| Picking Up Momentum | | Print | |
 When the brilliant Atheist Bus campaign finally takes to the roads in January there will be standing room only, if it is in any was as popular as the Sunday meetings held this season by the Glasgow group.
Mainly self -driven by in-house contributions from branch members with the occassional guest driver, our route has covered a varied terrain. Education Convenor, Bob, showed us a route to gain parity of esteem in the current Scottish system for our viewpoint against entrenched roadblocks in the quasi religious State we operate in. The routemap on this has been well laid out. At the same meeting, Dabir, gave us a presentation on how the major world religions make rules and regulations to regulate the sexual behaviour of their adherents and control lives and society through these. Largely man made, these rules often put the female population in a subserviant role. We pulled in to examine our own development as a movement and pay tribute to pioneers of Scottish humanism. As Robin and Jim, pointed out the efforts made by Eric Stockton and Alex Scott and other stalwarts continue to inspire us. In contributions from members, Gerry told us how he had dealt with the teaching of religion to his child by approaching the school authorities and using the guidelines of the Humanist Society. A front seat for Gerry is in order! Alaister updated us regarding positive news he had got concerning a difficult funeral he had conducted in so far as the mother was now beginning to make some changes in her life which would help her situation. Claire,Glasgow Group secretary, took a detour into Kings Park Secondary school on the 13th November to take part in a Question and Answer panel for S3 pupils (13-14 year olds). This was in a Religion and Moral Education class on moral and ethical themes. Also on the panel were two Church of Scotland ministers, one Roman Catholic priest, a Buddhist and a council Baillie. When I last saw Claire she was still in good form despite the company she has been travelling with. The pupils asked a question on what stance the panel took on abortion laws and Claire backed the present legislation of abortion up to 24 weeks of gestation to put the rights and wishes of the mother as first priority during this period. Needless to say she met with strong disagreement on this from at least one member of the panel. There was also a question on how the panel viewed cannabis use. Funny how sex and drugs are on the minds of Glasgow teenagers. Claire backed her answer up by quoting recent scientific research that smoking the weed can cause psychological problems and may lead to abuse of more harmful drugs and thus its use should remain illegal. Our initiatives in training members to go into schools and present our view means that we should be able to take part in many more such events. On our most recent meeting we were guided through an initiative taken by Clackmannanshire Education Authority to introduce critical and philosophical thinking at all levels of the school system. Our guide was educational psychologist Dr.Steve Trickey. This course was monitored and results have been very positive. The teachers themselves had to be trained and brought on board for the course to progress. Such an initiative sits well with the history of excellence and pioneering in Scottish education. A Top Gear award is due to the wee county Clackmannan for this. A new bridge across the Forth opens and a new bridge into other education authorities for this might follow too!
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