Will the Pope pay after all?

source: http://www.humanistlife.org.uk/2010/02/will-the-pope-pay-after-all/

Will the Pope pay after all?

HumanistLifeFeb 04, 2010 10:44:25 GMT Share

Gordon Brown invited the Pontiff, but is understood to have made clear that the Government will not cover all the costs.

“We are now in a situation where we don’t know who’s paying for it,” says an official of the Roman Catholic church. “It’s not in the Government Budget and is probably going to cost the Church about £3million to £6million.”

Gordon Brown's invite to Pope Benedict XVI leaves Church anxious about costs
Delighted though the faithful are that Pope Benedict XVI is coming to Britain later this year, concern is growing about who is going to pay for the visit.


By Tim Walker
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7138643/Gordon-Browns-invite-to-Pope-Benedict-XVI-leaves-Church-anxious-about-costs.html
Published: 10:00PM GMT 02 Feb 2010


Gordon Brown?s invite to the Pope has left the Church anxious about costs
Gordon Brown invited the Pontiff, but is understood to have made clear that the Government will not cover all the costs.
“We are now in a situation where we don’t know who’s paying for it,” says an official of the Roman Catholic church. “It’s not in the Government Budget and is probably going to cost the Church about £3million to £6million.”


Concern has been heightened by memories of the first papal visit to this country, in 1982, which left the Church heavily in debt.
The Government is expected to cover security, but officials are involved in delicate negotiations about other costs.
The Church may be able to fund part of the trip with merchandising and broadcasting rights, big private donors or collections.
The National Secular Society has launched a campaign against public funds being used. “The taxpayer in this country is going to be faced with a bill of some £20million for the visit," said its president, Terry Sanderson. “If the Catholic Church wishes its leader to come here, it should pay for the visit itself.”

Stephen Fry: "it is essential to nail one’s colours to the mast as a humanist."

source: http://www.humanism.org.uk/news/view/447
FEB 04 2010

The British Humanist Association has welcomed the author, comedian, presenter, and director Stephen Fry to its membership and as a Distinguished Supporter of Humanism.

The news comes during a busy Membership Month in which the BHA has announced that it has doubled in size in the last five years and wants to double again in just half the time.

Stephen told the BHA, ‘At a time when the achievements of the enlightenment are questioned, ridiculed, misunderstood and traduced by those who would reverse the progress of mankind, it is essential to nail one's colours to the mast as a humanist.

‘For me, that is not a turning away from mystery or a cold rational dispute with the numinous and spiritual in life, it is an acceptance of the awesome and splendid responsibility we each have for our own destinies, ethics and morals.

I repudiate the authority of churches, revealed texts and vain unsubstantiated assertions and embrace the shared glories of humanity's intellectual and spiritual struggle to understand the universe into which we are born with honesty, openness and faith in our own natures.’

Stephen Fry has long stated his support for Humanism and his personal non-religious beliefs.  He was interviewed in New Humanist magazine in 2003 and also discusses his views on God and religion in his autobiography Moab is my Washpot.  More recently, he won the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association’s award for services to Humanism and LGBT rights in 2009.

Notes

Find out more about the Membership Drive Month.
The BHA has over 120 Distinguished Supporters. These include cultural figures – authors, artists, actors, comedians – as well as campaigners, scientists, historians, broadcasters and MPs and Peers .  Distinguished Supporters’ work with the BHA varies, including attendance at events, speaking engagements, letters to the press on our behalf and activity in Parliament.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) is the national charity representing and supporting the non-religious and campaigning for an end to religious privilege and discrimination based on religion or belief.

Protests Planned for Pope Visit to UK

source: http://www.iheu.org/protests-planned-pope-visit-uk

The National Secular Society (an IHEU member organization in the UK) has announced a large-scale campaign of protest against the state visit of the Pope to Britain in September.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “The taxpayer in this country is going to be faced with a bill of some £20 million for the visit of the Pope. A visit in which he has already indicated he will attack equal rights and promote discrimination.”

Sanderson said that a coalition of groups that have suffered because of the Pope’s teachings will ensure that wherever he goes he will be aware that he has caused damage and hurt in the lives of real people. He said that he was seeking to bring together gay groups, feminist groups, family planning organisations, pro-choice groups, victim support groups and anyone who feels under siege from the Vatican’s current militancy. “We hope that the many people who are outraged at the Vatican’s apparent indifference to the abuse of children by its priests will turn out to make their feelings clear.”

Sanderson added: “We have an online petition where people can make clear their opposition to the state funding of this visit. If the Catholic Church wishes its leader to come here, it should pay for the visit itself. I am sure many others feel the same resentment as we do at the NSS at funding the presence of someone who wishes to impose a reactionary agenda of social change on us.”

The 'Make the Pope Pay' Coalition will officially launch later this week.

The NSS plans include a festival of films that show the wrong-doings of the Vatican, among them The Magdalene Sisters and The Boys of St Vincent’s – a film about the cover-up of sexual abuse at a Catholic orphanage in Canada.

Add your name to the Make the Pope Pay petition.

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BHA condemns Pope’s attack on equality

source: BHA

FEB022010BHA condemns Pope’s attack on equality

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has condemned the Pope's criticisms of the UK’s equality laws.
Naomi Phillips, BHA Head of Public Affairs said, ‘It comes as no surprise to hear yet more uninformed and homophobic remarks from the Pope and, yet again, he is wrong. Equality laws do not impose unjust restrictions on religious freedom. What the Pope, together with other religious leaders such as the Bishops sitting in our own Parliament are actually seeking, is for religious people to be allowed to discriminate against others in employment, services, education and many other areas, unfettered by the laws that everyone else in society must abide by and respect.’
‘As well as a religious leader, the Pope is a head of state which has been responsible for opposing the distribution of condoms, promoting segregated education, denying abortion to even the most vulnerable women and opposing LGBT rights, including universal decriminalisation of homosexuality. This latest attack on modern, liberal values is yet another reason why we will be opposing the Pope’s State visit to the UK later this year.’
The BHA has set up a Facebook group protesting against the Pope’s State visit.

Notes

For further comment or information, contact Naomi Phillips on 07540 257101, 020 7079 3585.
The British Humanist Association represents and supports the non-religious. It is the largest organisation in the UK campaigning for an end to religious privilege and to discrimination based on religion or belief, and for a secular state.

Why the public should be told if their MPs “do God”

source: HumanistLife

Why the public should be told if their MPs “do God”

Fri 29 Jan 2010 12:42 • 

Tony Blair

When it comes to politics, the right to personal belief isn’t necessarily a right to private belief, argues Penelope Blatchford.

So Alistair Campbell, when he gave evidence to the Chilcot Enquiry, maintained that Tony Blair sincerely believed the intelligence regarding Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.

During his own appearance today, Blair agrees: he was sincere… though exactly what the “45 minute” claim meant is now wrapped in cautions and qualifiers.  Perhaps we’ll never know what he really believed?

But we have to bear in mind that  Tony Blair also apparently believes in virgin births,  that wine can literally turn into the blood of a two-thousand-years-dead Palestinian man/god when imbibed (conditions apply), and that the torture and death of one individual is a perfectly acceptable way of atoning for the misdeeds of others.  For this reason,  how impressed should anyone be by Mr. Blair’s ability to assess evidence, apply reason to it and to make sensible decisions based on his “beliefs”?

We should not forget that it was Alistair Campbell who famously interrupted the then PM’s interview with Vanity Fair reporter David Margolick who asked Tony Blair about his Christian faith. “We don’t do God”, said the Master of Spin.  Unless Alistair Campbell was referring to the Royal “we”, this statement was dishonest.  As we now know,  Tony Blair does “do God”.  He “does God” a lot!

What people believe is personal,  so is why they believe it.  However,  the moment they act on those beliefs in a way that involves other people, it ceases to be private.  The affect of an individual’s beliefs on his or her actions can have far-reaching ramifications.  In the case of a politician, those ramifications can be matters of life and death for hundreds of thousands of individuals.  They can,  quite literally, change the world.

Isn’t it time the public were told before each election what the candidates religious beliefs are?

A candidate who believes that the universe is 6,000 years old and denies all the evidence for evolution has,  by definition, a distorted view of science and his or her attitude towards research funding may be highly damaging. Equally, one who joyfully anticipates the End of Days may well be influenced by this belief with regard to topics such as global warming or WMD, to the detriment of all living things.

More generally,  how seriously should we view the candidacy of someone believes that in order to get verification that a thought is reasoned,  accurate and justified, all they have to do is pray?  If they claim to have their choices affirmed by mind-talking to a being whose existence they cannot give empirical evidence for, shouldn’t this disqualify them from standing for office?  In other words, would we take seriously an individual who claimed to get advice from the fairies at the bottom of their garden and shouldn’t we at least know that this is what they “believe” before we vote for them?

Penelope Blatchford is a psychology graduate and science “hobbyist” with a particular interest in religious belief and its evolutionary and psychological origins.

Simon Singh - 10:23 campaign

The History and Philosophy of Humanism - CFI online course March-May

The CFI Institute is offering a new course in its Institute Online program:

The History and Philosophy of Humanism (SEC 200)
March 1st - May 30th, 2010
Instructor John Shook, PhD, CFI VP

This three month course contains six lectures by Shook, from his next book on Humanism.  The six main topics are: Humanism Defined, Humanism and Naturalism, Humanism and Ethics, Humanist Ethics and God, Principles of Humanist Ethics, and Humanism's Destiny.  Visiting Lecturers Nica Lalli (during March) and Dale McGowan (during April) will participate in the discussion areas of the course.  

Course Fees: $60.00 for registration, $50.00 for Friends of the Center, and $20.00 for students.
Online registration begins February 1st.
Click here to register.

John Shook is Vice President and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Inquiry Transnational in Amherst, N.Y., and Research Associate in Philosophy at the University at Buffalo.  He has authored and edited more than a dozen books about philosophy and naturalism.  He has debated the existence of God with notable theologians including William Lane Craig, and his book The God Debates will soon be published by Blackwell.

Nica Lalli is a writer, educator, and former PTA president.  She is the author of Nothing: Something to Believe In (Prometheus Books, 2007), a memoir which tells the story of her life outside of organized religion and traces her many mishaps and misadventures she has had with religion.

Dale McGowan edited and co-authored Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Freethinkers, the first comprehensive resources for nonreligious parents.  He writes the secular parenting blog The Meming of Life, teaches nonreligious parenting seminars across the United States, and serves as executive director of Foundation Beyond Belief, a humanist charitable and educational foundation.

The CFI Institute Online offers CFI courses entirely online - everything about the course is provided on a CFI website.  You will read the course lectures, follow links to other webpages, ask questions, and participate in class discussions with the instructor and other students on our website.  There are no specific times that you must be online.  There is no "live" aspect to these courses, and you cannot miss anything even if you can only get online at 6am or 11pm - you can log in and participate anytime day or night, 24/7.

Click here for the CFI Institute Online on our website.

For more information about online courses,
contact John Shook, jshook@centerforinquiry.net.
For questions about registration and technical support,
contact Institute Staff channy@centerforinquiry.net.