16 August 2011

Understanding the importance of the protection of the life and safety of all citizens of Russia, including that of the religious leaders in our country, the Good Sense (Zdravomislie) Public Fund has met the news of the upcoming amendments to our secular law with alarm.

The Public Fund Good Sense learned that the government of Russia initiated an amendment in the state Duma of the Russian Federation in the form of bill № 586178­5, containing a clause to expand the list of individuals being protected by government, with taxpayers money, to include an unspecified number of people that do not have any relation to government service or the functioning of the state. Among those listed in the expanded list was the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

This bill was apparently created in order to legalize the state security which has been provided for the church Patriarch for many years now without any legal basis.

In relation to this, the Good Sense Foundation addresses an open letter to the President of Russia, Dmitri Medvedev, in which we ask him to answer two questions:

1) Will somebody be held accountable for the violation of legal principles that have been going on for a number of years?

2) How does the government’s initiative to support just one out of many religious organizations registered in Russia correspond with the secular nature of our state, as indicated in our national constitution?

The Fund is also addressing a letter to the head of the dedicated Security Committee in the State Duma, Vasiliev V.A, with a request to act out of a sense for public consent in terms of ethnic and religious cross-relations when discussing the bill. We also ask that the Duma keep the secular basis of our national constitution in mind when determining what private Russian citizens should be eligible to receive government-paid security protection.

Written by Tanya Smith | 13 August 2011

I represented Atheist Alliance International at the launch of the International Association of Freethought (IAFT) in Oslo on 10 August.  It was a good opportunity to meet others who are active in the international atheist and freethought community and hear about their campaigns and issues.   The IAFT has identified separation of church and state, the use of public money to fund religion and exposure and denunciation of the crimes committed by religions against humans as their areas of focus, and Atheist Alliance International looks forward to working with the IAFT on campaigns of common interest. 

My speech from the launch is below.

Atheism in the 21st Century

To sum up atheism in the 21^st century in one word – atheism is “active”.  We are active because we need to be.  We are active because the modern world has given us the tools we need.

The simple idea of atheists being active is sometimes questioned.  People compare atheists to those who don’t collect stamps and say “well, non-stamp collectors don’t need groups or conventions”.  Michael Nugent of Atheist Ireland gave a fantastic response to this point at the Dublin Convention this year.  If you haven’t seen it – you can look it up on YouTube.

To paraphrase Michael.....if we lived in a world where most people collected stamps, where people thought that the post office created the universe, where people consulted their stamp collections before creating laws – then there would be groups of non-stamp collectors (the aphilatelists) and there would be conventions about not collecting stamps.

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12 August 2011

The link between money and religion is a grey area, fraught with conspiracy and scandal. Some of the wealthiest organisations on the planet are religions or religious movements - some ancient, some modern - yet the followers of religion and the countries in which they are practised are often the poorest.

money.co.uk has examined some of the richest religions (Scientology, Catholicism, Televangelism, Freemasonry, The Church of England) and their wealth as well as noting the world' richest billionaires with faith:  http://www.money.co.uk/misc/the-business-of-religion.htm

11 August 2011

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/4985/united_nations_affirms_the_human_right_to_blaspheme

Late last month, the UN issued a new statement on the extent of freedom of speech under international law. It says that laws restricting blasphemy as such are incompatible with universal human rights standards.

The statement came from the Human Rights Committee, the body of eighteen “independent experts” mandated to monitor compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, or ICCPR, the 1966 human rights treaty that provides for freedom of opinion and expression and other fundamental rights. The Committee’s general comments represent authoritative interpretations of the provisions of the ICCPR. Unlike the highly-publicized resolutions produced by the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly, the provisions of the ICCPR are legally binding to its more than 165 parties.

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06 August 2011

The Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society will hold its first convention in Manila. We will be discussing PATAS' future goals and will be talking about Atheism/Agnosticism, Secularism and Humanism. We are selecting speakers for this convention from different personalities from the US and the Philippines.

Date: Saturday, April 21, 2012 · 6:00am - 8:00pm

Place: Bayview Parks and Hotels, United Nations Avenue, Manila Philippines

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05 August 2011

A “Christian” midwife is suing a UK hospital in what may be the most ridiculous and frivolous lawsuit yet. Apparently in the hospital she is required to wear *gasp* surgical scrub trousers. Yes, you read it right she is suing because she believes that wearing trousers is against her religion.

Apparently there is a passage on Deuteronomy (22:5) which forbids women from wearing men’s clothes and vice-versa. Again, yes really, and this is the basis of her lawsuit claiming religious discrimination.

There is only one place for this waste of a tribunal’s time, the surgical waste bin!

Source: http://www.atheismuk.com/2011/08/02/news/the-most-ridiculous-lawsuit-yet/