Leading Australian Young Earth Creationist Ken Ham is visiting Ipswich for an Answers in Genesis conference on 8 August. Ham says that “maths is fundamentally Christian” (not sure what he means by that), that there were dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark but their average size was about the same as a sheep (explaining how there was room),that the universe was created about 6,000 years ago and that Noah’s flood occurred about 4,500 years ago in the year 2348 BC.

The BHA reports: A group of creationists has gained approval from the Government to open a fully state-funded Free School in 2013. The group are behind the plans for Exemplar Newark Business Academy, a revised bid from the same people who proposed Everyday Champions Academy last year. Everyday Champions Academy, which was formally backed by Everyday Champions Church, was explicitly rejected due to concerns surrounding the teaching of creationism.

The Times Educational Supplement reports that ICCE qualification based on creationism have been approved: They confidently claim that the Loch Ness monster disproves Darwinism and that there is clear proof of creationism. But that has not stopped a set of controversial Christian qualifications – used by dozens of British private schools – being described as comparable to international O and A levels. The International Certificate of Christian Education (ICCE) has been rubber-stamped by a government agency, even though it is based on a curriculum that says the Bible is the “final authority” on scientific matters.

As you’ll see from yesterday’s comments on our blog post from last year about the Scout Association’s promise to “love God”, the issue is still topical here in the UK. Today there’s news from Australia that the Girl Guides there will no longer have to promise allegiance to God and the Queen, though Australian Scouts have yet to catch up. The BBC reports: Girl Guides in Australia will no longer have to pledge allegiance to the Queen and God and will instead promise to serve the community and Australia.

We recently reported on how Sanal Edamaruku, President of The Indian Rationalist Association, is facing arrest for offending Catholics by proving that the source of “holy water” from a crucifix was, in fact, a leaky pipe. They had been drinking the filthy stuff. New Humanist magazine reports that, yesterday, Delhi police officers went to Sanal’s house to arrest him, but he wasn’t there. When he returns, he’s likely to be arrested.

In the latest New Humanist magazine, philosopher Julian Baggini says that one of religion’s attractions to the religious is that it offers hope, and asks if living without religion means living without it. Most atheists accept that Hope is essential to life, as AC Grayling put it to me, a beautiful, central thing in all our lives. Philosopher Nigel Warburton, recalling the inscription Abandon all hope, ye who enter here at the entrance of Dantes Hell, told me, Hell is not having hope.

This week’s ‘In Our Time’ with Melvyn Bragg is about campaigning 19th century secularist Annie Besant, who had a close relationship with Charles Bradlaugh, founder of the National Secular Society. Well worth listening to for the history of secularism in the UK. Click here to listen on BBC iPlayer. Click here to read about the history of the National Secular Society.    Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Prof. A C Grayling is the Vice-President of the British Humanist Association.

As so many people are away in August, there won’t be a meeting at the university as usual. We will be having a pub lunch at the end of the month though – see calendar.

Well, have you? Come and tell us about them. Click here for maps and directions (pdf).