The Irrelevant Lord Carey – At It Again!

Former ABofC Lord Carey is banging on again about the upcoming legalisation of Marriage Equality.

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!

 

Inside Britian’s Creationist Schools – Review

On Sunday 19^th May 2013 at 11am I attended one of the regular Sunday lectures at Conway Hall. The speaker was musician and PhD student Jonny Scaramanga who writes the Leaving Fundamentalism blog.

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

Discrimination by MP Adam Afriyie?

Atheist constituent apparently ignored by Christian MP. Read more

Poll – Is It OK For Prime Minister To ‘Do God’ In Public

The Guardian has asked the question, following David Cameron’s Easter reception, where even devout Christian, Tony Blair, wouldn’t do this…did God.

He quoted the Book of Luke and spoke of a ‘Christian Fightback and so The Guardian has asked the question: Is it OK for a Prime Minister to ‘Do God’ in public?

Now I’m actually torn on this one, I would rather the Prime Minister stick to his duties in a secular fashion not praising a non-existent sky-fairy, but with these pronoucements we now can confirm he is a deluded man who does not care about reality….

By the way this poll closes in 2 days from time of writing….

Gay marriage? We may as well allow it with animals

Apparently after David Cameron’s speech to the Conservative Party Conference Read more

The Most Ridiculous Lawsuit Yet!

A “Christian” midwife is suing a hospital in what may be the most ridiculous and frivolous lawsuit yet. Apparently in the hospital she is required to wear *gasp* surgical scrub trousers. Yes, you read it right she is suing because she believes that wearing trousers is against her religion.

Apparently there is a passage on Deuteronomy (22:5) which forbids women from wearing men’s clothes and vice-versa. Again, yes really, and this is the basis of her lawsuit claiming religious discrimination.

There is only one place for this waste of a tribunal’s time, the surgical waste bin!

Does Religion Have A Place In Medicine?

Does Religion Have a Place in Medicine?

….erm no!

Christian Hypocrite

The private life of Stephen Green, according to his former partner Read more

“Sinful” Twilight Advent Calendars Offensive!

Article taken from “The Metro”

Apparently Stephen Green Read more