With the conference season now over and done with, the British Humanist Association has declared it a successful season with…
Tag British Humanist Association
Today the British Humanist Association (BHA) is sending every state-funded secondary school library in Northern Ireland a copy of The Young Atheist’s Handbook: Lessons for Living a Good Life without God. The initiative, funded entirely by public donations, is part of the BHA’s work to ensure that young people have access to resources that enable them to come to their own decisions about their values and beliefs.
The room was heaving in Conway Hall last night as British Humanist Association (BHA) President, physicist and broadcaster Professor Jim Al-Khalili gave this year’s Voltaire Lecture on the theme of ‘Lessons from the past: science and rationalism in medieval Islam.’ The lecture was chaired by his predecessor as President, and current BHA Vice President, the journalist Polly Toynbee.
From the British Humanist Association, by email:
We were very disappointed last week by comments made by Baroness Warsi, the Minister for Faith and Communities. She addressed a gathering of students at Churchill College, Cambridge, and stated that the UK’s coalition government was one of the most ‘pro-faith’ in the world.
A letter from the president of the BHA. Very welcome news.
Dear all,
Many of you will know that a long-standing campaign of the BHA has been to get the Scout Association and Girlguiding UK to change their membership pledges, known as Promises, to be inclusive of the non-religious. Until recently, both organisations have required all members to pledge to ‘do my duty to God’ (or some variant). We were thrilled when both organisations announced last December that they were to consult on changing their Promises, and even more so when both organisations approached us to work with them in this.
The results of the 30th British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) released last week show almost half of the population say that they do not belong to a religion. The increase in the non religious is almost entirely mirrored by a decline in the proportion of people who describe themselves as belonging to the Church of England, down from 40% in 1983 to just 20% now. Results show that religious identity in Britain has been in stark decline over the past three decades.
As I have reported with regards to the Scouts and the Girlguides, the British Humanist Association are doing wonders in getting (children’s) organisations to consider changing religiously orientated oaths. Now the air cadets have taken bold action themselves, as the Guardian reports:
This fascinating piece of research has been reported by the British Humanist Association, which I have reproduced here. What is…