UK comedian Jake Yapp spent some time in the US watching religious TV, so we don’t have to. I’ve heard you can see stuff like this in the UK, but it’s not on Freeview so who cares?

A recent blog post reported on some of the articles in the New Scientist’s God issue. One or two things have prompted me to write more about this, from a feminist perspective: Men and the religion versus science thing. Feel free to comment, here or there.

New York photographer Chris Johnson has found subscribers to publish a book of portraits of happy atheists, to dispel the myth “that our lives are devoid of joy and happiness because we are not religious.” It looks interesting, but the sample list of subjects gives the impression that the book could be male-dominated. Maybe the gender balance will be 50/50? Click here to read more.

For a majority of people in the UK, Easter is mainly about a long weekend, chocolate eggs, and spring. The origins of the spring holiday are disputed but they go back to pre-Christian times, when Pagans celebrated the spring equinox, which was on March 20th this year, and the end of winter. The word Easter is derived from the name of a Germanic Pagan goddess of Spring, variously known as ostre, astre or Ostara.

As reported by our secretary in [the AGM newsletter](http://www.suffolkhands.org.uk/files/1/SHANDS Newsletter April 2012.pdf “2012 AGM newsletter”) (pdf), the 19th March issue of New Scientist was The God Issue. An editorial ends: This is not an apologia for god. Religious claims still wither under rational scrutiny and deserve no special place in public life. But it is a call for those who aspire to a secular society to approach it rationally – which means making more effort to understand what they are dealing with.

Margaret Nelson from Suffolk Humanists & Secularists and someone from the local hospice will be on Mark Murphy’s programme to talk about assisted dying. Listen on air, online or listen again via the BBC website.

From John Benton: “Andy Miles has offered to update us on the goings-on at QED con. If you have any scientific curiosities, feel free to bring them along, and no doubt there will be talk of the current and upcoming solar activity.”

Margaret will be talking about humanism and anything else that Lesley asks her on BBC Radio Suffolk today. If you miss it, you can listen again.

Had an email today (Sunday) from an East Anglian Daily Times journalist, wanting comment on Delia Smith’s claim that “we are somewhat under the cosh” on her website – does she mean Christians in general, or just Catholics? Devout secularists? What are they? Didn’t read the email until after 10pm, probably too late for the paper, but replied anyway. It gets sillier by the day. It’s interesting that Delia, a CAFOD ambassador, should think it appropriate to use her cookery website to air her persecution complex.

Julian Baggini is co-founder of The Philosophers’ Magazine and author of ‘Atheisn: A Very Short Introduction’ (OUP). His series ‘Heathen’s Progress‘ that began last year in The Guardian’s Comment is Free section is worth reading. The latest part, ‘Yes, life without God can be bleak. Atheism is about facing up to that‘ firmly removes any comfort blanket you might be clinging to, and is bracingly honest. It ends: I think it’s time we atheists ‘fessed up and admitted that life without God can sometimes be pretty grim.