Our latest newsletter is ready for you to download now. The content includes: Sunday Assemblies – church without God? “Persecuted” Christians, and a call for evidence from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Caliphates, not a good idea. What can the faiths contribute to caring? And much more. Click here to get your copy (pdf).
Like a church, but without God. Since the first Sunday Assembly in London last January, they’ve been springing up all over the place. Songs, readings and inspirational speakers are on offer to enthusiastic atheists and others. Does the idea appeal to you? Come and share your thoughts at our meeting on 9th September (see calendar). The Sunday Assembly website says, The Sunday Assembly is a godless congregation that celebrates life....
Though an increasing proportion of the UK population has no religious faith, or has a faith other than Christianity, children are still expected to participate in collective worship that is “broadly Christian” at their morning assemblies. Successive education ministers have said that they’d review the situation, yet done nothing about it. Now even the National Governors’ Association has said that a religious assembly every day should be scrapped because they are “meaningless”...
The BHA is sharing cartoons by Martin Rowson on the theme of blasphemy in the run-up to the World Humanist Congress next month. This one’s about Socrates. Tickets for the congress, beginning on 7th August, are sold out. Look out for YouTube videos of the speakers.
The ISIS fighters in Iraq who’ve declared a new “caliphate” are ignoring history. Channel 4 News explains why it won’t work – “… their vision of a medieval-style religious state is based on false view of early Islamic history, according to experts.” Click here to read more. Harun al-Rashid (763 – 809) was Caliph in the 8th century. He was known as “the just”, and his reign coincided with the Islamic “Golden...
Copies of Alom Shaha’s book have been distributed to every secondary school in the country, including Suffolk schools, by the BHA. The book’s blurb says, This is a book for anyone who thinks about what they should believe and how they should live. It’s for those who may need the facts and the ideas, as well as the courage, to break free from inherited beliefs. In this powerful narrative, Alom...
“How can I be happy?” is one of four short videos, narrated by Stephen Fry, released by the BHA to explain what Humanism is.
On 10th December we took part in the annual Celebration of Human Rights organised by the Ipswich UN Association. This year the theme was based upon Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. The meeting was hosted by the Ipswich Society of Friends (Quakers) at their meeting...
The Rationalist Association’s magazine New Humanist has a new editor, Daniel Trilling. When he introduced himself in August, making it clear that he didn’t share an anti-religious, hardline atheist point of view, he attracted (predictably) some strong criticism from those who did. In the winter edition of the magazine he’s written, As anyone who’s ventured online knows, to many people “atheist” has become a badge of identity, and an aggressive,...
Michael Gove is the worst education secretary we’ve had for some time – perhaps all time. I’m not being party political, as I don’t think much of Labour’s record either – specialist schools and academies were their bright ideas, leading to the gradual, now accelerating, destruction of the state system under local authority control. Since Gove took over at the Department for Education, he’s introduced one crazy idea after another,...
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