It’s struck me that, as a secularist, I should be concerned with the current crisis within the anglican church, even though it seems at first glance to be simply a tiff between members of the same club who disagree about the rules as set down by a long absent founder. Which, frankly, it is.
My [...]

Litigious christian wingnut and gobshite Stephen ‘dogshit’ Green of Christian Voice faces possible bankruptcy after failing to pay the costs of the defendants in the private blasphemy case he brought against the director general of the BBC for the screening of Jerry Springer: The Opera and the producer of that same show.
In a “press release” [...]

Want to get something off your chest? Not a catholic? In Edinburgh between the 11th and 15th August 2008? Then why not pop along to St Patrick’s Church and talk to a real live catholic priest, for free.
No tithing required. All confessions subject to the discretionary whims of the catholic church. [...]

Northern Ireland, that bastion of (arguably religiously supported) sectarian bullshit can now proudly lay claim to another religious born-again bigot, this time in the form of DUP Strangford assembly member Iris Robinson.
Robinson, a born-again christian (apparently she didn’t quite get it right the first time) is quoted as saying that homosexuality was an abomination when [...]

Since the news that a muslim that had applied to be interviewed for a job as a hair stylist cum model didn’t get the job (because she was unable to do it and lived too far away) and then took the prospective employer to a tribunal for “religious discimination” and was awarded £4,000, I’ve been [...]

The Telegraph: Jehovah’s Witness refuses to let husband have life-saving blood transfusion
I always get quite conflicted when I hear about Jehovah’s witnesses and their literalist attitudes to medical practises. On the one hand, I’m glad that they see fit to remove themselves from the gene pool and not have the world further support them [...]

Thanks to a letter sent to the National Secular Society, I’ve been made aware of BBC (i.e. taxpayer) provided webcams at the creationist Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm near Bristol.
Obviously, the BBC has moved on from the need to report on reality, and can now comfortably spend the licence fee on supporting the unverifed (and unverifiable) [...]

A guide to “alternative medicine” produced by Prince Charles’ Foundation for Integrated Health, Complementary Healthcare: A Guide, that has been produced with over £900,000 of taxpayer’s money, is being asked to be recalled as it is claimed that:
[T]hey both contain numerous misleading and inaccurate claims concerning the supposed benefits of alternative medicine… The nation cannot [...]

From The Times Online’s Nature Notes.
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Christian Voice’s civil blasphemy case appeal against the BBC over it’s screening of Jerry Springer:The Opera has, thankfully, been once again dismissed by the UK courts.
It’s not all good news though. The BBC reports:
However, the two senior judges at the High Court said the 1968 Theatres Act prevented any prosecution for blasphemy in relation [...]

The BBC has just reported that the British teacher at the centre of the Mohammed-named-teddy stupidity, Gillian Gibbons, has been pardoned by the Sudanese president al-Bashir after a meeting with two British muslim peers.
While I’m sure this will be seen in some circles (e.g. those of an islamic and/or political bent) as the Sudanese government [...]

When checking out The Times‘ coverage of Darth Benedict’s recent theonastic diatribe (:-)) I noticed a link to a debate between (humanist) philosopher David Papineau, (sikh) occasional Thought for the Day presenter Inderjit Singh and (christian) theologian and co-director of Ekklesia Simon Barrow concerning religion in public life and whether a modern plural society [...]

BBC News 24 has just reported that Gillian Gibbons, the teacher at the centre of the Sudanese Mohammed Teddy stupidity, has been found guilty of “insulting religion”, and sentenced to 15 days in prison and is then to be deported, hopefully, for her sake, to a country not run by those who cling to their [...]

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Yeah, you read that right…
I really have no comment to make on this story, apart from a great big
What The Fuck?
A British teacher has been arrested in Sudan for letting her children name a teddy bear Mohammed, the British Embassy said.
Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was detained on Sunday on suspicion of insulting Islam’s prophet.
The [...]