Newsline 26th August 2005

Quotes Of the Week
Essays Of the Week
Unease Over "Faith Schools" Increases
We Didn't Reject Springer Grant Because Of Pressure From Christians, Says Arts Council
Writers' Guild Catches Up On Religious Hate Law Just In Time
Jewish Alarm At Home Office Appointment
Words Are Cheap Department: Robertson Apologises
Proselytising Religious Groups Exploit Disaster Zones
Catholic Church Bans "Insulting" Condom Ads
US Court Rules That Atheism Is A Religion
Whoopee Nun Castigated For Enjoying Herself Too Much
Women Banned From Popular Transportation In Nigeria
Iraqi Secularists Despondent As Country Prepares To Go Islamic
Editorial: Americans and Their "Spirituality"
NSS Speaks Out
Evil Bible
We Hate To Badger You, But...
Secularist Of The Year - Filling Up Fast
Letters To Newsline
Radio and Television

Quotes Of the Week

“Atheism isn’t an act of faith, it’s a lack of faith. It is up to theists to prove the existence of God, in the same way it is up to the ufologists to prove we are visited by aliens.”
(Martin Bond, Guardian)

“I’ve been trying to think of an experiment to prove that there aren’t any hobgoblins at the bottom of my garden. It’s tricky, especially given that these hobgoblins may not be of material form. So, at the moment, I cannot prove or disprove that there are hobgoblins at the bottom of my garden. I don’t really think there are any, but that’s a position of faith, I suppose.”
(Ed Hollox, Guardian)

Essays Of the Week

Ah, secularism – not such a bad idea after all

(London News Review)

Protocols of the elders of the BBC

(Rod Liddle, Spectator)

Europe’s answer to Londonistan

(Gilles Keppel, Open Democracy)

Unease Over "Faith Schools" Increases

According to a Guardian/ICM poll published on Tuesday, almost two thirds of the British public want state-funded faith schools to be abolished.

The poll comes in the light of news that ministers want to make it easier for independent schools, including Islamic, Christian and Jewish institutions, to opt into the state sector, accessing millions of pounds in funding. The poll has found that a majority of people are so concerned about the effect of such schools on social cohesion that they want them scrapped altogether rather than increased in number. Following last month’s terror attacks, 64 per cent of those questioned agreed that “the government should not be funding faith schools of any kind”. Claims that the results of the poll were simply a reaction to the London bombings, were refuted by the National Secular Society when it pointed out that a poll 18 months ago in the Observer showed that 80% of parents were worried about the growth of faith schools.

The Department for Education and Skills has already given the Association of Muslim Schools £100,000 to make the transition smoother for more of the 120 independent Islamic schools, suggesting that their establishment is a fait accompli – even though the White Paper has yet to be published. But the chairman of the Commons education select committee, Barry Sheerman, warned that religious schools posed a threat to the cohesion of multicultural communities. “Do we want a ghettoised education system?” Mr Sheerman asked. “Schools play a crucial role in integrating different communities and the growth of faith schools poses a real threat to this. These things need to be thought through very carefully before they are implemented.”

Keith Porteous Wood of the National Secular Society was pleased that the debate on faith schools has been re-opened. “The Government takes for granted that it can just keep on increasing the number of religious schools in this country and no-one minds. Well this poll tells them otherwise. There is a growing unease among the population who see the dangers to society posed by separating children on the grounds of their parents’ actual or purported religion. At last people are beginning to ask the fundamental question: why do religious groups have such a hold on our education system? Why are schools agents of the churches and mosques? This is not what schools are for. It is time for a basic rethink of the way our school system is structured. Regrettably with the current administration — and any of the alternatives — such a rethink just isn’t going to happen.”

Dr Evan Harris, a Lib Dem MP and NSS honorary associate, said MPs should challenge what he called the “headlong rush towards more state-sponsored religious favouritism and religious discrimination”.

“Parliament has never had a chance to debate the cosy establishment consensus that the number of state-funded faith-based schools must expand,” he said. He added that it was “no surprise” people were concerned about faith schools. “The only surprise is that the government is so determined to allow more discrimination in school admissions, undermine social cohesion and see more religious proselytisation – all funded by the state,” said Dr Harris.

There are currently around 7,000 faith schools in England, 600 secondary and 6,400 primary. The vast majority — some 6,955 — are Christian, with 36 Jewish, five Muslim and two Sikh schools. At the moment the schools must meet stringent criteria, including teaching the national curriculum, and have buildings “which are fit for the purpose” before they are accepted into the state system, but this process is being reviewed. Once in the system the schools receive capital funding and their day-to-day running costs are met.

Earlier this year the chief inspector of schools, David Bell, criticised Islamic schools, saying they posed a challenge to the coherence of British society. In a speech to the Hansard Society, Bell said that “traditional Islamic education does not entirely fit pupils for their lives as Muslims in modern Britain”.

Full poll
Jewish theocrats defend ‘faith schools’

We Didn't Reject Springer Grant Because Of Pressure From Christians, Says Arts Council

The Arts Council of England (ACE) has defended its decision not to make a grant towards a regional tour of Jerry Springer – The Opera. It denies speculation that it withdrew its £200,000 support after pressure from Christian Voice. In a letter to today’s Scotsman, Kim Evans, the Executive Director of ACE wrote:

“We took the unusual step of considering a grant application from a commercial producer, precisely because we believe the show should be seen outside London. Part of our job is to support the development of productions in the subsidised sector that may then transfer to the commercial sector where they no longer need our financial support. This is exactly what happened in this case.

“We gave a development grant to the Battersea Arts Centre for a number of new productions, of which Jerry Springer was the most successful. It went from a successful run at the Arts Council-funded BAC to the Arts Council-funded National Theatre. From there, it transferred to the commercial West End for a significant run.

“The reason we rejected the application to support the tour was because the budgets submitted to us did not show a level of financial risk that would justify public subsidy of £200,000 for the tour. Our understanding is that the tour is going ahead regardless of our decision.

“We have consistently supported the right of the artist to freedom of expression and we believe that part of the role of the arts is to generate debate around sometimes controversial issues. In writing inaccurate reports about our reasons for not funding this tour, defenders of free speech, such as Andrew Burnet, play into the hands of extremist groups, crediting them with more influence than they possess or deserve, and contributing to a climate of anxiety which could lead to cautious programming and self-censorship.”

Writers' Guild Catches Up On Religious Hate Law Just In Time

The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain has revived its Anti-Censorship Committee, which had been closed down some years ago.

“Writers are finding themselves in a very difficult situation,” said Lydia Rivlin, Chairman of the new committee. “Religious pressure groups have recently started to use increasingly belligerent tactics to stifle expression, as can be seen by the riot which closed down a play in Birmingham in December. The police do not seem to have done very much to pursue the ringleaders and the writer is still in fear for her life.

“This phenomenon is by no means confined to ethnic minorities, either. A radical Christian group forced the cancellation of Jerry Springer - The Opera in at least one provincial theatre and has even compelled a charity to return the money donated by its producers. In this atmosphere, the Government intends to push through Parliament the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill, which we believe was formulated purely for short-term political gain.

“Whatever the reassurances, it will put writers under the threat of causing someone offence and finding themselves in the iniquitous situation of having to prove their innocence. Whether it results in a prosecution or not, the experience will be unpleasant and the tendency will be to avoid it by playing safe. The effect on writing and entertainment and even our ability to exchange ideas could be calamitous. We are calling upon all writers and media workers to join us in resisting this attack on freedom of speech.”

Graham Lester-George, Chairman of the Writers’ Guild, explained: “The Writers’ Guild started an Anti-Censorship Committee in the 1960s but when politicians stopped setting themselves up as our moral guardians, it was deemed surperfluous and wound up. It is to our great regret that we find ourselves compelled to reopen it.”

Satan fights back in Belfast

Jewish Alarm At Home Office Appointment

The President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Henry Grunwald, has made strong representations in a letter to Home Secretary Charles Clarke querying the appointment of Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain to a key Home Office advisory committee, and asking for urgent consultations on the matter.

Reports indicate that Mr Bunglawala has been appointed as one of the convenors of a home office group, given the task of persuading young Muslims to steer away from extremism.

Liverpool MP Louise Ellman has also written to the home secretary expressing her “concerns” at the reports. She referred to statements made by the MCB spokesman some years ago and more recently comments about the “undue influence in the media by Jewish interests”. In a BBC Today programme interview in mid-July, just after the first series of terrorist bombings in London, and a series of accusations in the media that young Muslims had played key roles in the outrages, Bunglawala claimed that “Israel has highly placed supporters in the media”.

This was a repetition of comments he made in 1992 when he wrote in an article “the chairman of Carlton Communications is Michael Green from the Capitol Tribe of Judah. He has joined an elite club whose members include fellow Jew, Michael Grade and Alan Yentob”. Michael Grade is now chairman of the BBC governors whilst at the time Alan Yentob was director of BBC2.

Mrs Ellman asked Charles Clarke to withdraw his invitation to Inayat Bunglawala pending clarification of the MCB spokesman’s views. “It would be unacceptable for the convenor or a group set up to combat extremism, to share some of the same unacceptable views”, she said.

Mr Bunglawala said this week that after accepting the Home Office offer he had been present at the first meeting of their new group. He said he was happy to meet the Deputies to dispel their fears. Bunglawala maintained that comments he made that the UK’s media was Zionist-controlled and that Jews were the children of the devil were made when he was less experienced and much younger.

Words Are Cheap Department: Robertson Apologises

Televangelist Pat Robertson apologised on Wednesday for calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, only hours after he denied saying Chavez should be killed.

“Is it right to call for assassination?” Robertson said. “No, and I apologise for that statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him.”

Chavez, whose country is the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of President George W. Bush. He accuses the United States of conspiring to topple his government and possibly backing plots to assassinate him. U.S. officials have called the accusations ridiculous. Earlier, Robertson said that his controversial remarks were “misinterpreted” and that he never called for the Venezuela’s president to be killed.

On Monday’s broadcast of the 700 Club, Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition and a former Republican presidential candidate, said, “If he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. … We have the ability to take him out and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability.”

“August is a slow news day but it seems like the whole world is talking about my comments about Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez,” Robertson said at the beginning of his TV show, The 700 Club. “I didn’t say assassination,” Robertson continued. “I said our special forces should take him out. Take him out can be a number of things including kidnapping. There are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted.”

Proselytising Religious Groups Exploit Disaster Zones

Christian charities that use aid-giving as a means of proselytising have been criticised in the latest issue of the charities journal Third Sector.

Even direct challenges to the questionable practices hasn’t stopped some aid agencies “using religion as a tool to gain an advantage over others” says Tom Palakudiyil, who has run Christian Aid’s response to several emergencies in Asia. He says the tactics of some religious groups are “a caricature of the message of Jesus”.

“Proselytising groups rush in to virtually every modern disaster zone,” he says. “I witnessed Christian organisations include Bible tracts with the relief distributed to cyclone victims in Orissa in 1999, and other groups trying to convince communities traumatised by the earthquake in Gujarat in 2001 that Jesus is ‘the way, the truth and the life’.”

When Palakudiyil was in Asia in the aftermath of the tsunami last year, he saw a “Jesus saves” banner on the road to a relief camp, where most of the people being helped were Hindu. “These people were not there to hear about Jesus, but to start putting their shattered lives back together.”

Religion can help some people to deal with disaster, Palakudiyil says, and helping people who are suffering and in pain is “part of being a Christian”. However, in multifaith areas, “an aggressive display of a group’s commitment to Christianity flagrantly disregards people’s own strongly held personal beliefs and risks exploiting people in a crisis”. It also goes against what Jesus himself would have wanted, he adds.

Palakudiyil cites as a success a project he saw when visiting some of Christian Aid’s partners in Rajasthan in India. His organisation’s banner was nowhere in evidence, but the flags of the women’s groups that had organised the meeting were flying. “This was not a sign of a marketing failure, but of the success of our partners and of our commitment to humanitarian principles.”

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that nations where fewer people attend church tend to be more generous in their support for development in poor countries than those where church attendance is much greater. The revelation came in the third annual edition of the “Commitment to Development Index (CDI)”, published this week in Foreign Policy magazine.

Catholic Church Bans "Insulting" Condom Ads

Taiwan, Province of China, has withdrawn an anti-AIDS campaign ad featuring a smiling nun holding a condom after Roman Catholics said it was “insulting”, local media said on Wednesday.

The poster, which shows the nun holding the condom with both hands and saying “Although I don’t need one, even I know,” had been removed from all condom machines in Taipei hospitals, subway stations and elsewhere. “As a nun, I can't agree with their way of expressing things,” a church spokeswoman whined. “This is a serious insult.” There are about 300,000 Catholics on the island of 23 million people.

US Court Rules That Atheism Is A Religion

An American federal court of appeals ruled last week that Wisconsin prison officials violated an inmate’s rights because they did not treat atheism as a religion.

“Atheism is [the inmate’s] religion, and the group that he wanted to start was religious in nature even though it expressly rejects a belief in a supreme being,” the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said.

The court decided the inmate’s First Amendment rights were violated because the prison refused to allow him to create a study group for atheists. Brian Fahling, senior trial attorney for the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy, called the court’s ruling “a sort of Alice in Wonderland jurisprudence where up is down and atheism, the antithesis of religion, is religion.”

The Supreme Court has said a religion need not be based on a belief in the existence of a supreme being. In the 1961 case of Torcaso v. Watkins, the court described secular humanism as a religion.

Whoopee Nun Castigated For Enjoying Herself Too Much

A Belgian nun’s “acrobatic and indecorous” dancing with a missionary during the Catholic World Youth Day in Germany over the weekend earned her a reprimand from her mother superior, a Belgian paper reported on Tuesday. Daily Het Laatste Nieuws showed pictures of a dancing Johanne Vertommen being held up in the air by the missionary, and then clinging to him with her legs wrapped around his body. (“Smelling salts, your reverence!”)

“I wouldn’t do this at home but at such occasions I get carried away by the enthusiasm of the group,” the 29-year-old told the paper later. “My mother superior raised the issue today: she thinks I should watch out a bit and bear in mind that I represent our community,” Vertommen said.

Women Banned From Popular Transportation In Nigeria

Enforcement of sharia law in Kano, Nigeria now means that women will no longer be permitted to ride on motorcycle taxis because it is said to cause body contact between them and the driver. The law will also require women to sit in the back of public minibuses.

The motorcycle taxi has been a popular form of inexpensive transport in Kano, an ancient trading center with a population of 500,000. Some government officials said the new rule is the next logical step in their effort to bring the strict Islamic sharia code of laws to Kano, the Washington Post reported.

Police will now start fining motorcycle drivers caught carrying women who are not their relatives. Gender-based seating restrictions will extend to all commercial minibuses, even those that are privately owned. The government also has purchased 176 motorcycles and 500 three-wheeled vehicles with covered seating areas that are physically separated from the driver.

Iraqi Secularists Despondent As Country Prepares To Go Islamic

Secular Iraqis said on Wednesday a proposed new constitution left no room for doubt about the Islamist path the country was heading down two years after a U.S.-led invasion was supposed to produce greater freedoms.
The document presented to parliament on Monday is suffused with the language of political Islam in defining the state, and assigns a primary role to Islam as a source for legislation.

Read the full story by Harry Hammond.

Editorial: Americans and Their "Spirituality"

A Poll in the USA last week showed that a quarter of Americans say they aren’t religious, but are “spiritual”.

Ah yes, “spiritual”. We have to keep putting it in quotation marks because this is a word that has suddenly taken on a life of its own. It can mean practically anything. It can be stretched to fit whatever definition that you care to apply to it.

So, what do the 25% of Americans who say they are “spiritual” mean by it? And what do all those people in Britain who say the same thing mean by it? Ask them and each will all give you a different answer, although it all boils down to the same thing in the end: they think they are good people.

They don’t think they are good people because of supernatural intervention, they just think that because they don’t have the impulses of, say, Adolf Hitler or Pol Pot or Harold Shipman, then that qualifies them as “spiritual”.

This is excellent news. It is the first step in their journey towards letting go of all this crazy stuff about the great undefined “something” in the sky. The “spiritual” among us tend to give organised religion a wide berth, preferring things like aromatherapy, reflexology and yoga. Such stuff may be ridiculous, but at least homeopaths and Bach Flower remedists don’t generally organise themselves into holy armies for the purpose of religious warfare or suicide bombing. No, they usually only get together to discuss what fees the markets will stand.

In other words, the human race is slowly growing up (it won’t ever grow up completely, and we wouldn’t want it to – that would be boring,) But it won’t be long before “spiritual” people start to realise that ‘alternative therapies’ are just expensive flim-flam that repeatedly disappoint — for latest see [link http://abc.net.au/science/news/health/HealthRepublish_1446132.htm here[/link] — and that, actually, it’s alright to let go of all irrational belief systems. Meanwhile, organised religion is in its final, violent death throes.

What do you think “spirituality” means? Write to tas@secularism.org.uk

NSS Speaks Out

The NSS was quoted in a front page lead story about faith schools in the Guardian on Tuesday

The above story led to our participation in an hour-long debate on The Simon Mayo show on Radio Five Live as well as interviews on BBC Radio Kent, BBC London, Talk Radio and Sunrise Radio.

On the same topic, the NSS was extensively quoted in a story from the United Press International news agency, picked up here

The NSS had a letter in the Guardian about the Panorama programme on the MCB

Terry Sanderson was on BBC Radio WM last week, talking about the fall of interest in religion as reported by the new study from Manchester University (see report in last week’s Newsline).

The NSS had a letter in the Western Mail on Monday

Terry Sanderson was quoted in a story about the Flying Spaghetti Monster (see last week’s Newsline) in today’s Times Educational Supplement.

Evil Bible

For those who enjoy arguing with doorstep preachers there is a wonderful resource here that points you in the direction of all the rotten nastiness in the Bible.

We Hate To Badger You, But...

The splendid new NSS lapel badge is proving v. popular among the cognoscenti, as well as those in the know. It is popping up all over the place, worn with pride by people who want there to be no doubt about where they are coming from, ideologically speaking. Why should Christians with their crosses be the only ones able to shove their beliefs on to an uninterested public? Now we can do it, too! Come out of the closet as a full-blown secularist. Thrust out your badge-clad chest with pride! Let everyone know where you stand. Get your badge today! And while you’re at it, why not buy one for your family and friends? (Health Warning: we do not advise wearing this badge if you are contemplating a holiday in Riyadh, Tehran or Vatican City). Send off for them today – by going here.

Secularist Of The Year - Filling Up Fast

The award of the Irwin Prize for Secularist of the Year will be quite an event. We hope you aren’t going to miss it. The list of nominees is impressive: Journalist Kenan Malik for his brave challenge to the claims that “Islamophobia” is rife in Britain; Magician Derren Brown for his many TV programmes showing the “supernatural” up for what it really is – a conjuring trick; Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the brave Dutch MP who has challenged Islam’s treatment of women, Azam Kamguin, inveterate campaigner for the rights of women in Islamic countries, Philip Hytner for his defence of free speech during the Jerry Springer and Behzti debacles; Johan Hari, the Independent journalist who has written so passionately about the need for secularism; Allan Hayes, the Leicester activist who has doggedly resisted the spread of faith schools in his city, Maryam Namazie, relentless challenger of the corrupt regime in Iran; and the Southall Black Sisters, who have helped so many beaten and abused women from minority communities. They all deserve the £5,000 prize, but only one can win it.

The Award ceremony will take place in London on Saturday 8th October at a lunchtime event at which many of our Honorary Associates will be present — Joan Smith, Nick Cohen, Jonathan Meades, Martin Rowson among them — and, presenting the prize, Polly Toynbee. And to entertain us, Stewart Lee – the comedian who has taken the Edinburgh Festival by storm.

This might well be the last call – tickets are £35.00 to include a three course meal with wine and coffee. Be there, be part of it. Send your cheque to NSS tickets, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL.

Letters To Newsline

Write to tas@secularism.org.uk (please keep letters brief so everyone can have their say)

From Bill Gorman:
Make no mistake we are under attack. If you were unfortunate enough to miss Panorama (see [link http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/4171950.stm[here[/link] for a transcript) on Monday and God’s Rottweiller (C4) on Tuesday then you will have missed some vital information on the current state of play in the corridors of muslim and catholic religious power. In both of these programmes secularism was held up as the enemy of faith (or as Ratzinger put it ‘Truth’ – we should sue him!) but that is the word they used, enemy. Both sides are on a direct offensive to misrepresent and undermine secularism. They have effectively declared war on reason. There was even a strong suggestion that a ‘the enemy of mine enemy is my friend’ policy was being adopted by Ratzinger in his condemnation of secularism and its ‘heretical’ influence in Europe, that he would happily join with Islamists to rid the west of reasoned, free-thought.

My point is that possibly for the first time since its inception, the NSS has a real fight on its hands. I think up until now, steady progress has been made but I think there is a real possibility that western society could slip backwards towards an era dominated by greater superstitious belief and all the bigotry and hatred that comes with it.

I urge all members to be observant, listen to what these bigots and misogynists peddle as Truth (sic), and prepare themselves to defend rationalism against these loonies. They are definitely growing in number and the atmosphere created in the west by the majority population’s media-orientated, quick-fix/short-attention-span lifestyle means that too many people just don’t care. They have been successfully conditioned by our consumerist society to respond to the soundbites and get a headache when made to think for themselves (Brave New World anyone?). The march of unreason is seemingly relentless and they have the smell of blood.
The badges couldn’t have come at a better time. I became acutely aware of this when I received mine and suddenly felt very self-conscious about wearing it and proclaiming my allegiance. I hadn’t realised what a strangle-hold religions have on our society. I felt embarrassed, as though I was insulting them. Great! The public conscience must be pricked (I am convinced the badge will help this) and people must be made aware of the real alternatives to dogma. But we must be clear about what secularism means and how to represent ourselves in public, when people start asking questions. If we can give clear, unambiguous answers that inform people of the freedom everyone is able to enjoy in a secular society we may really be able to influence more and more people to understand why secularism is so necessary in the modern world. Invite everyone in. The religionists are trying to scare people away from secularism, calling it evil and corrupt. Emotive words are being used to drive a wedge between reason and the human race.

I believe that we really do have a challenge to meet – now. The debate is up for grabs and I believe it’s possible that if we clearly state our case, secularism could end up the big winner. We must help reason prevail, not get emotional when debating and refuse to acknowledge religion’s assumed place in the world. Don’t give an inch.

Now I’m off to see Stewart Lee at the festival – I need a good laugh. (NB – There is also a newly compiled, amateur but very high quality DVD on the internet of the first and second series of ‘Fist of Fun’ with Stuart Lee and Richard Herring. Don’t know which torrent site to find it on but it is well worth tracking down. Religion was always firmly in his sights.)

From Allan Hayes:
Interesting things are happening in the Church: Richard Holloway, sometime Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus of the Episcopal Church in Scotland, who officiated at Robin Cook’s funeral, seems himself to be an atheist. (See his last three books: Godless Morality, keeping religion out of ethics. Doubts and Loves, what is left of Christianity. Looking in the Distance, the human search for meaning.

From the last of these:
“... there is a rich and diverse range of human spiritualities in the world, and countless people follow them without reference to religion or any necessary sense of God. I have written this book for that great company, because I now find myself within it.”

From Simon Rawcliffe:
Like Sue Cauty and Paul Partington I think it that its important to have a festival in the depth of winter as something to look forward to and to spur us on to the coming of Spring. Our Pagan Christmas by C J Condon I found inspirational for this. We now celebrate Yuletide, although our children initially found it difficult to get used to the name and we all at times lapse into calling it Christmas. Yuletide is the millennia old festival celebrating the turning of the year, banishing the dark days of the old year and rejoicing in the prospect of a new beginning when on 25th December the days start getting longer again. Most items of decoration used on the 25th December including the tree, log, holly and the giving and receiving of presents relate to Yuletide. Earlier in the year I wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury questioning why Christmas is celebrated at Yuletide on 25th December and not 1 January, as the calendar year relates to the elapsed time since Jesus’ birth. His Chaplain replied as follows: “As you are no doubt aware, the dates of major Christian festivals have perplexed and divided Christians since the time of Constantine, when the church’s calendar was grafted on to the Roman civic calendar. The most helpful reference with regard to your question is the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church edited by F L Cross and E A Livingstone – which you will find in all good libraries.”

From Sue Cauty:
I must thank Paul Partington for his enthusiasm for my plan to hijack Christmas and agree that we should hijack other religious holidays. Alistair James asks ‘What’s not to like?’ about Christmas with all those Christians making idiots of themselves. True – but don’t these ‘holy-days’ express the beliefs of a growing minority and promote woolly secularism? Perhaps Paul Partington would like to contact me and we could put together a book of alternative festival ideas for children?

From Dominic Handley:
I am pleased that my initial enquiry about any books on atheism, and Christmas in particular, for children has started a ball rolling. If any of you are in any doubt about how urgent this project (to write a book on atheism) is then I urge you to pop into your local Waterstone’s, Ottakar’s, Borders, WHSmith, or local book shop and ask them where they keep their books on atheism. Their replies will leave you flabbergasted, I guarantee it.

Off I went to the library and I quote: “The earliest date of its (Christmas’) mention being celebrated on 25th December is in the Philocalian calendar, which represents Roman practice in 336 (CE). The date was probably chosen to oppose the pagan feast of Natalis Solis Invicti by celebration of the birth of the ‘Sun of Righteousness’.”

My interpretation of the above quote is that most people at the time were celebrating the start of days getting longer again, but Christians wanted to impose their views on the populace. I am not a pagan, I am an atheist and like most people I get fed up with long nights in the depths of winter. I think traditions are good as long as they are relevant to today and do not set out to be offensive to others. I think it only reasonable that atheists reassert their right to have a secular festival on 25th December and my suggestion is that it is Yuletide. I would be very interested in fellow members’ views.

From Denis Watkins:
I heard a BBC reporter interviewing a woman in Gaza. Here is the interview as I remember it:
Reporter. When are you going to leave your home?
Woman. I am not going to leave.
Reporter. But the soldiers are only two doors away.
Woman. They will not come to my house. I have prayed and God is stronger than the Israeli Army.
Reporter. The soldiers have now entered the house.
No comment is necessary.

From Jess McFarlane:
I wonder if anyone else who has been to the latest U2 concert noticed they used a simplified version of a logo that is featured on a T-shirt at an Atheist website. The logo as on Atheists-online is described as the word ‘Coexist’ made up of these symbols:
C = Islam’s Crescent Moon
O = Buddhism's Yin-Yang
E = Science / Secular Humanism’s E=MC2
X = Judaism’s Star of David, Wicca
I = Paganism’s Ankh
S = Hinduism’s Om
T = Christianity’s Cross
http://www.atheists-online.com/store.asp?shop=09100#3
Here is a picture of the ‘COEXIST’ word at the U2 concert in Paris this year with symbols for only the C, X and T: http://www.flickr.com/photos/madkiwi/35810455/
I wonder which came first...bearing in mind that one quarter of U2 is atheist. It was a good concert by the way.

From Stephen Park:
I thought this poem —The Pope’s Penis — was rather wonderful.

From Chris Bartlett:
Recently noticed the logo being adopted to represent Brights and thought it was spot-on. Taking it a stage further I though we might consider adapting it for use by the NSS (as I believe it is not protected by copyright), possibly by the addition of a shield to symbolise the protective guardian role the NSS serves. I’ve placed a few mock ups here http://www.miya-chi.com/nsslogo.html. What do fellow members think?

Ed writes: It’s good Chris, but unfortunately we are just putting the finishing touches to a complete image make-over for the NSS and a new logo has been designed for us. This will be unveiled in the next few weeks.

From Bob Crossan:
On each and every televised soccer match (without exception) there seems to be a definite instruction ‘from above’ that every catholic celebration must be captured and transmitted. From the picking up of the grass at the start, accompanied by the feverish crossings of the player, to the finger pointing and looking to the sky whenever a goal is scored and again accompanied by more and more feverish crossings and muttered prayers.

It certainly makes me sick that there is this definite plan by the producers to choose these particular images and to give the catholic church all this free and offensive publicity. I wonder if the television producers can be challenged?

From Garry Marlowe:
With some schools in the USA inserting a disclaimer prior to the teaching of evolution asserting that evolution is “only a theory”, is it too much to hope that future children may be protected by a disclaimer regarding Christianity. Prior to every RE lesson, how would Christians feel about the following disclaimer.

“Christianity is a religious theory; however it is important to remember that like all religions, little of Christianity is based upon credible scientific data, indeed much of Christianity is seriously disputed by modern cosmology, archaeology and biology. Students should be aware that no contemporary historical writing has ever been found which confirm the New Testament record, and as such the NT is deeply flawed as regards to its historical accuracy. Students are further warned that much of Christianity’s teaching is repugnant to human decency, such as Biblical instructions to eat and beat your own children, kill your own son for being drunk, murder animals, abandon your loved ones, while at the same time hating yourself and cutting off your limbs and sexual organs. Students are firmly advised to a healthy dose of skepticism to any religion which does not conform to reality”.

Radio and Television

Beyond Belief (Radio 4, Monday 29 August, 4.30pm). This week the programme looks at secularism. But are we in for another stitching up from the BBC religion department? It doesn’t sound promising from this description from the BBC website: “Beyond Belief this week steps into the secular world when Ernie Rea explores the nature of non-belief and uncovers the aims and intentions of those who clamour for a society without religion. Non-believers see their tolerance as the only possible way of managing a community which is troubled by religious fundamentalism. But can’t those very secular beliefs themselves be the source of dispute and disagreement? And how do believers exercise their rights if their faith has been relegated to the private sphere?” Among the interviewees will be former NSS president Barbara Smoker.

But why can’t secularists make a programme about secularism?

Science and the Séance (BBC2, Wednesday 31 August 9pm) This programme explores the 150 year history of the hoax called spiritualism. Experts will discuss what is described as “the surprisingly close links between science and spiritualism” which claims that not only is there life after death, but the dead can be communicated with.