1. Creationism call divides Royal Society

Comment #247346 by cnewell on September 14, 2008 at 10:29 am

I cannot understand why the Royal Society would appoint Michael Weiss, an ordained Anglican priest, as their Director of Education. It makes as much sense as the CoE appointing Richard Dawkins as theirs.

2. Irish poll shows parents no longer want to force religion on to children

Comment #32445 by cnewell on April 17, 2007 at 5:04 am

A resident can correct me if I'm wrong but the politicians in Ireland appear more susceptible to the Catholic Church's influence than this survey would suggest for the population as a whole.

Thus legislation lags behind the prevalent social mores and large amounts of money are made available to the church virtually on demand e.g. to pay for all the sexual abuse claims.

How long will it be before the politicians realise there are votes to be had, rather than lost, by standing up to the church?

3. The Most Hated Family in America

Comment #29688 by cnewell on April 4, 2007 at 6:03 am

The only heartening thing about the programme was that four out of thirteen of Phelp's children have left the community.

Unfortunately, this is not a majority so the community will grow. However, it's good to see that some people can escape from a cult despite the pressure (and loyalty to family in this case).

I think Louis Theroux may be right to suggest that the offensive demonstrations are counter-productive. Let's hope so.

4. Atheist banned from committee on religious education

Comment #27511 by cnewell on March 25, 2007 at 4:59 am

R.E these days does not concern worship (something we should all oppose) but involves learning factual information about religions (anathema to some but could be argued to be useful - better the devil you know).

If we can't get rid of R.E. then it's important that non-religious beliefs are given equal weight to religious beliefs.

I think we should trust pupils to make up their own minds if presented with all the information in an unbiased way. Recent surveys show current pupils to be refreshingly sceptical. Has anyone got the statistics to hand?

5. Atheist banned from committee on religious education

Comment #27509 by cnewell on March 25, 2007 at 4:38 am

I would encourage non-religious people to get involved with their local SACRE (Statutory Advisory Committee for Religious Education) and ask difficult questions. Every county and metropolitan area in the U.K. has to have one. The meetings are held in public so anyone can attend but you may also be able to join the committee and have a greater impact.

The teaching of non-religious beliefs is now included in the "Guidelines on Religious Education" issued by the national Qualifications and Curriculum Authority so there is precedent for teaching these beliefs in R.E.

However, there is no precedent or logical reason for teaching Creationism in science classes so I wouldn't worry about that too much!

I think it's very important for the large numbers of children who are non-religious (over 60% ?) to know that their beliefs are shared by many adults and are taken seriously. When I was at school the sheer weight of religious study and worship made me feel like an outcast.

6. Atheist banned from committee on religious education

Comment #27444 by cnewell on March 24, 2007 at 4:47 pm

Why should atheists be represented on statutory advisory committees for religious education?

Because if pupils are to be taught about religion in schools then non-religious belief systems should be an important part of the syllabus.

7. Atheist banned from committee on religious education

Comment #27380 by cnewell on March 24, 2007 at 10:04 am

Next door in Surrey we recently gained a Humanist representative on the equivalent committee, although as yet they do not have any voting rights. I guess they're on probation! Of course, we already have a Sikh representative although Sikhs make up much less than one percent of the UK population.

Apparently, the Tory councillors on the committee were very wary about having a non-religious representative but were happy to consider Bahai's etc despite their minority status.

People with non-religious viewpoints are not a small minority. However, it's not easy to identify who should represent us. Is it appropriate for us to be represented by a single member of the BHA? (or should we claim to have different denominations ;-)

8. If only gay sex caused global warming

Comment #27114 by cnewell on March 23, 2007 at 7:16 am

I'm not sure the article is correct in saying the primary problem is one of vision (i.e. we can't see global warming coming)

Global warming is unique in that the solution requires the co-operation of a large proportion of mankind and goes against many individuals' aspirations.

People are best at co-operating in small groups, like families, and rather bad at doing things at an international level.

9. Polish woman wins abortion case

Comment #26738 by cnewell on March 21, 2007 at 12:34 pm

Jonathan Dore: "as abortions in the UK largely solved the problem for Ireland in the years before legalization there."

What legislation? According to Wikipedia:

"In theory, abortion is legal in Ireland if there is a risk to the life of the woman. A provision exists in the Irish constitution to allow Dáil Éireann to legislate on this, however no political party has risked it, and in the meantime, while it is legal in theory, the body that holds medical licences in Ireland considers it malpractice for any doctor to perform an abortion."

10. Send The God Delusion to your MP

Comment #19268 by cnewell on January 26, 2007 at 2:21 am

I think school libraries would also be good recipients. On a recent visit I noticed that my local school library had no books on atheism or humanism - but plenty on different faiths.

It would be good to start a parallel pledge to secondary schools (there are only around 3360) pointing out that non-religious viewpoints are included in the guidelines on religious education issued by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (unlike Intelligent Design:-)

If there is enthusiasm for this I can set up a database of schools to allow people to nominate one online and avoid duplication.

Chris