HUMANISTLIFE (including “Spirituality” and “Food”…)

You may remember that Bob Churchill, the BHA’s Head of Membership and Promotion, mentioned plans for a new Humanist website when he came to talk to us last September. It’s called HumanistLife and it’s now live (www.humanistlife.org.uk). HumanistLife provides “…a daily content website giving a voice to humanists on all the topics that interest, inspire or concern them. Humanists don’t have to respond to everything they see and do as humanists! But at HumanistLife we share humanist perspectives on current affairs, society, art, science, nature and, well… life!” There are new additions every day, and it’s already built up a lot of interesting material. And anyone can join the debate by posting comments.
 

Among the articles awaiting your comments, these are “locally sourced”
Pieces by Marilyn and Jeremy giving the “against” and “for” cases from the debate we had last summer on “Can Humanists be Spiritual?”
A piece by Marilyn on “What do Humanists Eat?” (recommended reading in advance of our discussion in Feb).
 
There are also articles on assisted dying, Bishops in the House of Lords and the arrest of the leader of the Nigerian Humanists. 
 
Material on climate change includes a link to a petition rejecting man-made climate change and any action to address it. It’s headlined: “31,486 American scientists have signed this petition, including 9,029 with PhDs”, which sounds a lot but in fact it turns out to be only 0.24% of the total -  and says nothing about how many of them are qualified to comment on climate change.

 
OTHER LINKS & INFO

The International Humanist and Ethical Union joined with the World Union for Progressive Judaism and the Association for World Education to send a Christmas Day Appeal to the UN Commissioner for Human Rights on behalf of the Christians in Iraq, who have been subject to a terror campaign so severe that it has forced half of the community of a million to flee the country.
 

You may recall that Ireland enacted a new blasphemy law last July. It came into force this week. According to this piece by Roy Greenslade on The Guardian's blog, it defines blasphemy as publishing or uttering "matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion." However, it may be a defence if the statement has "genuine literary, artistic, political, scientific, or academic value". The punishment is a fine of up to €25,000 (£22,400). Yes, this is still Europe in 2010. 

 
The forces of darkness are also at work closer to home: Baroness Warsi, who is leading for the Conservatives on the Equality Bill as it makes its way through the House of Lords, has tabled an amendment which would remove the phrase “and philosophical” in the definition of belief, which currently reads: ‘“belief” means any religious or philosophical belief”’. Humanism is a recognised philosophical belief and so by removing “and philosophical” from the definition of belief, millions of ethically concerned, non-religious people in the UK would lose the protection they currently enjoy under our equality laws. Here’s the reaction of the Conservative Humanists and the BHA. In the unlikely event that this amendment survives, it could blow up into a big issue. But the intent behind it is almost as worrying.

 
And the creationists at “Truth in Science” are at it again. Three years ago they sent teaching materials to the heads of science at all secondary schools in the country. After protests from the BHA, the Government eventually issued guidelines to schools making clear that creationism and intelligent design are not scientific theories, and so cannot be taught in science lessons, as they have "no underlying scientific principles, or explanations". Truth in Science have now sent copies of a book called ‘Explore Evolution: The Arguments for and against Neo-Darwinism’ to school librarians around the country. The book purports to provide a balanced argument but is in fact a clever piece of creationist propaganda. The BHA has asked Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Education, again to take action: http://www.humanism.org.uk/news/view/425 .

 
Rather more constructive is the attempt to correct our ignorance of the contribution of scientists from the Golden Age of Islam, in the wider context of our tendency to think that serious science only started with the European Renaissance. Key players here include Prof. Salim Al-Hassani, who was made a Fellow of the British Association of Science for his work, and Prof. Jim Al-Khalili, professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Surrey, who made a series on Science and Islam for BBC Four – there’s an interesting interview with him here.
And there’s an exhibition at the Science Museum coming up called ‘1001 Inventions’ which “…will trace the forgotten story of a thousand years of science from the Muslim world, from the 7th century onwards”. It’s open from 25 Jan to 24 Feb and then again from 13 Mar to 25 Apr.

 

Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, the Archbishop of Prague, would probably not feel so sanguine about promoting the scientists of the Golden Age of Islam, even if it did run out of steam about 400 years ago. The Cardinal believes that Islam will fill the void left by the retreat of Christianity in Europe. No prizes for guessing his proposed solution.

 

Our December Newsletter covered the interfaith activities that we’re currently involved in locally, so it was interesting to see that New York City Atheists have for the first time been welcomed to the Mayor’s annual "Interfaith Breakfast". The fact that the head of the city’s Communities Affairs Unit is herself an atheist might have helped, but it sounds like everyone, including the religious leaders present, thought it was a good idea. 

 

While we’re still picking the final Christmas tree needles from the carpet, take a look at this video of Tim Minchin singing "White Wine in the Sun" – an amusing and touching expression of what Christmas is really all about for a Humanist. (In case you’re confused by the sunny title: he’s Australian.)

 
Another seasonal (and antipodean) story: a liberal church in New Zealand got itself into trouble with a billboard showing a dejected Joseph lying in bed next to a disappointed Mary under the caption "Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow." The aim was apparently to draw attention to the “real” meaning of Christmas by poking fun at the literal interpretation of the conception story. Predictably, many co-religionists were not amused.

 
Finally (and with thanks to Marilyn) a nice piece on the satirical "Onion" website reporting that “Members of the earth's earliest known civilization, the Sumerians, looked on in shock and confusion some 6,000 years ago as God, the Lord Almighty, created Heaven and Earth.”