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MSP to address conference on right to die Bill |
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Friday, 06 November 2009 |
Margo MacDonald MSP is to deliver a keynote speech at the Humanist Society of Scotland’s annual conference on Saturday 7th November 2009.
The MSP’s keynote speech will focus on her campaign to have an individual’s right to die with dignity enshrined in Scottish law through her proposed introduction of the End of Life Choices Bill in the Scottish Parliament over the coming months.
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House of Lords call for humanist broadcasting at the BBC |
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Friday, 06 November 2009 |
The British Humanist Association (BHA) has echoed the Government’s response to a debate on the 4th November 2009 in the House of Lords on the BBC, Humanism, and Thought for the Day, saying that it ‘hopes the BBC has been listening’. The debate, called by Lord Harrison, and in which a number of peers declared their interest as ‘Happy Humanists’, took place on the eve of the BBC Trust’s deliberations on whether to allow non-religious contributors to the Today programme’s Thought for the Day.
Andrew Copson, BHA Director of Education and Public Affairs, said, ‘In a welcome break with past policy, humanists are now represented alongside religions in the new body liaising with the BBC on matters of common concern – the Standing Conference on Religion and Belief. While this change is significant in principle, in practice the BBC continues to discriminate against humanists and Humanism in its broadcasting. In speeches in last night’s debate, the extent to which humanism is ignored by the BBC was laid out – not one programme by humanists for humanists, not a single humanist contributor to Thought for the Day. |
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Ludovic Kennedy 1919 - 2009 |
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Monday, 07 December 2009 |
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It was with great sadness that the Board of Trustees learned of the death of Sir Ludovic Kennedy, one of the Society's Distinguished Supporters. 
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Report on HSS Education Meeting |
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Friday, 14 August 2009 |
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“Since I don’t believe in any God may I be excused from Christian assemblies and use the time to study for my highers which are rapidly approaching.” This simple request, made by a sixteen year old pupil at a Scottish school in 2009, was rejected by the rector. Just one in a long catalogue of instances in which the law is being broken which were reported to the meeting held by the Glasgow Group of the HSS on Sunday 10th August. In a packed room at the Pond Hotel, members of the Glasgow Group were joined by many parents who reported instances of downright refusal and indirect coercion by members of senior management in schools in response to requests for their children to be allowed to opt out of Religious Observance and Religious and Moral Education. |
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Bride and boom in humanist weddings |
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Saturday, 08 August 2009 |
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THEY are a rejection of God and officialdom at a time when marriages are at their lowest level since Victorian times. While traditional religious and civil weddings in Scotland declined by nearly 1,000 last year, the number of couples opting for a humanist ceremony surged by 45 per cent, official figures showed yesterday, writes Alastair Dalton in The Scotsman |
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Margot Macdonald's Proposed Member's Bill on Assisted Dying |
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Sunday, 25 January 2009 |
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The consultation document for Margot Macdonald's Proposed Member's Bill called 'End of Life Choices (Scotland) can be downloaded from the Scottish Paliament web site here |
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'Atheist Buses' hit the road in Scotland |
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Tuesday, 06 January 2009 |
The UK’s first ever atheist advertising campaign launched on Tuesday January 6th 2009, with 800 buses featuring the slogan “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life” running in cities across Scotland, England and Wales, along with 1000 adverts on the London underground and two large LCD screens on Oxford Street.
The campaign, which is supported by Professor Richard Dawkins, the British Humanist Association and The Humanist Society of Scotland, is a response to a series of evangelical Christian adverts running on buses in June 2008, which featured the URL of a website saying all non-Christians were going to hell. Comedy writer Ariane Sherine suggested the rational, positive slogan to reassure people who may have been scared by the evangelical adverts.
The Atheist Bus Campaign’s donation phase launched in October, aiming to raise just £5,500. However, within four days it had raised £100,000 from individual donations from the general public. It has now raised over £135,000, smashing its original target by 2400%.
The campaign was launched in Central London at 2pm today by Professor Dawkins, Father Ted TV writer Graham Linehan, columnist, BHA President Polly Toynbee and the philosopher AC Grayling.
Ariane Sherine, creator of the Atheist Bus Campaign, says: “You wait ages for an atheist bus, then 800 come along at once. I hope they’ll brighten people’s days and make them smile on their way to work.”
Jim Petherick, Chairman of the Humanist Society of Scotland says: “I am delighted, but not surprised by the response of non-believers who are now proud to describe themselves as atheists or, in increasing numbers, Humanists. The days of inequality are fast disappearing and I imagine most people will see this not as ‘fares please’ but ‘fair pleases!’"
The buses will be running in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, York, Leeds, Newcastle, Dundee, Sheffield, Coventry, Devon, Liverpool, Wolverhampton, Swansea, Newport, Rhondda, Bristol, Southampton, Newcastle and Aberdeen.
Since its donation phase began in October, the Atheist Bus Campaign has inspired atheist organisations across the world to launch their own bus campaigns. Spain’s Union of Atheists and Freethinkers is launching buses across Barcelona today with the UK slogan translated into Spanish, Italy’s Union of Atheists, Agnostics and Rationalists is also planning a bus campaign, while the American Humanist Association has brought out atheist bus adverts in Washington DC. |
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Thought for The Day |
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Tuesday, 30 December 2008 |
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BHA Member Gavin Orland has pledged to e-mail the BBC (today[at]bbc.co.uk) during the week beginning 1st January 2009 to object to "Thought for the Day" but only if 100 other people will do the same. So far more than 1,140 people have supported the pledge. You can sign it too at http://www.pledgebank.com/thoughtfortheday before December 31st 2008. Don't forget to subscribe to the HSS Thought for the World podcasts that will roll out from Darwin Day in February 2009. |
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