Something that’s been on the Internet for a while, but maybe you haven’t seen it – how to deal with homophobes who justify their bigotry by quoting the Bible – Dr. Laura Schlessinger is a US radio personality who dispenses advice to people who call in to her radio show. On one of her shows she said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstance.

A great quote in today’s NSS Newsline: Defining spirituality is like shovelling fog – Jim Barksdale, The Big Think One of our members is keen to “reclaim” the word from the religionists and demonstrate that Humanists aren’t mere “materialists”. He persuaded us to have five minutes of reflection on a piece of music, a poem, a picture, or something else at each meeting, introduced by individual members in turn.

Casual get-together at McGinty’s.

Their first open talk night, when three speakers will give a talk on a subject of science, skepticism or general interest. ISP say, The format that we’re going to try and keep to is a speaking event every other month, alternating between a guest speaker, and an open talk night, where anyone can take the floor and talk about something that interests them. Non speaking nights will be a casual get together over a beer.

Our member John Mellis poses the question, and will talk about how how science can address metaphysical questions. His introduction… Its often repeated that science is good at explaining how things work, but is incapable of addressing deeper questions concerning the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Such metaphysical questions meaning literally, above physics are often cited as the exclusive domain of religious belief and explanation. However, recently the ultimate metaphysical question which could be phrased as: Why does the Universe exist?

Did you watch More4 TV last week, when Richard Dawkins launched his attack on faith schools? Were you horrified by some of the things that were going on, such as those girls in a Muslim school, who thought the Qur’an’s version of our origins was true, and didn’t believe in evolution? Tom Sutcliffe wrote an excellent review for the Independent (and yes, I’m biased). If you’re a BHA member, you should have had an email from Richard Dawkins today, appealing for funds for the BHA’s campaign.