Secular Portal Blogs

It’s official - there is no god

Thursday, February 26th, 2009 | Leeds Atheist Society | No Comments

First off, I want to say a huge apology to anyone who turned up for yesterday's debate with Islamic Society to find that it was cancelled.

The event was being run by the Islamic Society and we only found out the plug had been pulled at about noon yesterday, we tried to get the word out to everyone but obviously you can't reach everyone in the five hours we had.

On the plus side though, we therefore win by default so there officially is no god!

Debate with Islamic Society

Thursday, February 26th, 2009 | Chris Worfolk | No Comments

Wednesday we had a long awaited debate with the Islamic Society scheduled. It was a big step forward as traditionally they have been very hostile towards us and generally refused to engage in any kind of interfaith communcation.

It turns out though that the guy organising it had “left ISoc” which apparently (though I’m going on what I’ve been told, but this is by people directly involved) that he was kicked out of the society for trying to encourage interfaith dialog between ISoc and Atheist Society.

We had no idea of this though and ISoc didn’t seem to actually be organising the debate (which would fit with the above being true) so we volunteered to take responsibility for running the event and get it all organised.

This was a bit of a headache but needs must and all that so we took about getting it all sorted.

It turns out however that the day before the debate, ISoc had gone down and cancelled the venue booking (which was in their name because they guy originally organised) to prevent the event from actually going ahead.

We only found this out at about noon yesterday (the day of the debate) and tried out best to get the message out to everyone but unfortunately didn’t get to everyone - some people were doing three hour round trips to attend and were not amused to find out it had been cancelled.

So there you have it, I don’t know why we expected better from ISoc but at least we won the debate by default - does that count as proof there is no god? .

A bit of a catch up.

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 | Norman Ralph | No Comments

Regular readers will have noticed a common theme running through my posts recently, namely that of the AHS. Posts on the press launch and the general publicity surrounding the build up have dominated my blog. This is for the veyr good reason that it has been pretty much all I have been thinking about. Sure, I have been involved in a lot of A-Soc stuff like Galileo Day and starting up Perspective but most of my work has been focussed on the AHS.

I have no doubt that the time spent was worth it, you only have to read the coverage the launch got to see how successful everything is proving to be. Check out a few of the pieces here, here and here. The upcoming xchallenge is to ensure that my work with the AHS doesn’t detract too much from my current commitments. I mean I am currently a student, hold down a (not so) part-time job, am president of Leeds Atheist Society and president of the AHS. All of these commitments could and maybe should be full time commitments, but I am sharing my time between them. Thankfully, I have the support of friends and family (big thanks to Liz et al) and a wonderful team working with me both at A-Soc and the AHS.

In other news, it is now only 7 weeks until Rationalist Week 2009!

National launch at Conway Hall

Monday, February 23rd, 2009 | AHS | No Comments

Last Thursday saw our national launch at Conway Hall, London. The event went down a storm with speeches from AHS president Norman Ralph, BHA president Polly Toynbee, A.C. Grayling and Richard Dawkins - could we really have asked for a more star studded line up?

It would be easy to spend much time praising any of our speakers but they all did a fantastic job as did the many people working behind the scenes and a big thank you to all of those who helped out on the stalls and organising the day itself.

If this is how the AHS is to continue it is sure to have a successful future! You can see some of the pictures from the event in our photo gallery and read the official press release.

Tags: ahs, conway hall, launch, richard dawkins

Galileo Day

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 | Chris Worfolk | No Comments

In the spirit of promoting secular holidays, there is now an official website for Galileo Day. I use the term official loosely because how do you really have an official site for a holiday? Obviously the answer is you don’t but it’s as close to some kind of official website as you can really get.

There isn’t much on it at the moment other than a bit of information on the holiday and how to enjoy a traditional Galileo Day Feast but this should expand over time.

Questions and Answers

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 | Chris Worfolk | No Comments

Friday saw the launch of our new course, Answers. The idea to help people who aren’t too confident in how to talk about their beliefs or who maybe haven’t thought that deeply into it and want to understand and express their opinions better. It well very well I thought.

This was followed by Perspective which this week saw an Islamic speaker take the floor. The event was packed as usual, we had 10 of us sat around at the back or on the floor because we had so many people there. So I was quite pleased with how it all went.

AHS press launch

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 | Chris Worfolk | No Comments

Wednesday saw us head down to London for the launch of the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies, better known as the AHS. We managed to get ten of us down there from Leeds - a number unmatched by any other society with the closest competitors only achieving five (not that I’m bragging of course ).

The day itself went quite well, we eventually managed to get the technical sorted and all of the speeches were very good. We got some good pictures too which will do very nicely for publicity not to mention the endless angles we got video from.

I met Richard Dawkins, I said “what kind of microphone would you like?” and he said “a lecturn will be fine.” That is my Richard Dawkins story .

The hotel was alright, we had quite a big room for the amount we paid. I think I managed to spend as much money on taxis getting to and from the train station I did as my train tickets which I found quite amusing but the important thing is, I actually made my train (unlike certain other people who had to go via Manchester at 4am to get down there).

All in all if the AHS can continue like this, we’re going to do very well. Congratulations all on a victory well deserved.

The AHS Launches in London!

Thursday, February 19th, 2009 | Norman Ralph | No Comments

The AHS is finally going public! Today in London, me and several high profile supporters will be officially launching the AHS as a pulic, national organisation.

Watch us live here!

Below is a copy of the press release we put out, if you come across any article etc whilst roaming the web, just drop me a line or leave a comment with the URL.

The National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies (AHS) launches today in central London with addresses of support from Professor Richard Dawkins, Professor A C Grayling and Polly Toynbee.

The AHS will support established and newly-forming atheist, Humanist and secular student groups and give them a national voice. It will provide a network, resources and a joint platform for these societies and make sure that their needs and views are being considered on the national and international level. The AHS is affiliated with the British Humanist Association (BHA).

In the wake of the successful ‘atheist bus campaign’, the 2009 Darwin celebrations and an increased prominence for non-religious campaigns, the launch of the AHS marks the new mobilisation of the UK’s non-religious student majority and is the start of several nationwide events and campaigns.

Supporting the launch of the AHS, Richard Dawkins said, ‘Public statements of non-belief are treated as threatening, an affront to the religious, while the reverse is not true. More concerning is the enduring assumption that religious belief does not have to earn respect like any other view, an approach that has caused politicians and public figures across the UK to withdraw from asking the vital question: why is religion given such special status in government, culture and the media? Why is belief in a higher power an indication of greater moral fortitude, character and acumen? The AHS says publicly that it isn’t; on the contrary, beliefs that are unsupported, bigoted or demand special privileges should always be challenged. No opinion should be protected from criticism simply by virtue of being religiously held.’

A C Grayling said, ‘As well as making the case for reason and science, it is great to know that the AHS will be standing up against religious privilege and discrimination. All people are entitled to their beliefs but we secularists (whether religious or humanist) are right in arguing that the state must be entirely neutral in these matters. A situation where the religious beliefs of a few may dictate the personal choices of everyone – in abortion, for example, or assisted suicide – is quite wrong. Yet some religious groups defend and even aim to expand their considerable privileges - public money for their “faith-based” schools, seats in the House of Lords, exemption from laws inconvenient to their prejudices. The AHS shows that increasing numbers of young people are unwilling to put up with it.’

Chloë Clifford-Frith, press officer for the AHS, said, ‘We live in a world where religious governments execute adulterers and homosexuals, deny women and minority groups basic freedoms, circulate fraudulent claims about contraception and scientific research and create laws that protect them from criticism. We are privileged, in such a world, to live in a country where we can even have this debate, and as such we have a duty to bring it into our universities and beyond.’

Norman Ralph, President of the AHS, emphasised that, in addition to challenging organised religion in the UK, the AHS also presents a positive message of community and understanding. Bringing together diverse student societies from across the country, it will support students who wish to establish a safe space for discussion of atheist, Humanist and secular issues and defend their right to express themselves without censure. Further campaigns will promote the public understanding of science, and the importance of ethical values derived from a rational approach to reality. ‘We want to celebrate knowledge and human endeavour’, he added, ‘Humanity should take responsibility for its flaws, and also take credit for its successes, not abscond responsibility to an imaginary father figure. We’re about celebrating, learning and making the most of the one life we have.’

Polly Toynbee said, ‘I am honoured to be present at the birth of this new movement. We need to oppose zealotry and fanaticism of all sorts by promoting the positive and liberating case for believing that life on earth is precious because the here and now is all there is and that our destiny is in our own hands. The Humanist view of life is progressive and optimistic, in awe of human potential, living without fear of judgement and death, finding enough purpose and meaning in life, love and leaving a good legacy. It is great to see these values being taken up by today’s students. I’m sure the AHS will go from strength to strength and keep the rational and ethical humanist tradition alive both on- and off-campus’

Return to London Town

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 | Leeds Atheist Society | No Comments

I'm blogging from the train heading down to London for the national press launch of the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies, or the AHS as it is better known.

Tomorrow will be an exciting day with Polly Toynbee, A.C. Grailing and Richard Dawkins speaking alongside out very own el presidente Norman.

No doubt there will be much reporting going on from the members down here as well as planty of photos on the website after the event!

Interestingly we're taking a total of ten members down from Leeds. This is unmatched by any other society other than Royal Holloway which is a London based university so it's not really a challenge for them. As such I think we can give ourselves a good pat on the back for effort.

Keep your eyes pealed on the site for further updates.

Galileo Day Feast

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 | Chris Worfolk | No Comments

Sunday being Galileo Day we decided to celebrate in the traditional way with a Galileo Day Feast. Sunday would have provided far too much time to prepare so we held it on Monday night on which I didn’t get home until 6:30 so eating at 8pm wasn’t bad at all.