Addict-o-matic searches the web for news stories, blogs, videos, photos and all sorts on any subject you like, including Humanism. Go explore!

Terry Sanderson, President of the NSS, blasts Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor: Where does on start with a speech as specious and self-serving as the one given by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor in Westminster Cathedral yesterday [8/5/08]? The BBC headed its report of the event: “‘Respect atheists’, says Cardinal”. Can you imagine anything so utterly patronising than the leader of some rapidly diminishing religious sect (in the UK at least – with a 40% decline in attendance in a generation) telling a huge proportion of the population that he’s prepared to tolerate them?

The House of Commons voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday (6/5/08) to support the abolition of the common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel. This was the final stage in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, and the amendment was carried by 378 votes to 57. The Bill received Royal Assent yesterday, so the blasphemy law is now officially dead and buried. National Secular Society – Finally the blasphemy law is dead and buried.

The latest Suffolk Humanists and Secularists newsletter is online now, featuring more on our name change, birds in Ipswich, the 2011 census and more. Our website will be having a change of address and another facelift soon – watch this space!

Global food shortages, soaring prices and alarm over the environment. But every day, Britain throws away 220,000 loaves of bread, 1.6m bananas, 550,000 chickens, 5.1m potatoes, 660,000 eggs, 1.2m sausages and 1.3m yoghurts A new study has exposed the staggering amount of food thrown away every day by the British public, calculating that the annual total of wasted products adds up to a record £10bn. Each day, according to the government-backed report, Britons throw away 4.

An animated film about Noah’s Ark is due to be released this year. The Internet Movie Database lists it as “science fiction”. That’ll upset the loonies who think it’s a true story.

E-mail: mail@suffolkhumanists.org.uk Event description: A report on the subjugation of women in Iraq – the programme will examine claims that ‘honour’ killing is being used as a weapon to fill them with fear. Further info: tinyurl.com/6mpghq

Just one of several letters in response to an article by Esther Addley in The Guardian on 2nd April – Cardinal attacks ‘aggressive’ secularism gaining ground in UK. Read down the page for another from the BHA’s CEO, Hanne Stinson. Tony Blair and Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor deliberately conflate secularism with atheism. Atheism is lack of belief in gods. Secularism is a belief in equality in politics, education and law, regardless of religious belief.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has made a submission to the DCSF’s Rose Review of the Primary Curriculum, calling for a reform of religious education (RE), a focus on the development of morals, values and social interaction, inclusive assemblies and the teaching of evolution and scientific method in all primary schools. Andrew Copson, BHA Director of Education and Public Affairs, said, ‘Our submission to the Primary Review incorporates a vital and large part of our work in education – the reform of the primary curriculum to suit better the needs of all children, and to ensure that primary education is inclusive and consistent across all maintained schools.

Internet atheist firebrand Pat Condell has had 35 of his YouTube rants collected, re-mastered, and packaged into one DVD. As The Freethinker first revealed in its February interview with Pat, the DVD is produced by RichardDawkins.net. The 35 videos, plus an exclusive introduction by the man himself, add up to three hours of hard-hitting, no-punches-pulled irreligious wit. A snip at $15 – and all for a good cause! The Freethinker : Pat Condell DVD released.