This follows consultation which revealed that the organisation needed to be more open to those of other faiths and none.

This is definite progress, and we look forward to see if the Guide’s fellow organisation Scouting UK also changes following its consulation.

Full story here.

It can also be the centrepiece of a great holiday!

So the Atheist Alliance of America present the “Shout Heard Around The World!” Convention in Boston over the US Labor Day weekend (30th August – 1st September 2013).

Highlights include:

Host Seth Andrews, (Host of the “Thinking Atheist Podacst”), thepresentation of the Richard Dawkins Award to Steven Pinker, and keynote speaker Paula S. Aspell (senior executive producer of NOVA who commissioned the brillaint documentary on the Dover Trial) as keynote speaker.

I’m already booked up, hope to see you there!

He is stating that the law that would legalise same sex marriage would “set a dangerous precident” and would have “uninteded consequences”.

He states it could lead to polygamy. Two points here, 1. No it won’t! In fact the recent attempt to legalise Humanist Marriage by amending this Bill was dropped (in minor part) becuase it was not about Gay Marriage. All this will do is legalise same sex marriage it will not lead to anything else. 2. Who cares? Moreover who cares what consenting adults do so long as there is true informed consent?

He is also complaining that this redefines marriage. OK so what’s wrong with that? The human race (and even followers of Christianity) has been redefining marriage since it came up with the idea – just ask any anthropologist!

Carey has run out of legitimate reasons for opposing Marriage Equality, if in fact were there any legitimate arguments against it in the first place; I have yet to hear one! This is yet another case of an irrelevant out of touch religious figure with bigoted anti-gay views (yes I WILL call them bigoted) resorting to untrue and logically fallacious arguments. Let’s get on with it and pass this legslation already!

The horrific killing of a soldier in Woolwich yesterday has, quite rightly, been condemned in most quarters of society, including those of the Muslim and other faiths.

Although the full facts are yet to emerge it is reported that the perpetrators have been ‘radicalised’ in some way. In other words, they have come to believe in an ideology which is very different to the commonly-held view (if there is such a thing) of their religion, and is not seen as having a basis in reality, even by other Muslims.

However, until the religious go further and condemn the very process, that of faith, by which the men ended up with their extreme views then they are culpable in the acts that take place. Faith is the life-blood of all religions and is promoted as a virtue. However the heart of faith is belief without reason, evidence or justification, and, therefore, leads to and perpetuates environments where people can believe anything they want based solely on their own imagination or what other people tell them or what they read on the internet. The inevitable result is that it is easy for hate, prejudice and ignorance, and extreme violence, to thrive.

To move to a progressive, empathetic and open-minded society and away from the negative heritage of religion it is essential to understand faith for what it is and discard faith-based thinking in favour of scepticism, rationalism and critical thinking.

On television this morning I heard a British Muslim, over the telephone, condemn the acts of yesterday saying that he was sickened by them and that the perpetrators do not represent Islam. He also relayed his experience of  hearing British Muslim youths cheer whenever they heard about a British soldier being killed in Afghanistan. Shocked at this attitude he would ask them,”Why are you cheering?” “Because they are raping our Muslim sisters and killing Muslim babies”, they would answer. “Who told you that? Why do you believe that? You should not believe what people tell you,” he questioned. Quite right! But he should, as should every other person of faith,  ask himself the same question, “Why do I believe what I believe?”

The reason the youths believe what they do is precisely because they are people of faith, they do not need evidence; truth is irrelevant.

Until members of religions challenge the very foundations on which their religion is based, and reject religious faith in favour of reason and rationality, these outrages will continue, and the religious will have serious questions to answer!

During this week’s House of Commons debate on the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, a new clause, to bring humanist marriage into law, was proposed. Its primary provision was:-

Marriages according to usages of approved organisations

The Registrar General may by certificate approve organisations to solemnize marriages according to their usages provided that any such organisation:-

1. is a registered charity principally concerned with advancing or practising the non-religious belief known as humanism;
2. has been in continuous existence for five years; and
3. appears to the Registrar General to be of good repute.

Under present law, a marriage is only valid if it is solemnized in the presence of either:-

• a state-appointed registrar; or
• an authorised person (normally a priest) appointed by a religious organisation.

No other person will do. This is religious privilege, enshrined in law – one law for religion, another for the rest; it is discrimination in favour of religious organisations, against others. Why shouldn’t any organisation be entitled to solemnize marriages?

The above proposal introduces the new concept of an “approved organisation” with power to appoint its own “registering officers”, in whose presence marriages can also be solemnized without the presence of registrars.

But an “approved organisation” must be a humanist organisation, by definition; no other kind will do. So the proposal does not abolish religious privilege; it merely enshrines in law humanist privilege as well – one  law for humanism and religion, another for the rest; it is discrimination in favour of humanist and religious organisations, against others.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve saw straight through it:-

I have absolutely no doubt that the new clause, if passed, would render the Bill incompatible with the provisions of the European convention on human rights, because it identifies a group that is not a religious group and gives it a special status. The first thing that would happen is that all sorts of other secular groups would claim non-discrimination rights under article 14.

The new clause would make it impossible for the Minister to sign a certificate under section 19(1)(a) of the Human Rights Act 1998, enabling the Bill to proceed to the other place.

So, the proposal fell at the first hurdle, but it was misconceived anyway. It was supposed to obviate the need for couples to go through a dual marriage process: a civil ceremony before a registrar, followed by a ceremony before a humanist celebrant. It would enable them to be rolled into a single ceremony. But that is already possible. The only requirement is for registrars to be present; they need take no active role[1] but can sit passively while the humanist celebrant presides.

From their Website:

The problem: Many people around the world are suffering because they cannot be honest about their lack of belief in the god of their parents, community or country. They are caught between their desire to live honestly and the fear of losing their loved ones or the support of their community. They might even face violent reprisal. The decision to leave your faith behind can be scary, disorienting and lonely.

Our solution: If you are questioning your faith or wanting to leave your religion you need help and support. You may be leaving behind family, friends and community, but where are you going and how do you get there? The Apostasy Project will help by offering guidance and resources and direct access to others who have been through the same experience. When you doubt your faith it can feel like you have nowhere to turn. The Apostasy Project will fill this gap, and offer reliable information and, more importantly, a sense of community. The project is not about criticising religion but supporting the right to choose what you believe.

“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief…”

How you can help: Donate now so we can build a stock of resources and a network of advisors to start helping those in need. Without the financial support of the secular community these people will go unsupported. We want to raise £20,000 so we can fully fund the first phase of the project and make sure that these people have the chance to live honest, fulfilling lives, with freedom to believe what they choose.

Why we need £20,000: Providing the full-time support and resources we want to takes time and skill, which means, ultimately, money. We want to be able to pay our expert editors to produce high-quality resources – like a “coming out” guide, podcasts and video – we want to be able to staff an email helpline that can provide guidance to individuals, and keep up regular blogging to inform the community about what’s going on, and develop a website for all of this to sit on. We have a team of people from a variety of faith backgrounds – evangelical Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Catholic, Jehovah’s Witness – ready to share their experiences and support others going through the same issues. But we need your support to make it happen.

Other ways you can help: Making a donation towards our £20,000 target is the most immediate way to help. But we know that for some this is not possible, so we also welcome offers to help out with our work (especially those who have left faiths not yet represented in the project). And please spread the word.

If you want to help or get involved get in touch at info@rationalist.org.uk

Jonny was brought up in a fundamentalist Christian home and went to a school which utilised the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) system, before having a meltdown in school and being transferred to a regular school to finish off his education. He has now fully recovered and has left behind this so called education system and is currently undertaking his PhD research in to the effects of ACE on its participants. The talk he gave was funny, entertaining, informative and ultimately very very frightening. The main points (and this is a whistle stop tour of his talk!) that I picked up are below.

• ACE was founded in Texas (where else) in 1969.
• It came to the UK in 1980.
• There are about 50 schools in the UK that utilise ACE and a further 800+ homeschoolers utilising it.
• The entire curriculum utilises workbooks called PACEs, most exercises consist of fill in the blanks style questions.
• Children work at their own pace (sic) in individual booths called “offices”, which OFSTED once described as the modern equivalent of a medieval monk’s cell.
• There is no Religious Education per se, religion runs through the ENTIRE curriculum.
• The curriculum is rote learning in its entirety, there is no opportunity for discussion or the development of ideas (in fact this is extremely discouraged).
• Children mark their own work.
• There is no requirement or need for qualified teaching staff.
• Everything it taught from a Biblical literalist / US political conservative point of view.
• Children are ‘taught’ that anything that contradicts the Bible or that US political point of view it is BY DEFENINTION evil and it is not to be considered, listened to, engaged or discussed it is simply wrong.
• Anyone on the political left is evil and those on the political right are closer to godly perfection.
• Government funded healthcare is immoral and satanic.
• ACE employs Orwellian style redefinition of words and concepts e.g.
  • Scientist = Young Earth Creationist
  • Evolutionist = (Proper) Scientist
  • Liberal = Evil/Satanic
  • Humanism = swear word
• In the science curriculum the Loch Ness Monster is a Plesiosaur therefore Evolution is disproved! Their evidence for this? A decomposed basking shark carcass!
• At least 13 objectives taught by ACE even appear on Answers in Genesis’ list of arguments not to use!
• All mythical creatures in historical literature also prove creationism.
• Never trust man’s (it’s always man’s) reason and ignore any counter argument.
• Linguistics is taught with reference to the Tower of Babel.
• Psychology is based on atheistic ideas and is therefore wrong.
• Archaeology teaches us that the Brass and Iron Ages were not separate times because the Bible says so.
• Corporal punishment is approved of in ACE and the teacher’s handbook provides instruction and photographs of how to beat children with wooden implements.
• ACE will not engage in discussion of its curriculum nor will they speak to the press.
• The founder of the system has admitted that it amounts to ‘Brainwashing”!

Fortunately ACE schools do not receive public funding (bar one pre-school in Bristol which get money from vouchers) and are financially struggling [GOOD!] however a change in government policy and vouchers for private schools could make them profitable overnight! We must be wary of this.

They were heavily criticised by OFSTED in the early days but recently they have been getting good reviews. Is this a case of OFSTED not looking at the curriculum or is it something more insidious? (Please bear in mind that a senior OFSTED official has spoken in favour of ACE)

NARIC a government body (in the Dept of Trade) has recommended that the ACE certificate be considered as equivalent to A Level when it comes to University applications. Fortunately this is not legally binding but a number of Universites do accept it!

This leaves us with the question of what can be done. Jonny is collecting contact details of everyone interested in formulating some kind of response/strategy to this and he is free to be contacted. I have extended Atheism UK’s contact details as we are very happy to engage in fighting the abomination of this so called education system. Please feel free to contact him also!

Jonny Scaramaga can be reached via his blog Leaving Fundamentalism or on Twitter @JonnyScaramanga

Please come and join them for an afternoon of music, comedy and good company.

£10 per head.

For more details click here for the LAAG Meetup page.

Since the last report of my communications with my MP Adam Afriyie things have gone belly-up, with this entirely dismissive declaration from his House of Commons office:

The office will therefore have no longer further communication with you

Full letter here.

This was a rather surprising letter to receive especially as it made unfounded claims against me, while I was just trying to get a personal meeting arranged with Mr Afriyie to get responses to my queries. I do not think it is acceptable for a MP to exclude a constituent in this way, so I will be escalating this issue. Here is my response:

Thank you for your letter of the 18th of April 2013.

I was, though, astonished at the rhetoric you employ and your subsequent conclusions. I am afraid you have completely misconstrued what I say and the intentions behind my communications, which are neither accusatory nor hostile; criticism and disagreement do not equate to accusation and hostility. I suggest you re-read my letters as the claims you make against me are entirely without foundation.

At no point did I say that Mr Afriyie is anti-atheist, I merely re-stated the fact, from Mr Afyrie’s letter of 9^th of May 2011, that he supports Christianity, a movement which, in my view, is anti-atheist.

Neither have I refused to say what I want to achieve from a meeting with Mr Afriyie. In fact I sent you the queries I was looking to get answered in an email. I am more than happy to provide more details, however, your letter indicated that there was a more complicated approval process for a meeting, hence my request for clarification of what that process is. I am unable to engage properly in the process if you do not tell me what it is. Please do so.

I have also spent many valuable hours on this interminably protracted communication, but may I remind you that the reasons for this is because your office took many months to respond to me, my queries were not actually answered and, at your request, I made some modifications to my blog post that you felt could be interpreted as inaccurate. I have gone out of my way to clarify the issues you raised regarding my post to make it clear that it is my personal viewpoint based upon the facts available to me at the time of writing. If your office had answered my queries, and in a timely fashion then most of this prolonged communication would not have been necessary.

My rationale for writing the blog post in the first place was that I had concerns that I was being marginalised due to my personal views. Your letter and action to exclude me from the political process do little to dispel those concerns.

Anyone wishing to get involved with Atheism UK’s education campaign cannot afford to miss this talk by Jonny Scaramanga, former Christian fundamentalism and former pupil of a school that utilized the Accelerated Christian Education system, for insight into this intellectually abusive system:

INSIDE BRITAIN’S CREATIONIST SCHOOLS

11.00 Sunday 19th May 2013

Conway Hall

www.conwayhall.org.uk

Free for members of Conway Hall Ethical Society (formerly South Place Ethical Society)

£3 non-members / £2 concessions