News and Opinion

This companion and contrast to my last piece has been prompted by the decision of the editor (or it maybe the deputy editor playing the fool while the chief is away since this is the silly season) of Leicester Mercury to offer a weekly column to the local Bishop to regale us with his views on anything he chooses. Is this what passes for professional journalism these days? In days past journalists were capable of providing us with plenty of views of their own devising based on their observations of society and their interviews with its denizens. Now whenever there is any emotive or moraly challenging event they turn first to the local vicar for his judgment. Why should "faith" in the existence of mysterious beings behind the workings of the universe gives them greater insight than people who have studied the problems in a rational manner? At least the editor has published three letters (one from myself) condemning his decision, and hoping that it is not too late to rescind it...

Is it paranoid of me to think that this is the greatest threat to the world and to continuation of the scientific enlightenment into the next millennium? Last Sunday there was a massive demonstration/rally in Indonesia calling for a Grand Caliphate of all Muslim countries based on Islamic law. This project is openly proclaimed by Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Britain. Equally on the American side there are the Dominionists who claim that America is or should be a Christian country, for instance: Christianity is Americas True Faith by Al Bedrosian . This is despite the fact that the founding fathers were definitely not Christians. This thesis is expounded in a new book, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris Hedges who is himself a Christian writer. For an account of his views see here also . Some of the links here came from an alarming discussion on the BCSE forum. The British Centre for Science Education is concerned principally to campaign against the teach...

Don Cupitt came to Secular Hall on Thursday (26th July) to speak on "The Meaning of the West: Secular versus Religious Interpretations". He maintains that "'Western Culture' is ... the most powerful and dynamic cultural tradition that has yet appeared among human beings". He is right to put 'Western Culture' in inverted commas here, because there is no such thing. The term 'Western Culture' is a label used by those who want to polarise the development of ideas into an Us and Them, East versus West battle. We must be careful not to fall into this trap. What is in reality "the most powerful and dynamic cultural tradition that has yet appeared among human beings"? The answer is the culture of reason and of human-based rational ethics and of scientific method. And this is not 'Western Culture' it is Rational Culture, it is Humanist Culture, it is Scientific Culture, it is Enlightenment Culture, and most of all it is World Cultu...

The following is a message I sent to Leicester Mercury on 28 June, using their website form. Since I got a blank screen for reply I sent it again by email on the 30th June. It has not been published. Dear Editor, In view of the large Muslim population in Leicester, I'm surprised that you do not seem to have given any coverage to the setting up of the "Council of ex-Muslims of Britain". [This was set up by Mariam Namazie, Secularist of the Year in 2005, who spoke about Humanism at Leicester's Secular Hall in February this year.] Many Islamic states still threaten people with death under Sharia law if they leave Islam. Telegraph News Item Your recent defence of free speech by support for the knighthood to Salman Rushdie is admirable. But one wonders how many people in the Muslim community are afraid to express their doubts about religion in view of the many threats against infidels that one reads in the Quran. Not all local Muslims are regular attenders at the Mos...

There was a petition on the No.10 website that asked: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to ban within government-funded schools the promotion or practice of any particular faith or religion." The Government has sent this response to all people who signed the petition: http://www.number-10.gov.uk:80/output/Page12064.asp There doesn't seem to be any allowance for people to reply to the government response, so I'll do so here. The Government remains committed to a diverse range of schools for parents to choose from, including schools with a religious character or "faith schools" as they are commonly known. Why should this be a government 'commitment'? Is the government also committed to setting up Marxist or Wiccan schools for those who want the choice? Religious Education (RE) in all schools, including faith schools, is aimed at developing pupils' knowledge, understanding and awareness of the major religions represented in the country...

Since we at Leicester Secular Society, according to our badge, promote Freethought Secularism I thought we ought to post a response to this attack: freethinking ruins all things . Although it is from an obviously hostile website, devoted to defending 'Christendom' against 'Jihad and Liberalism', it was recently featured on the Richard Dawkins site, because of its attack on the book God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. The first false claim is that: The atheists and freethinkers say they want openmindedness, but their minds are plainly shut off to the fountains of wisdom of thousands of years because the wisdom contained in scriptures and hymns--from which virtually all great Western art and literature derive and to which all of it pays often unwitting tribute--is expressed in an idiom and attributed to a source that they reject out of hand. In The God Delusion , at the end of Chapter 9, Richard Dawkins lists a whole series of phrases from the Bible that have beco...

Dear Archbishop, I would like to take up two points from your recent speech in the House of Lords. (1) I find the conclusion you draw from your story about "the four atheist inmates" quite absurd. You say: "... all the inmates were offered the chance to go to worship. The four young men with no religion declined the offer, ... The prison officer, not wanting the four men to remain locked up in their cells, asked them to clean the toilets ..." Clearly the four unbelievers were being punished for their irreligion by being made to clean the loos. The proper equivalent to them going to the chapel would be for them to be allowed to go to the library to study, or to the garden for quiet contemplation. "The following Sunday, our four non-religious young men took up the offer to go to worship. The prison officer was puzzled why they had opted in this week. ..." OH NO HE WASN'T! He was putting on the old Mackay. [Mackay (played by Fulton Mackay) was the chief p...