Evolutionists Flock To Darwin-Shaped Wall Stain | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source DAYTON, TN—A steady stream of devoted evolutionists continued to gather in this small Tennessee town today to witness what many believe is an image of Charles Darwin—author of The Origin Of Species and founder of the modern evolutionary movement—made manifest on a concrete wall in downtown Dayton. This is exciting news. We will naturally be organising a pilgrimage to see the stain.

The Atheist Bus was briefly mentioned on Ian Wyatt’s Sunday Breakfast programme on BBC Essex today (2 November), with comment from me and Francis Goodwin of the Church’s Advertising Network. A listener phoned in to say he was “offended”, apparently at the mere suggestion that there is no god. You can listen again by clicking this link, but you’ll need broadband and Real Player – click here to install it. The bus bit is in the last 15 minutes of the programme.

Tomorrow (4 November 2008), the voters of the United States of America will help to steer the direction of their country for the next four, probably eight years. It’s their choice but it is a choice that will affect us all. In the rest of the world, polls have shown quite clearly that Barack Obama is the overwhelming choice to be the next US President. Most Humanists would agree, especially as the Republican Party of George W.

The kids started a new (non-denominational) school today. And my first fight with the school is this afternoon. The school is supporting the Samaritan’s Purse shoebox operation, where children fill shoeboxes with toys etc for children in eastern Europe and Africa…and then the evangelical literature is added before they’re distributed. Am very cross indeed. I’ve sourced an alternative – another Christian organisation but one which doesn’t put anything into the boxes and doesn’t send out propaganda.

This year we get a choice between religious or non-religious Xmas stamps. The Royal Mail offers the Madonna and Child or some pantomime characters. I love the irony in the Royal Mail selecting various made-up characters as an alternative to the religious stamps! Tags: Xmas+stamps, Royal+Mail

Obama will be President of the US. Although he’s a Christian (an essential qualification, as things stand – no chance of an atheist President, yet), he’s a liberal Christian. Maybe his attitude might be more like that of former President Jimmy Carter, who said, “I was very meticulous in completely separating my religious faith from any element of politics or governance in the White House. I believed in what Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers, said that we should build a wall between Church and state.

From my early teens (pre 1960) I have found no sense in theism.I was content with no religion for 30 years but then some experiences made me realise that there might be more things to take account of in my philosophy but it would take too long to describe all that now. It opened me to the possiblity that something of me might survive death in some form. If this occurs I see this as a natural not supernatural occurrence.

Read the latest International Humanist & Ethical Union News on their website. It includes plans for an East African Humanist Convention in Kampala next February, the appointment of Matt Cherry (who used to be with the BHA) as the IHEU’s international representative, and more on the Islamic States attempts to limit Freedom of Expression after their victory in the Human Rights Council. Sign up for a regular IHEU newsletter here.

Mosey on over to the New Humanist site for their latest news update, including the nominees for the 2008 Bad Faith Award. They are: Tony Blair, Stephen Green, Sarah Palin, Rowan Williams, St Monica’s Governors, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Bishop of Durham, Ann Coulter, and Adnan Oktar aka Harun Yahya. Vote for your favourite. Hard to choose, isn’t it? There’s more about the Atheist Bus Campaign, with a podcast from Ariane Sherine, and highlights from the latest issue of the magazine.

‘They’ The Bishop tells us: ‘When the boys come back They will not be the same; for they’ll have fought In a just cause: they lead the last attack On Anti-Christ; their comrades’ blood has bought New right to breed an honourable race, They have challenged Death and dared him face to face.’ ‘We’re none of us the same!’ the boys reply. ‘For George lost both his legs; and Bill’s stone blind;

If you click on the link on this web site to shop at Amazon, we’ll get some commission to add to our funds. You could begin with a copy of Jim Herrick’s book, ‘Humanism: an introduction”, for £14.50 (free delivery). Jim will be our guest speaker next month. Tags: Books, Shopping, Amazon

The November edition of International Humanist News is now available on the IHEU website. It includes features on Barack Obama; Humanism and Islam; and Caste and Untouchability. Both text and PDF versions are available. Tags: IHEU

Since the Atheist Bus Campaign has made the headlines around the world, Christian organisations have been responding to its “There probably is no god” message. The Rev. Evan Cockshaw of the Evangelism and Outreach Team of Lichfield Diocese set up a new website, There Probably is a God, inviting believers to contribute their “stories of normal everyday people who aren’t stupid, and haven’t been brainwashed, but will talk honestly and openly about their experiences of the true and living God!

It’s a sign of growing older (and grumpier), but I despair of people’s lack of common sense sometimes. For weeks, the media has been full of stories about the economic situation. Now the retail trade is in a state, anticipating that most people will spend less this Christmas. Meanwhile, the Consumer Credit Counselling Service reports a high number of callers with worries about the strain of Christmas on family budgets. It’s as well it’s not me answering the phones.

What’s this about, d’you think? Critics say it is wrong for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to give taxpayers’ money to a controversial organisation whose stance would be found objectionable by many members of the public. Neil Addison, a Roman Catholic barrister who specialises in religious discrimination, said: “It’s a bit like paying the Taliban to lecture on women’s rights.” This is from The Telegraph. I can imagine Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells, encouraged by Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent for The Telegraph, hopping up and down, incandescent with rage, at the news that the BHA will get a grant from the Equality and Human Rights Commission for a series of four events about the place of religion in public life.

Hello, I went to the “There Probably Is” website because Pharyngula said there was a poll on which the atheists were (slightly) winning. Sadly, they’ve pulled it. They’ve also redirected all the testimonies to email, so that they can be vetted before publication. So any slyly Swiftian ones will have to be very subtle to get through. Probably so subtle that the average evangelist will take it at face value.

From Suffolk Humansts & Secularists Chairman David Mitchell: On this morning’s Andrew Marr Show, Carol Vorderman reviewed the papers and made a comment that I for one am pretty fed up with hearing. She described the young parents of the recently born conjoined twins, who decided to take the pregnancy to full term despite knowing the children were conjoined, as “devout Christians”. Below is a comment I sent to the show via the BBC website.

Last year, I persuaded one of my local churches to withdraw their support for Operation Christmas Child, run by the Samaritan’s Purse charity, by explaining that its agenda is destructive. We still hear of local schools and organisations that are taken in by its ostensibly charitable purpose, encouraging children to fill shoes boxes with gifts for needy children overseas, unaware that they’ll arrive with a toxic message. The BHA offers suggestions for alternative ways to involve children in charitable giving during the festive season.

From Gay & Lesbian Humanist Magazine: It’s been a significant time for poetry and politics – and much else of course. And this is reflected in the second online issue of the newly relaunched Gay & Lesbian Humanist magazine, available now online. Politics doesn’t come much bigger or brasher than when it’s USA politics, of course, and President-elect Barack Obama was soon in the sights of Catholic bishops, who warned him that “the unity desired by President-elect Obama and all Americans at this moment of crisis” would be impossible to achieve, if the administration’s policies increase abortions.

The PTT is a charity for gay humanists and about homosexuality, aiming to educate and to assist those who’ve suffered discrimination.

An online magazine for gay and lesbian humanists.

The Pink Triangle Trust’s blog.