Author Archives: Cornwall Humanists

Report on Religion and Belief

Only By Accepting That Britain Is No Longer a Christian Country Can We Start to Look Towards Real Equality
Andrew Copson in the Huffington Post  7th December 2015

Monday’s report from the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life is a watershed moment for recognition of the non-religious and the significant role that they play in the community. While the report gives due attention to the 8% of Britons of non-Christian religions and what their increase means for our public life, it is unique in giving fair recognition to the 50% of us in Britain who say we have no religion: the fastest growing group in this country.

Read the full article

Excluding Humanism is Illegal

Government Broke the Law

In a landmark judgment handed down in the High Court today, a judge has ruled in favour of the three humanist parents and their children who challenged the Government’s relegation of non-religious worldviews in the latest subject content for GCSE Religious Studies. In his decision, Mr Justice Warby stated that the Government had made an ‘error of law’ in leaving non-religious worldviews such as humanism out of the GCSE, amounting to ‘a breach of the duty to take care that information or knowledge included in the curriculum is conveyed in a pluralistic manner.’ The British Humanist Association (BHA), which was responsible for bringing the case and has supported the three families throughout, has welcomed the landmark decision.

Read the report by the BHA

Religion and Morality

Children from religious families are less kind and more punitive than those from non-religious households, according to a new study.

Academics from seven universities across the world studied Christian, Muslim and non-religious children to test the relationship between religion and morality.

They found that religious belief is a negative influence on children’s altruism.

“Overall, our findings … contradict the commonsense and popular assumption that children from religious households are more altruistic and kind towards others,” said the authors of The Negative Association Between Religiousness and Children’s Altruism Across the World, published this week in Current Biology.

“More generally, they call into question whether religion is vital for moral development, supporting the idea that secularisation of moral discourse will not reduce human kindness – in fact, it will do just the opposite.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/06/religious-children-less-altruistic-secular-kids-study

 

 

Convention at Exeter University

University of Exeter Atheist, Humanist and Secular Society

Two day event in November

Inaugural South West Regional AHS Convention! This is an amazing two-day conference including speakers, comedians, and workshops at Exeter University. From November 14th 10am to the 15th of November, Exeter will host a series of speakers on a variety of topics to help arm the next generation of atheists, humanist, and secular students to take on the world ahead. The theme of our conference is ‘skepticism‘.

Meeting Cornwall Humanists

On 3rd September 2015 the West Briton newspaper published an article entitled,
“Meet the Cornwall Humanists”
Photography student Chris Smith interviewed and photographed members of the Cornwall Humanists for a university project.
Read the full article on the West Briton website here, or without adverts, below the photographs on this page.


Meet the Cornwall Humanists Continue reading →