When the Pope’s visit was announced some time ago, the HSS debated long and hard about how we should respond, and eventually decided that while we agree with all the arguments put forward by the Protest the Pope campaign, because of where we live and Scotland’s sectarian history, we’d have to do something different. So … Continue Reading
I’ve been a bit busy this week; not so much with ceremonies as with my volunteer job as Media Officer for the HSS. It’s taken us quite a while to get round to campaigning again, but as luck would have it we have not one but two new campaigns – Let Me Choose being the … Continue Reading
My colleague Mandy Evans Ewing and I were invited to join the Chaplains from the various universities of Scotland at their annual meeting which this year was held in St Andrews. She’s the Humanist Chaplain for the University of Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian University, while I’m the Humanist Contact at the University of Edinburgh Chaplaincy Centre. It … Continue Reading
I got a call the other day from Catherine Salmond at the Edinburgh Evening News. She was writing a story because Elizabeth Bell, the wedding co-ordinator at Houston House Hotel, had got in touch with the paper to say that 1 in 10 of their weddings this year are going to be Humanist ceremonies. So we had a chat … Continue Reading
I had a great evening yesterday at the Chaplaincy Centre of the University of Edinburgh, where the Student Humanist Association had asked me to give them a talk on Humanist Morality – a big subject, and one on which I am hardly expert – but what I said seemed to go down well enough, sparking … Continue Reading
This old chestnut comes up time and time again, but I haven’t seen a better set of answers than are given here by Stephen Law in the draft introduction to his new book. His seven key definitions are as follows: First, humanists are either atheists or at least agnostic. They are sceptical about the claim … Continue Reading
Every morning, I get an email from the American Freedom From Religion Foundation, which in its own quiet way reminds me that the history of free thought is a long one. Today, it’s thrown together two names you don’t often see in the same sentence, Bjork… And Voltaire! You can find out more about the … Continue Reading
Another great piece of work from the people who brought you the Atheist Bus Campaign. Read all about it in this article by Ariane Sherine
I’m not a statistician, but at the end of July every year, I really enjoy reading the Annual Report from the Registrar General for Scotland that (among other things) gives the number of marriages conducted during the previous year. Humanist Weddings only became legal in Scotland on the 12th of June 2005, but since then … Continue Reading
I’m not a statistician, but at the end of July every year, I really enjoy reading the Annual Report from the Registrar General for Scotland that (among other things) gives the number of marriages conducted during the previous year. Humanist Weddings only became legal in Scotland on the 12th of June 2005, but since then … Continue Reading