Since the 1980s, many Humanists have celebrated World Humanism Day yesterday, the 21st June, but since Humanists, in general, are independent thinkers, it’s not surprising that some have questioned the need to have a special day. However, it’s a good excuse for me to talk about World Humanism. The International Humanist & Ethical Union, based in London, was founded in Amsterdam in 1952 as an umbrella organisation for Humanist, atheist, rationalist, secularist, freethought and similar organisations worldwide.

**At a Humanist wedding recently, the bride’s mother made an unusual speech. It’s reproduced with her permission, but the names have been changed to preserve anonymity. The following piece is offered, with apologies to Bill Bryson, whose book ‘A Short History of Everything’ put me firmly in my place. Welcome – and congratulations. I am delighted that you could make it. Getting here wasn’t easy, I know, in fact it was tougher than you perhaps realise.

Current security policies assume international terrorism to be the greatest threat to global security, and attempt to maintain the status quo and control insecurity through the projection of military force. Link: Oxford Research Group – Global Responses to Global Threats: Sustainable Security for the 21st Century Paul Rogers from the Oxford Research Group was interviewed about this new report at 0845 on this morning’s BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Both the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association do weekly e-newsletters. The following is from the latest National Secular Society’s e-newsletter, Newsline. If you’re not already a subscriber and would like Newsline to drop into your inbox every Friday, send a blank email with “Subscribe to Newsline” on the subject line to enquiries@secularism.org.uk. Quotes of the Week If all the achievements of scientists were wiped out tomorrow, there would be no doctors but witch doctors, no transport faster than horses, no computers, no printed books, no agriculture beyond subsistence peasant farming.

The women of Basra have disappeared. Three years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, women’s secular freedoms – once the envy of women across the Middle East – have been snatched away because militant Islam is rising across the country. Link: Independent Online Edition > Middle East The BBC reported that Iraqi women feared for their rights in July 2005. Human Rights Watch provides information on the status of Iraqi women before the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The US Senate has blocked a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. President George W Bush had backed the ban, saying marriage between a man and a woman was the most fundamental institution of civilisation. Link: BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US Senate blocks gay marriage ban Depends what you mean by ‘civilisation’, Mr Bush. The Oxford dictionary defines it thus: civilization (also civilisation) • noun 1 an advanced stage or system of human social development.

Documentary following the freshmen class of Patrick Henry College, a conservative Christian college that has provided the current White House administration with more interns than any other college in America. All the courses, from biology to political science, are taught from a biblical point of view. Link: Radio Times | TV listings grid Channel 4, Monday 5th June, 8–9pm. That’s America, you might think – what’s it got to do with us?

The Satanic Verses, Behzti, Theo van Gogh’s Submission, Jerry Springer: The Opera, the Danish cartoons of Muhammad … now we can add the London exhibition of the work of Maqbool Fida Husain to the rapidly expanding list of works of art and satire targeted by militant religion. Link: The Observer | Comment | Yet again we cave into religious bigots. And this time they’re Hindus It seems that every religious fundamentalist, of every religion, wants to get in on the act.

At Suffolk Humanists’ May meeting, Michael Imison talked about the origins of religious belief. Two books relevant to the subject were published this year. The first was by the American philosophical writer Daniel C Dennett, called Breaking the spell – Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. The spell Dennett wants to break is the widespread taboo on subjecting religion to scientific examination, which seems to arise from a fear that, without religion to impose morality, society would fall apart.

E-mail: mail@suffolkhumanists.org.uk Event description: Regret this event has been cancelled.