Evolutionists Flock To Darwin-Shaped Wall Stain | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source DAYTON, TN—A steady stream of devoted evolutionists continued to gather in this small Tennessee town today to witness what many believe is an image of Charles Darwin—author of The Origin Of Species and founder of the modern evolutionary movement—made manifest on a concrete wall in downtown Dayton. This is exciting news. We will naturally be organising a pilgrimage to see the stain.

Staff pay and conditions could be under threat at an Ipswich school if a decision is finalised to turn it into a church-run academy. As revealed in The Evening Star, students at Holywells High spoke out against the possibility of the running of their school being handed over to the Church of England in September. The students’ concerns are now shared by trade unions, who today revealed their opposition to academies’ abilities to operate outside the parliamentary approved School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document.

This has been cancelled due to ill health.

Can’t say what time, but there’ll be something about the Atheist Bus Campaign during Ian Wyatt’s Sunday Breakfast programme (the God slot) on BBC Radio Essex, including a short interview with me. You can listen on 103.5 or 95.3 fm, or online at www.bbc.co.uk/essex. MN

In Slate Magazine, Christopher Hitchens (author of ‘God is Not Great’) attacks the Vice-Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, for her ignorance, which she regards as a virtue, and her religious fanaticism. Note: GOP means ‘Grand Old Party’, or the Republican Party. If you order ‘God is Not Great’ via the Amazon link on this website, we get commission. Tags: Christopher+Hitchens, Sarah+Palin, US+election, Ignorance

You may have donated to the Atheist Bus Campaign. The BHA needs help with its anti-faith schools campaign too. Donate via the Just Giving website. Tags: Faith+schools, Campaign, BHA

I tuned in to tonight’s BBC Panorama programme [27 October] late, just in time to hear reporter Simon Boazman explain how the government plans to collect information on children. He asked his own daughter some of the questions that are included in a questionaire to test something or other. Did she go to church? What religion was she? Did she believe in God? I’ll watch the programme again to check (you can see it online for the next week using the BBC’s i-player), but my mind was boggling.

6th-formers at Holywells High School, which is threated by a Church take-over, have vowed to campaign against the plans. Good for them! Read more in the Evening Star. Tags: Holywells+High+School, Education, Faith+schools, Evening+Star

Our society is, I hope, moving slowly towards the point where religiosity is not the default starting point, where atheists are not regarded as ‘outside’ the moral arena, where lack of a belief in a god of any kind may not be interpreted as a character flaw or symptom of some kind of nihilist abandonment of all ideas of truth and beauty. Nevertheless we are still in a situation where public events are marked by some kind of religious activity, where Thought for the Day on Radio 4 is still a religious broadcast, where priests and rabbis are still sought and consulted on matters of ethics often to the exclusion of anyone with a reasonable opinion, and where insulting and threatening language issued forth from religious fundamentalists is still seen as tolerable where direct criticism of religion is intolerable.

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated to the atheist bus campaign. As I write this, the total has just broken £83,000 (without Gift Aid) – a truly amazing amount to raise in just two days (even the donation website, JustGiving, told us they’ve never experienced this much support for a campaign before!). You’ve helped us hit the national news headlines, give atheists more of a voice, and generate debate on TV, radio and newspapers throughout the world.