA wrote in the Guardian:

It’s tedious, hearing those in Parliament wittering on about “secularism”, when they clearly haven’t a clue what it means. But then, neither do a majority of religious leaders (including Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury) who complain about “aggressive secularism”. Personally, I’m feeling quite aggressive about the latest threat to secularism; John Denham, the Communities Secretary, has announced that a new panel of religious experts has been set up to advise the Government on making public policy decisions.

The BBC Trust today announced its findings on a number of appeals about the broadcast of Radio 4’s Thought for the Day and BBC editorial policy on non-religious content. The Trust found that the editorial policy of only allowing religious contributors to participate on Thought for the Day does not breach either the BBC Editorial Guideline on impartiality or the BBC’s duty to reflect religious and other beliefs in its programming.

 After the Atheist Bus Campaign, people have been asking, “What next?” Now you have an answer; the Billboard Campaign. Richard Dawkins famously said that there are no Catholic babies, or Protestant babies, or Muslim babies, or Hindu babies they are all just babies. In the Observer in December 2001 he wrote, Where we might have said, Knowing his father, I expect young Cowdrey will take up cricket, we emphatically do not say, With her devout Catholic parents, I expect young Bernadette will take up Catholicism.

In 1925, one of the most unusual trials ever seen in a United States courtroom took place. Earlier that year, the state of Tennessee had passed the Butler Act, which made the teaching of evolution illegal. In the stifling July heat, and in a courtroom hung with banners proclaiming ‘Read Your Bible Daily’, 24-year-old teacher John Scopes stood trial. With all the controversy about the recent British Council poll that suggested that 54% of British people want creationism covered in school science lessons, this is a lesson from history.