Hello,

My name is Elizabeth Ann Duffy, and I’m working for a new BBC Radio 4 technology series called ‘The Digital Human’. Presented by Guardian technology writer Aleks Krotoski, we examine how the evolution and spread of digital technology is changing the way we live, work and communicate.

For our fourth programme, our producers would like to explore the impact of the development that the internet has had on religions. Of course the internet has enabled a greater exchange of ideas and information, which has challenged traditional religious authorities. There is also plenty of anecdotal evidence of an increase in the number of atheists since creation of the internet. However, there are very few recorded personal accounts.

We would like to interview an atheist who had grown up in a faith community, but chose to leave religion because of the internet. We would be very grateful if they would share their story with us and how they think their lives may have been different if they didn’t have a means to access the wealth of online information or communicate with other atheists.

We’ll be recording in the next two weeks, and I can give more details to people regarding studio locations and interview slots on request. If any would like to listen to our first programme they can find it here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01gvlft

Hope to hear from you soon,

Elizabeth Ann Duffy

If you are interested in helping with this, please get in touch as follows:

Elizabeth Ann Duffy
BBC Radio 4
Features

The Tun, 111 Holyrood Rd, Edinburgh, EH8 8PJ

Tel: 0131 248 4048
Mob: 07825 613053

Email: Elizabeth.duffy@bbc.co.uk

The Lords Spiritual are certain Bishops of the Church of England (including Archbishops) who have the right to sit, speak and vote in the upper chamber of the United Kingdom Parliament.

Both the Church of England and the office of Bishop, are predicated on the existence of God – in particular, on that most baffling of the three branches of the Christian triune God (itself a baffling concept), “the Holy Spirit”. Without God, “Church of England” and “Bishop” are meaningless.

The Church of England is[1]:-

part of the One, Holy[2], Catholic[3] and Apostolic[4] Church worshipping[5] the one true[6] God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God is not true. Therefore, “Church of England” is meaningless.

The office of Bishop exists by virtue of the “Ordering of Bishops, Priests and Deacons”, of which it is stated[7]:-

Led by the Holy Spirit, [the Church of England] has borne witness to Christian truth in its historic formularies, the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, The Book of Common Prayer and the Ordering of Bishops, Priests and Deacons.

 There is no Holy Spirit to lead the Church of England (which is meaningless anyway) to bear witness to “Christian truth” (which is not true anyway) in its “Ordering of Bishops, Priests and Deacons”.

“Christian truth” is one and the same thing as the “faith”, of which it is stated[8]:-

[The Church of England) professes the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds …

The “catholic[9] creeds” are those referred to in Article VIII of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion[10]:-

The Three Creeds, Nicene Creed, Athanasius’s Creed, and that which is commonly called the Apostles’ Creed, ought thoroughly to be received and believed: for they may be proved by most certain warrants of holy Scripture.

A “creed” is a formal statement of Christian beliefs. The Three Creeds have common ground but also differences. Fortunately, we do not need to look at them in detail; philosopher Michael Martin has done the work for us in his masterpiece “The Case against Christianity” and distilled the following definition:-

Person P is a Basic Christian if and only if P believes that a theistic God exists, that Jesus lived at the time of Pilate, that Jesus is the Incarnation of God, that one is saved through faith in Jesus, and that Jesus is the model of ethical behaviour.

This is “Christian truth”. It is all untrue: not “in accord with the facts”[11]. Therefore, the “Ordering of Bishops, Priests and Deacons” and the office of Bishop are invalid.

The argument, about Lords Spiritual, is the argument about “Christian truth”, including the truth of God. Bring it on!

See also: Lords Spiritual – Atheism UK Responds

Someone up there was watching over me. What happened to me was really more than a miracle. On the morning of the game I prayed with my father and asked God to protect me – and he didn’t let me down. I am walking proof of the power of prayer.

Now, we naturally all wish the footballer a complete and speedy recover and welcome his progress so far. And there is a stirring tale of heroism by the team doctors, the paramedics and the consultant cardiologist who ran onto the pitch to assist.

But there was no miracle, for there is no such thing. God wasn’t involved, for there is no such thing. If he was being watched over, how did he collapse in the first place? And what about poor Piermario Morosini, the Italian footballer who collapsed in the same way but didn’t make it?

Actually, it wasn’t so amazing. The more or less correct report was: “it took 78 minutes to get his heart working unassisted”. But this was widely twisted (including by the player himself) to drop the “unassisted”. If his heart hadn’t been working at all for those 78 minute (much less, indeed) he would have been well and truly dead and his raising nothing short of Lazarean. But his heart was working, albeit assisted, during those 78 minutes.

Another case of TELLING LIES FOR GOD.

Letter to the Department for Communities and Local Government

See also: Canon Law overrides Green Belt

The Ancestor’s Trail is a shared walk over the Quantock Hills in Somerset, this year taking place on the 25th and 26th August 2012. It was inspired by Richard Dawkins’ book ‘The Ancestor’s Tale‘, subtitled a Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life. The book rewinds the evolutionary history of our species, and many others, back to our shared origins 3.7 billion years ago. The Ancestor’s Trail traces the same journey on foot. We align Darwin’s Tree of Life with the many footpaths straddling the Quantock hills and place groups of walkers at the tips of selected branches.

For full details please see the Ancestor’s Trail web site.

 The ability to control fire was a crucial turning point in human evolution, but the question when hominins first developed this ability still remains. Here we show that micromorphological and Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy (mFTIR) analyses of intact sediments at the site of Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape province, South Africa, provide unambiguous evidence—in the form of burned bone and ashed plant remains—that burning took place in the cave during the early Acheulean occupation, approximately 1 million years ago. To the best of our knowledge, this is the earliest secure evidence for burning in an archaeological context.

Abstract from ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’

A more accessible version was reported by The Guardian.

‘Sex and God: How Religion Distorts Sexuality‘ by Dr. Darrel Ray – reviewed by Rich Honess

If I was to call a book a tour de force this would be it. Interesting, informative, covering the whole gamut of the subject in an academic manner and yet easily accessible to the lay person would be my description of this excellent book.

Following on from his phenomenal “The God Virus”, he tackles the knotty subject of sex. Sex as viewed from a religious standpoint, from a secular standpoint and from the standpoint of a psychologist; Dr. Ray dissects his subject matter in a clear and concise way. He introduces concepts such as the ‘Toxic Trio’ which explains how religions use the guilt cycle in relation to sex; uses a wonderful ‘button metaphor’ to explain how people get locked into religion; explodes some of the myths that religion has built up about sex over the years and yet offers some practical advice on how to break free. He introduces some psychological concepts such as the ‘50-0-50 model’ of what influences personality and asks some very pointed questions, which many religionists would not even consider – and a section on duck sex, too!

However the key message I think this book reveals is that humans are biological creatures with biological drives and to put it simply over religion, biology wins, but the religious mindset can seriously spoil things!

I once asked Dr. Ray about how we could use this book in our discussions with the religious and his reply was to be direct, honest and ask pointed questions (say about the masturbatory habits of their priests and preachers) to expose the hypocrisy of it all.

A perfect read for a long journey at 279 pages of core text plus a comprehensive bibliography to follow up, I was able to read it in two sittings (each way on a transatlantic flight). I commend this book to everyone, religious or not, you may find it helpful on a personal level!

Now available in our online bookshop.

Dr. Darrel Ray is one of Atheism UK’s distinguished supporters.

The Church of England can obtain planning permission, to build churches and vicarages on Green Belt land, in Conservation Areas and elsewhere, where it would otherwise be refused.

A circular, issued by the then Department of the Environment[1] to planning officers in 1997[2], makes clear:-

• Legislation, other than planning legislation, may be relevant when considering a planning application.
• Canon Law is legislation (this is a unique feature of the Church of England as established church).
• Ergo, Canon Law may be relevant when considering a planning application.
• In particular, the duty placed by Canon Law on the Bishop, to provide a place of worship and a dwelling for the Vicar or Rector in every parish in his Diocese, may be relevant when considering a planning application.

The result is that, even if planning policy would preclude permission for, say, a community centre or ordinary house, it can be overridden to allow a church or vicarage.

This is news today because it is still being invoked. In a recent planning application for a vicarage, it was claimed:-

It is in the public interest for the Church of England, which exists as a witness of faith, to be given sympathetic consideration …

This is an outrageous piece of religious privilege, which must be challenged.

Well let us examine what he has said.

Christians are being “vilified” by British courts and “driven underground”, Lord Carey, a former archbishop of Canterbury, has said.

So where is the evidence for this? Yes it is true that the courts have ruled against Christians, but these rulings are about enforcing secular laws which we ALL have to obey. There is no special privileging of Christianity, nor should there be, but this is far from ‘vilification’ and is hardly driving Christianity underground. We still have the established church, we still have bishops in our legislature, we still have christian prayer in schools and at least a third of state schools are church schools. Hardly underground!

In a written submission to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), he blames judges for treating some worshippers as “bigots”.

To be honest if the shoe fits! No, really. In many cases Christiains have been actively discriminating against gay people, this is bigotry and those that practice bigotry are bigots! I’m not going to discriminate against Christians or prevent them from accessing services, but they do. The courts have acted correctly.

He also argues that if rulings against wearing crosses and expressing Christian faith are not reversed it could lead to believers facing a “religious bar” to employment.

Once again he is misrepresenting what the courts have ruled. A classic example is that of the nurse banned from openly wearing a cross around her neck to comply with the NHS infection control policy. She was told that she could wear a cross pinned to inside her uniform. She refused. There is no religious bar to employment but the religious have to comply with the law and policies set for a reason by their employers.

In his submission, Lord Carey admonishes British judges who “consistently applied equality law to discriminate against Christians” and cautions against a drive to remove Christian traditions from the public sphere.

No, they are just stopping Christians from discriminating against anyone else, and with a dollop of the argument from tradition as well!

He writes: “In a country where Christians can be sacked for manifesting their faith, are vilified by state bodies, are in fear of reprisal or even arrest for expressing their views on sexual ethics, something is very wrong.

“It affects the moral and ethical compass of the United Kingdom.”

No, they are being prevented from manifesting their bigotry! Bigotry is against the moral compass (whatever that actually means) of the UK.

I will leave you with the words of Keith Porteous Wood of the NSS

“Being required to respect others equally does not compromise the ability to worship or manifest religion…Lord Carey is not just wrong, but the truth is the opposite of what he asserts. Far from the UK being less intolerant than the rest of the world on religion, it is perhaps the most religiously tolerant country in the world.”

• They derive their position from God.
• There is no God.
• Therefore, there should be no bishops in the House of Lords.

This is our response to the Cabinet Office consultation:-

House of Lords Reform Draft Bill – Lords Spiritual

Please spread the message as widely as possible – to your MP, to journalists, to friends and family.