A poll carried out by Ipsos MORI for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (UK) in the week after the 2011 Census focused on the beliefs, attitudes and practices of UK adults who say they were recorded as Christian in the 2011 Census (or would have recorded themselves as Christian had they answered [...]
Read more...FAS – for a secular society – since 1908
News:
How Christian are UK Christians? And should Government “do God”?
February 14th, 2012“The faithful must learn to respect those who question their beliefs”
February 8th, 2012
Lawrence Krauss: Tensions between religion and science will persist unless believers recognise that skepticism is a hallmark of science.
USA: National Atheist Party
February 6th, 2012
“The National Atheist Party is a Constitutional Party dedicated to the preservation of the Founding Father’s vision of a secular nation. We are a progressive secular political movement whose current incarnation is as a non-profit 527 political organization. As we grow and evolve, we intend and expect to develop into a full-fledged political party. We are assembled for two important reasons: to give a political voice to U.S. atheists, who have never enjoyed political representation before; and to stand athwart those elements and groups that would seek to undermine the secular foundations of this great country.”
Off The Record: A Quest For De-Baptism In France
January 30th, 2012In France, an elderly man is fighting to make a formal break with the Catholic Church. He’s taken the church to court over its refusal to let him nullify his baptism, in a case that could have far-reaching effects. Seventy-one-year-old Rene LeBouvier (…) says his mother once hoped he’d become a priest. But his views began [...]
Read more...Alain de Botton reveals plans for ‘temple to atheism’ in heart of London
January 28th, 2012
Guardian
Plans to build a £1m “temple for atheists” among the international banks and medieval church spires of the City of London have sparked a clash between two of Britain’s most prominent non-believers.
The philosopher and writer Alain de Botton is proposing to build a 46-metre (151ft) tower to celebrate a “new atheism” as an antidote to what he describes as Professor Richard Dawkins’s “aggressive” and “destructive” approach to non-belief.
Rather than attack religion, De Botton said he wants to borrow the idea of awe-inspiring buildings that give people a better sense of perspective on life.
Religion required—controversial new course in Zurich schools
January 16th, 2012Starting this year, pupils in the canton of Zurich have a new lesson to go to. It’s called Religion and Culture—and it means religious education is now compulsory in schools. WRS’s Jo Fahy reports: http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/switzerland/controversy-in-zurich-over-new-religion-course-in-.shtml
Read more...EU: secularism under attack from president of the European parliament
January 14th, 2012The President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, has launched a vicious attack on secularism during a European prayer breakfast. Mr Buzek, the former Prime Minister of Poland, and a Protestant, said that Christianity is one of the greatest strengths Europe has, and if it is lost, “we will be condemned to the erosion of [...]
Read more...Malta – Curia refuses to delete details of ex-Catholics
January 9th, 2012The Curia has refused a request to delete details of 23 people from its baptisimal and other records, NION – Not In Our Name, the organisation founded to help baptized ex-Catholics dissociate themselves from the Church – said. NION, which made its request to the Curia after these individuals legally empowered it to undertake this [...]
Read more...ECHR: Freedom of belief includes freedom not to reveal belief
December 31st, 2011Panayote Dimitras (founder of the Humanist Union of Greece) and some of his colleagues in the Greek Helsinki Monitor (affiliated to the International Helsinki Federation) have won a case (against Greece at the European Court of Human Rights. In their work under the Helsinki process, they frequently have to make depositions or give evidence in court. [...]
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