Bill McIlroy 1928 - 2013

The Argus byline "He helped to make Brighton godless"is probably an epitaph Bill would appreciate. Two of his activities in Brighton not mentioned by the Argus tribute are his membership of the Brighton & Hove Debating Society and his service on the Council's Commemorative (Blue) Plaque Panel.

The tribute of the National Secular Society can be read here.

Bill at the "Protest the Pope " march in 2010

He will be much missed . . .

Local Humanism - name change

At a well-attended EGM yesterday evening the Brighton & Hove Humanist Society voted in a new constitution and to change the name of the Society to:-

 BRIGHTON & DISTRICT HUMANIST SOCIETY 

This name change was in recognition of the geographically diverse membership of the Society which draws many people from outside the City boundaries.

The EGM was followed by a well-received presentation, "Towards a Secular State" by Gerard Phillips Vice-President of the National Secular Society. This was followed by questions and discussion.

Atheist Street Preacher

Another Brighton first?
http://www.simonclare.co.uk/site/

Has Jesus passed his sell-by date?

Wednesday 5th September 2012.
The Lord Nelson Inn
Trafalgar Street, Brighton.

The Brighton & Hove Humanist Society presents a talk by Ken Humphreys:-

"Has Jesus passed his sell-by date?"

730pm for 8pm start

P Z Myers coming to Brighton

'PZ', as he is affectionately known, an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Minnesota  has, through his blog Pharyngula, become  almost as famous as Richard Dawkins as the scourge of creationists, and apologists for 'intelligent design', pseudoscience and superstitious belief systems everywhere. His blog averages over 13,000 hits per day which peaks to 25,000 when he really gets going on some item of creationist propaganda, (which seems thankfully to be more prevalent in the USA than here).

He is a speaker much sought after on the sceptic, 'new' atheist, circuits and the Brighton branch of "Skeptics in the Pub" seems to have achieved something of a scoop in getting him to give a talk at the 'Caroline of Brunswick'. The inhabitants of the "most godless city in Britain" have certainly risen to the occasion: all tickets for his talk on Tuesday 7th June are sold out.

Nine Lessons & Carols for Godless People

Fittingly Robin Ince's Christmas show, which has been a sell-out hit at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London for the last two years, is now coming to the Dome in England's  "most godless city".


The star-studded lineup includes:-

Baba Brinkman - evolutionary rapper
Dara O'Briain - star of Mock the Week
Isy Suttie - star of Peep Show
Chris Addison - star of Thick of It
Matt Parker - stand up mathematician and warm up man for Royal Institute Christmas lectures
Richard Herring - one of Britain's top comedians & author of How Not To Grow Up
Simon Singh - scientist and author of Big Bang and Fermat's Last Theorem
Gavin Osborn - composer and accompanist for Daniel Kitson's award winning shows
Josie Long - too many awards to mention
Jo Neary - star of Ideal, Edinburgh award nominee
Helen Arney - singer, songwriter and excellent geek
Stephen Grant - king of Brighton comedy
Frisky and Mannish - the new musical sensation of the comedy circuit
Martin White's Little Brass band
Surely not to be missed by Brighton's large sceptical community and promises to be a sell-out.

"Protest the Pope" march

The "Protest the Pope" march in London this afternoon (saturday) was supported by a contingent from the Brighton & Hove Humanist Society. 

The event was extremely well-attended by representatives of all generations and walks of life and stretched from Hyde Park Corner to Piccadilly Circus, a distance of nearly a mile. The weather was fine and, in spite of long delays in starting, the humour was good. There was much applause from bystanders and at one point a figure emerged on a balcony, wearing a white robe and vaguely episcopal headgear, and to great applause and laughter, bestowed a blessing on the procession below.

"Why I am not a Christian"

Brighton & Hove Humanists first meeting after the summer break is on Wednesday, 1st  Sept. at 8pm at the Lord Nelson, Trafalgar St.

Speaker: Denis Cobell (Former president, National Secular Society) on 

"Why I Am Not a Christian. "

Caroline Lucas & collective worship in schools

The Early Day Motion 395 proposed by the MP for Cambridge, Julian Huppert has now been signed by 11 MP's including Brighton Pavilion's Caroline Lucas. In the interest of encouraging inclusiveness & integration within our schools  the Bill calls on the Government to repeal the requirement for compulsory worship in schools and to encourage schools to hold educational assemblies that will include all children.

Caroline says:-
Thank you for your email and for telling me about EDM 395. I support scrapping the requirement for a compulsory daily act of worship and also want those schools which continue to hold acts of worship to provide an alternative activity for learners who choose not to take part. Whilst I think it is important to uphold children and young people's right to practise their faith in schools, I think this is best met by for example providing prayer space rather than the current enforcement of daily worship. I also think religious education should be distinct from religious instruction and, like you, I would like assemblies to be inclusive and encourage a sense of community and cohesion. I will, therefore, be adding my name to this Early Day Motion and please do not hesitate to contact me again in future if I can help with anything else.

The Brighton Blasphemy Society

This new society held its first meeting on 19th May. Its goals are:-

"To resist the forces, of religion and state, that seek to curb our freedoms of thought and speech.
We consider all religious dogmas, political ideologies, and the like to be fair game for criticism, ridicule and satire."

Sounds reasonable to me.
It has a Facebook group here, and the contact email is:- polesapartstilts@ntlworld. com

Does Labour "do God"?

The Parliamentary candidate for my constituency is Nancy Platt. The contact page on Nancy Platt's website states: "Nancy is keen to hear from you. Whether you need help with a campaign or a local problem, or want to know more about her views on policy or other issues, don't hesitate to get in touch. Nancy or one of the team will get back to you as quickly as possibly."

As I am something of a floating voter I was anxious to get her views on a subject I feel strongly about, namely, the intrusion of religious influences into Government policy-making and the  continuing presence of Bishops in the House of Lords. I therefore wrote to Nancy and to the other main parties in Brighton;  Greens,  Conservatives and Liberal Democrats,  asking for their comments.

My queries were first sent via the internet, in Nancy's case via her website.  I had prompt responses from the Greens, Lib Dems and Conservatives but nothing from Labour. Thinking there might be some fault with Nancy's website I wrote a letter and posted it on  14 January. Here it is:-

"As I haven’t received a response to my query through your website of several days ago I am repeating it here (as best I can remember).
As a member of the local Fabians and a supporter of the National Secular Society I was disappointed to read Gordon Brown’s recent remark on the subject of religion in politics. He said:-
“I don’t subscribe to the view that religion should somehow be tolerated but not encouraged in public life, that you can somehow ask people to leave their faith at the door when they enter a town hall or a Commons chamber.”
This is exactly the view I DO subscribe to, and that people entering public life should expect to declare the extent of their religious convictions as they do their financial interests.
I am also against the recent appointment by John Denham of 13 so-called "faith advisors". What are they qualified to advise on except their religious dogmas?
I am strongly of the opinion that Government policy should be based on rationality, logic and scientific advice, that the bishops should be removed from the Lords and religion restricted to the private sphere.
I should be interested to hear your views. Please feel free to email."
  
I am still awaiting a reply . . . . . .

Liberal Democrats & Lords

Being concerned with the Prime Minister's apparent welcoming of  religious influence in public life, (see earlier post "God & the Green Party") the appointment by John Denham of 13 "faith advisors" and the continuing presence of unelected bishops in the Lords, I wrote to each of my local parliamentary candidates to get their views on the subject.

Reproduced below is the thoughtful  response from the Chairman of B & H Liberal Democrats. (At present my constituency doesn't have a parliamentary candidate).

"Thank you for your question about Governmental faith advisors. Sorry for my late reply, but your question requires more than a simple answer.

The Liberal Democrats are commited to total freedom of religion and expression. We make judgements, including about religious tolerance, based on John Stewart Mill's 'Harm Principle', that everyone is free to do as they wish, so long as it does no harm to others. We do however appreciate the fact that, as a party commited to freedom, people, including decision makers, will often use religious grounds to justify decisions of conscience. It is up to other individuals and science to challenge those views. It would be illiberal to keep someone out of  a decision making position soley because of their religious beliefs.

That said, I wish to point out that we are the only party commited to a fully secularised/democratised legislature, and we are actively pushing for the Lords Spiritual to lose their right to sit in the House of Lords and legislate without being elected (although we would welcome them running in an election to a democratic House of Lords).

Whilst we support efforts to harmonise and not demonise different communities, Liberal Democrats did question the value of faith advisors in Government roles and on the Government paycheck. Although they will have influence, they do not have power, and the government has just as many if not more scientific advisers. We would also point out that many Liberal Democrats are members of the British Humanist Society, and said John Denham recently highlighted in a speech that it was no longer fair for religions to monopolise charitable works, or the idea that you have to be a religious person to qualify as a 'good human being'. We support that sentiment, and any idea otherwise is abhorrent to Liberal Democrats.

As for the influence Lords Spiritual have, there are only 26 Bishops in the House of Lords, as opposed to 150 Crossbenchers who are appointed based on merit in service to different sections of public life such as academia, science, charity etc. 2009's 'Peer of the Year' was Professor Robert Winston, which perhaps displays that Scientists are maybe more prominent than Bishops in the House of Lords. Once again reaffirm that we support a fully elected Upper Chamber, so that no one section of society can have a stranglehold on priveleged office."

B&H City Council prayers.

As mentioned in my earlier post the City Council holds Christian prayers before every full Council Meeting. Too bad if you are of another denomination, atheist or simply don't believe in wasting time that local residents are paying for. (Residents incidentally, who, in Brighton are just as likely to be Jedi or Ninja turtles as Christian.) Non-participating councillors have to either withdraw temporarily from the chamber or twiddle their thumbs. This not to say there is a requirement to ban prayer altogether. It could be easily arranged that any Councillors who want can meet for prayers before the scheduled time in a separate room. The meeting proper can then get off to a flying start without what many will feel is an irritating distraction.

The admirable National Secular Society which has an eye for these anachronisms is running a campaign on this issue.

God & the Green Party

In a video released earlier this week, the Prime Minister declared; “I don’t subscribe to the view that religion should somehow be tolerated but not encouraged in public life, that you can somehow ask people to leave their faith at the door when they enter a town hall or a Commons chamber.” In an interview to Premier Christian Radio he made similar points.

As this is exactly the view I DO subscribe to, I wrote to each of my local Parliamentary candidates to ask what they thought of it. I also took the opportunity of expressing my concern at John Denham's appointment of 13 "faith advisors" and the continuing presence of unelected bishops in the Lords.

The Green Party candidate for my constituency replied as follows:-
"It's really refreshing to read your e-mail: I subscribe to your views exactly.
For instance, I think a lot of people would be shocked if they knew that even the local B&H Council have Christian prayers before each Full Council meeting."
Caroline Lucas, Leader, the Green Party, Parliamentary Candidate - Brighton Pavilion

Brighton & Hove Humanist Society

The B&HHS is 50 years old this year. It meets on the first Wednesday of every month at The Lord Nelson in Trafalgar St.  Tomorrow's talk is entitled the "Future of Belief".  

I've never managed to get to it before either due to forgetfulness, indolence or prior engagement but this time a friend is picking me up so I've absolutely no excuse.  I'm looking forward to it.