The results of the Rescuing Darwin survey, published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth by the Theos think tank, make depressing reading. A staggering proportion of the UK population are woefully ignorant about evolution. I’d like to say it surprised me, but it didn’t. The story’s on the Guardian website, beginning as follows: Half of British adults do not believe in evolution, with at least 22% preferring the theories of creationism or intelligent design to explain how the world came about, according to a survey.

Add your own slogan to the side of a virtual atheist bus.

We’ve been invited to an event in Ipswich this weekend. Various local groups with an interest in the environment, including Suffolk Wildlife Trust and the Ipswich Society, will be there. No idea why religious faith matters even if you’re an atheist. If you want to find out, let us know how it goes. We are having an Energy Day this coming Saturday at St Margaret’s Church Hall in Bolton Lane Ipswich and I have attached a poster about the event.

County Library Northgate Street Ipswich IP1 3DE Telephone: Reference Library 01473 583705 Lending Library 01473 583710 Arts Library 01473 583715 Email: help@suffolklibraries.co.uk

We’ve hired a display case at the entrance to Ipswich Central Library for the week including Darwin Day (12th February), the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin. Offers of help to set it up welcome.

The atheist bus ads campaign has led to all sorts of reactions, from the thousands of atheists (and a few Christians) who contributed to the fund that paid for them (far in excess of expectations) to the ultra-sensitive driver who wouldn’t drive, and the sneers of those who accused us of agnosticism with that “probably”. Now there are new ads from the Christian Party, the Trinitarian Bible Society and the Russian Orthodox Church, asserting that “There definitely is a God”, though they offer no proof, as usual.

In response to letters in today’s East Anglian Daily Times (File Attachment: EADT prayer letters.jpg (185 KB) about the nurse facing disciplinary action for praying for a patient, I’ve sent the following reply: As an old age pensioner I’ve been around far too long to believe you can change the minds of the god deluded. The sheer implausibility of the supernatural can only be accepted by working it out for yourself, as recalled by the young David Attenborough, now in his eighties, who recently said, “I remember looking at my headmaster delivering a sermon, a classicist, extremely clever … and thinking, he can’t really believe all that, can he?

Jerry A. Coyne, Ph.D, is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago and a member of both the Committee on Genetics and the Committee on Evolutionary Biology. He wrote “Why Evolution is True”, a book that many ignorant Britons ought to read. Now Jerry has a blog. Thanks to P Z Myers for flagging this up on his blog.

To celebrate Darwin’s birth, Ipswich Museum is offering “funny, exciting and thoughtful tales inspired by animals and Darwin’s discoveries” for children over half term – Tuesday 17th to Friday 20th February.

Dr Tim Jones has blogged about the annual Secularist of the Year Award, which has been jointly awarded to Dr Evan Harris MP and Lord Avebury for their success in getting the blasphemy laws abolished. The fact that Tim’s used my Darwin images for his site banner is rather pleasing. SH&S webmaster Nathan Nelson has begun a new blog, designed to be run in conjunction with his Open University course. It’s called Big Wide World, and is “trying to make sense of big words like sustainability, technology, environment and development.

Does anyone actually believe Human Rights exist?

The Open University has a neat toy on its Darwin bi-centennial site. If you upload a photo of yourself, you can morph into someone who lived 37 million years ago. This is me. It’s not flattering, but a 37 million-year-old man might think I’m gorgeous.

If there are no atheist buses in your neighbourhood, display an ad in your car instead. All profits to the campaign.

The 12th February 2009 was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. Our member Dan Clery has written his story: —————- Charles Darwin, born on the 12th February 200 years ago, came up with what is probably the most important idea in the history of science. He reasoned that plants, animals and all living things are not static and unchanging, remaining as they were made by a divine creator; instead they change subtly from one generation to the next and those that are better suited to whatever environment they find themselves in prosper and reproduce more, while those that are less well suited don’t.

There’s a quiz to test your knowledge of Charles Darwin on the Think Humanism site.

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

After our dismal failure to excite any of the students at University Campus Suffolk about a secular students’ society (we haven’t given up though), and the reports of science students who won’t accept evolution, it’s heartening to hear that there’s still some freethinking on British campuses. Hurrah for the AHS! Read about it in The Independent.

The AHS is an umbrella organisation which represents atheist, Humanist and secular student societies in the United Kingdom.

From today’s NSS Newsline: Murphy O’Connor must not be given a peerage The Times reports today that the Government is considering offering a peerage to Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, who is soon to retire as leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. This will be the first time a Catholic cleric has sat in Parliament since the reformation. The Times says that “The prospect of offering Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor a life peerage is understood to have been discussed during Gordon Brown’s meeting with the Pope at the Holy See last week.