Well done NSS –

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What a fantastic result regarding Council Prayers – And listen to the little lambs bleating! Their undisguised outrage is very revealing isn’t it?.
Nobody saying they can’t prey: nobody’s telling them their faith is outlawed; there’s nothing stopping them from having that quiet chat with the particular invisible friend of their choosing in the car before entering the Council offices – or in a seperate room with like-minded others ahead of Council business.
If this ‘please tell us how to think’ chat is so important to them you’d imagine they could get there five minutes early – on their own time – wouldn’t you.
I suspect what’s really cheesing them off is the fact that they can no longer appear ‘special’; ‘set apart’, ‘superior’. They can’t inflict their beliefs on the rest. They can’t steal that little moment just before getting down to business to impose their brand of ‘thinking’ on lesser mortals.
And you’d think their sky-mate would give them a better argument than ‘It should be done because we’ve always done it’ wouldn’t you. Makes you wonder how we ever got rid of ducking stools if that is the kind of thinking we have to be guided by.

‘Evolution of Intelligence in Birds & Apes’

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… This is the 2012 Darwin Day Lecture at UCLAN delivered by Pro. Nicola Clayton.
Monday 13th February 7 – 9pm (bar open from 6pm)
The Darwin Lecture Theatre.
LSH have secured 12 free tickets for this event – still a few left.
Get in touch with Ian asap if you don’t want to miss out on what promises to be a fascinating evening.

Quiz Night

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The next meeting of Lancashire Secular Humanists is 7.30pm – Wednesday 15th February 2012 at Great Eccleston Village Centre, 59 High Street, The Square, Great Eccleston. PR3 0YB

This is our ‘Just For Fun – Charity Quiz Night’

We set one evening a year aside exclusively as a fund-raising event to support of our adopted charity – Rosemere Cancer Foundation: a charity supporting cancer patients in Lancashire & South Cumbria as well as funding vital local research, helping to provide the very best care possible for patients.

As with all LSH meetings – this is open to everybody*.

If you enjoy quizzing – or support Rosemere – or simply like to spend pleasant evenings with an eclectic group of people – this is for you!
Remember – every penny we raise from entrance fees – refreshments and raffle goes to a good cause benefitting the lives of [who knows how many] other people.
So – bring as many friends as you can – join in one of the teams – put your thinking caps on and enjoy!
. . . . .
Just to put your minds at rest – Can I remind you that Ian has been banned from setting the quiz questions [for life!] so this year’s quiz will be set by a guest quiz-setter.

*Lancashire Secular Humanists is a group for free-thinking individuals living lives informed by Logic, Science & Humanity. All LSH meetings are ‘open’ meetings. Anyone is invited to join in our discussions regardless of whether they are humanist – secularist – religious – undecided – or [just] interested. We are people who enjoy participating in intelligent discourse between ourselves and with others about wide ranging subjects on the understanding that the only common denominator will be that nobody resorts to dogma in defence of a contention. Being freethinkers there are many things we secular humanists will not agree on between ourselves, but there are matters on which we do take a firm and unanimous stand … We do not condone discrimination of any sort – nor do we hate religious people … Such views are entirely contrary to any humanist philosophy and we reserve the right to exclude any person promoting them!

Skeptics in the Pub – what a combination!

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A few of us have started attending Lancaster Skeptics in the Pub and so far each session has been really good. I strongly recommend it. Usually the first Wednesday in the month at the Park Hotel Lancaster (very easy to find just off the big A6 roundabout as you go into Lancaster). The March meeting is advertised as 14th March which is the second Wednesday – Ian is clarifying this and will no doubt blog if its any different.

Charles Clarke Lecture – Tuesday 7th Feb

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Former Home Secretary, Rt Hon Charles Clarke, Visiting Professor in Politics & Faith will be delivering the Chaplaincy Centre Annual Lecture at Lancaster University.
Sorry about the short notice but I only heard about it at last night’s Skeptics in The Pub meeting in Lancaster
The lecture is on Tuesday, 7 February 2012 – Time 17:00 until 18:30
Venue – Lancaster University Chaplaincy Centre.
Everyone Welcome!

Why didn’t someone grab the camera?

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Or even lock the doors and call the police?

Ah yes! So easy to think of these things when you’re not actually there. I wonder how I would have reacted? I guess I would have been shocked and stunned and helpless like everyone else. Anyway – read the story.

A talk on sharia and human rights by NSS Council Member Anne Marie Waters at Queen Mary, University of London, was cancelled at the last moment because of an Islamist who made serious threats against everyone there.

Ms Waters was due to give a talk on behalf of the One Law for All campaign on 16 January but before it started, a man entered the lecture theatre, stood at the front with a camera and filmed the audience. He then said that he knew who everyone was, where they lived and if he heard anything negative about the Prophet, he would track them down.

The man also filmed students in the foyer and threatened to murder them and their families. On leaving the building, he joined a large group of men, apparently there to support him. Students were told by security to stay in the lecture theatre for their own safety

Disgraceful Desmond

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The performance of the Daily Express, Daily Star and Channel 5 owner Richard Desmond before the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the media was nothing short of disgraceful.

It wouldn’t matter if the damage he did were only to himself, his own reputation and his businesses, but I’m angered by the knowledge that some of the mud that rightly sticks to him also sticks to many others, like me, whose working lives were spent in print and broadcast journalism.

What about a “fit and proper person” test for media owners?

Happy New Year

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Let’s see what 2012 has in store for us.
The recent call to arms over the unsettling growth of sectarian education in Lancashire is something we should all support and seek to be engaged with.
As well as developing even closer relations with neighbouring humanist groups and building on work already done to establish stronger links with other like-minded groups; we should [also] not be afraid of supporting campaigns by some non-humanist organisations: where there are shared values and objectives. We simply need to be confident about establishing defined demarcation lines and be clear about our intolerance to proselytising.
Many more people are discovering Humanism and are clearly pleased to be able to identify with our principles of scruples without scriptures – one very clear indication of this trend is the growing number of people accessing humanist ceremonies to mark significant events in their lives.
Giving voice to the huge numbers of non-religious people in Lancashire continues to be an especially important role for us and the new ‘Partnership’ initiative between the BHA and ourselves should provide the means for us to do that even more proficiently.
The LSH ‘Speakers Programme’ has never looked better with a wide range of experts lined up to discuss and debate an impressively diverse array of issues throughout the year: added to which the 2012 NW Regional Conference is to be here in Lancashire – attracting Humanists from even further afield.
Continued vigilance highlighting and opposing iniquitous privilege and disproportionate influence afforded to religion by the state must be a constant engagement … even more so as the economic situation looks set to worsen and the ‘Big Society’ seems hell bent on gifting important public services; which need to be accessible by all; to narrow self-interest religious groups – in spite of recent history where such groups have clearly been partial about who should or should not be assisted, based entirely on the doctrines of this or that particular faith-stance.
We have come a long way but [paraphrasing Robert Frost] we have promises to keep and miles to go before we sleep.
See you all on 18th

The Immorality of Faith Schools

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Many schools in Lancashire require parents to pass a test of religion in order for their children to access state funded education. A classic example is Archbishop Temple in Preston which requires parents to attend the right type of church up to 90 times in the previous two years in order that their children can attend the school which is state funded but controlled by a branch christian church. Very few places are available for children of other religions. The school itself is very good and parents who are concerned about their children’s education can, of course, always pretend to believe to gain a place. They would be well motivated to do so since other alternatives the area get very much inferior results. This creates a self perpetuating situation since parents who are that concerned will tend to try hard to ensure that their children go to Archbishop.

But what about the children of other religions or of atheists whose moral position does not let them pretend to be religious? This unfairness is recognised by both secular and religious organisations. Indeed the Accord Coalition is run by rabbis, vicars and ministers as well as secularists and campaigns against discrimination by faith schools. Faith schools are even allowed to discriminate against teachers on grounds of religious belief or the lack of it. One wonders how children deprived of a good education because of religion will feel about the churches in future years.

The problem is particularly acute in Lancashire because of the large number of such schools. Surely it’s time we started an active local campaign to bring it to an end. It’s not about religion vs. atheists, many of the victims will be non Christians of various faiths. It’s about fairness and the rights of children.

How to avoid xmas

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Its been that time of year again since August, but we are on the home straight. It will be all over and done with this time next week. Then we just have to put up with the question “Did you have a good xmas”.

Actually I am looking forward to saying “Yes the best ever, I didn’t hear Slade once”. I have been hibernating in my house since
1 December and living off food from the freezer.

Am I the only person that doesn’t partake inn this event? Any tips on how to get through the final week will be very welcome.