A woman was beaten up and shot dead by her father for talking online with a man she met on the website Facebook. The case was reported on a Saudi Arabian news site as an example of the “strife” the social networking site is causing in the Islamic nation. Facebook girl beaten and shot dead by her father for talking online | the Daily Mail. Yet another example of Islamic family values.

The vast majority of faith schools are breaking the law when admitting pupils, according to Government research published yesterday. The study shows that some seek money from parents and fail to give priority to children in care. A survey of 106 voluntary-aided schools by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) revealed that 96 are in breach of a new statutory code on admissions. Of those, 87 are faith schools.

Things are changing in America. Harvard has a Humanist chaplain. Over the past two years, Greg Epstein, 30, has become a kind of ministerial paradox, a member of the local clergy who disavows God, preaches to atheists and agnostics, and seeks to build the equivalent of a church for nonbelievers and others skeptical of or alienated by religion. A former lead singer of a rock band, he now serves as the humanist chaplain at Harvard University, one of a small but growing number of such chaplains for nonbelievers on college campuses.

Few people can be unaware of the protests associated with the Olympic Torch Relay in London and Paris, but some may think that they are just about the Chinese in Tibet. This is only part of the story. China’s human rights record is appalling. There’s no sign that it might improve as a consequence of staging the games in Beijing. Read more on the Amnesty website… As the Olympic torch approaches China for its momentous entry into the Olympic stadium, the stage is overshadowed by China’s deteriorating human rights situation.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has today [10/4/08]welcomed the forthcoming repeal of the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951 and its replacement with much stricter regulations, offering often very vulnerable consumers much greater protection against fraud and dishonest behaviour when they access spiritualist ‘services’. Hanne Stinson , BHA Chief Executive, said, ‘With only a handful of convictions against dishonest and fraudulent mediums and others in their field, it is clear that the current law is not fit for purpose.

At our AGM on 10th April, we decided to change our name to “Suffolk Humanists & Secularists” in response to a suggestion by Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, that such a name change would make our commitment to secularism more explicit, and hence more appealing to the increasing number of people who might like to campaign on secular issues at local level. This website will be updated accordingly.

The evolutionary biologist and best-selling author of The God Delusion will appear as a guest star in the new series of Doctor Who, which began last night [12 April 2008]. “People were falling at his feet,” says Davies, creator of the BBC’s flagship show. “We’ve had Kylie Minogue on that set, but it was Dawkins people were worshipping.” Russell T Davies: Return of the (tea) Time Lord – Media, News – The Independent.

This is the project that Suffolk Humanists & Secularists member Nathan Nelson told us about at our meeting in February. You can now donate online to support the children at the centre. The Sangkheum Center for Children provides education, training, scholastic support and care to children between the ages of 4 and 17. In Khmer, Sangkheum means ‘Hope’. Since 2001, the Sangkheum Center for Children has given hope to over 260 orphaned, abused or neglected children and provided education and vocational training to many more that otherwise would not have the opportunity to go to school.

If you’ve been following the US election trail, you may have noticed that the main candidates have been trying to establish their religious credentials. I don’t know what, if anything, any of them has said about evolution, but since a large proportion of the electorate doesn’t believe in it, I guess they have to avoid the subject if they’re at all skeptical. Lewis Black is very funny about George Bush’s beliefs.

The Telegraph asks its readers to comment about Humanism being included in RE syllabuses. Go to their website to add your comment. Thousands of teenagers will be taught about humanism for the first time as part of a religious education GCSE. Have Your Say: Should humanism be taught at GCSE? Pupils will be encouraged to debate controversial issues from the standpoint of all the major faiths – as well as those that reject the existence of God.

Old news, but still good news. Can you imagine having a similar event here? In Norway this spring (2007) over 10.000 youths aged 15 celebrated their Humanist confirmation. Keeping up a more than 50 years tradition they meet in concert halls and medieval castles, municipal cinemas and cultural centres, city halls and community houses. They gather in bigger and smaller towns all over the country. They celebrate from the southern “bible belt” of small towns with white painted wooden houses to the far north close to the border of Russia and in the Sami community of Karasjok.

E-mail: mail@suffolkhumanists.org.uk Event description: Andrew Marr’s programme Start the Week on Radio 4. Guests include the philosopher Daniel Dennett, author of “Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon”. The programme’s repeated at 9.30 pm. Listen online via the link below. Further info: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/starttheweek.shtml

E-mail: mail@suffolkhumanists.org.uk Event description: Grace By Mick Gordon and AC Grayling Issues of faith, love, and humanity are at the core of this intimate family drama in which Grace, a scientist and champion of atheism, is faced with the decision of her son Tom to become a priest. A collaboration between Humanist philosopher A.C.Grayling and theatre writer and director Mick Gordon, the characters offer solutions to their deeply opposed ways of looking at the world even as they rage.

Ann Keen, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health, has written to the BHA about the planned celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the NHS, including a “national service of celebration” for NHS staff, patients and stakeholders to be held in Westminster Abbey on 2 July. The BHA wrote back to ask why a national institution is being celebrated with a religious event that will exclude many people involved with and committed to the NHS.

This is the story that The Telegraph was on about the other day: For the first time, pupils will have the opportunity to study Humanism as part of a Religious Studies GCSE, according to draft proposals for a new Philosophy and Ethics course from exam board OCR . OCR’s Religious Studies suite offers two courses, including a traditional faith-based approach with its World Religions GCSE, where students can study Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism.

A CHARITY set up by an ardent Christian to fight slavery and the opium trade has identified a new social evil of the 21st century – religion. A poll by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation uncovered a widespread belief that faith – not just in its extreme form – was intolerant, irrational and used to justify persecution. Pollsters asked 3,500 people what they considered to be the worst blights on modern society, updating a list drawn up by Rowntree, a Quaker, 104 years ago.

I received a mail order catalogue of kitsch in this morning’s post. The praying gnome caught my eye. I hadn’t realised that gnomes are religious. The blurb says, Wishing Well Planter Gnome – Bring a little good luck charm into your garden. This three-in-one light sculpture is made from hand-painted resin and is weather-proof. Solar panel charges by day and comes on at night, with two LED lights to cast a delightful glow

Editorial from Terry Sanderson of the NSS: “The Secularists” (that’s you and me and anyone else who doesn’t trust religion to behave properly when it gains any kind of power) have been given a new adjective to go before their name. We’re familiar with the “militant” secularists, “fundamentalist” secularists and “extremist” secularists tags, but the Archbishop of Canterbury has decided that he will call us “principled secularists”. We are the people he seems to fear most, the ones who he claimed in a speech last week, are staging an organised assault on all religion.