Yes, I know – George who? I hadn’t heard his name either until today, but until very recently he was a spin doctor for the Archbishop of Canterbury (who says the C of E doesn’t move with the times?). The Guardian suggests his departure may have something to do with Rowan Williams’ searingly anti-government New [...]
It would be a great understatement to suggest that the Independent’s Christina Patterson is better at dishing out abuse than taking it. Recently she described student leader Clare Solomon as a “ghastly thirty-something”. She did not really explain why, but she did mention Clare’s “assymetric haircut”. Last year she told us about the “gargangtuan creature” [...]
When my time finally comes, and I find myself in hospital dying from my abject failure to observe the Jamie Oliver list of approved lifestyle choices, I will have little interest in speaking with any hospital chaplains. As an atheist, I would probably gain little from speaking with somebody who believed I was about to [...]
The BBC’s latest offering to the sitcom gods is Rev, the usual half hour, oh-they’re-in-a-pickle-now kinda thing, with the twist being that it’s not just about a vicar, but about an inner city vicar. It’s been hammered home by the BBC that this is a chance to move away from everyone’s favourite fat theological. Gone [...]
Last week the French cabinet approved plans to ban the burqa in public places. Women who wear the veil in public face a fine of $185 dollars and compulsory classes in French values, along with imprisonment if they do not comply. It goes without saying that a woman wearing a full face veil – her [...]
There has been rightful outrage at Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, after he suggested that homosexuality, and not celibacy, was linked to paedophilia in the church. Speaking to news conference in Chile he said: “Many psychologists, many psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relationship between celibacy and paedophilia but many others have demonstrated, I was told [...]
Given that it’s Easter (and also admittedly because I totally failed to write anything this week), it seemed a good time to share some choice extracts from a good old-fashioned militant atheist polemic written by a man who, for all his faults, was both far more intelligent and a far better writer than I could [...]
With all the furore about a French parliamentary committee recommending a ban on Muslim women wearing Islamic face veils in public, I thought it was a good time to bring up France’s long-standing history of banning items of clothing… Historically religion isn’t the only area to fall victim to the fashion police in France, sartorial [...]
Guest post by Carl Packman While Sarkozy in France has realised that the burqa ban will be harder to enforce than originally believed – and so, therefore, will be shelved – another group of angry right wing men (and women), this time in Britain, have decided the issue is for them, namely UKIP, and for [...]
It’s really unsurprising that the figures of Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris and Dennett should rise to such prominence now. The secular society and its values of free expression and scientific advance have for several years now been under attack from many different places and with tenacity we may have thought we’d left behind. The first thing [...]
