Tag: Britain

In Britain, children will learn about humanism, in addition to other religions, in the Religious Education component of their curriculum.

Security services knew three years ago that the Detroit bomber had “multiple communications” with Islamic extremists in Britain, it emerged this weekend. Counterterrorism officials said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was “reaching out” to extremists who MI5 had under surveillance while he was studying at University College London. None of the information was passed to American officials, which will prompt questions about intelligence failures prior to the attack.

Only half of Britons now consider themselves Christian after a sharp decline in religious belief over the past quarter of a century, according to a new academic study.  The proportion of Britons who say they have “no religion” has increased from 31 per cent to 43 per cent.

It’s a great birthday present for Darwin in his 200th anniversary year. For the first time, evolution will be on the national curriculum for primary schools when the new version is published later this year. It was initially excluded from the draft curriculum when it was published for public consultation but sometimes, if not always, it seems government will listen to scientists and experts, many of whom were signatories to an open letter (pdf) to Ed Balls organised by the British Humanist Association in July which called for evolution to be included.

A great deal of ink has been spilt over the nature of the relationship between the arts and sciences since C. P. Snow delivered his Two Cultures lecture in 1959. But that lecture has largely been taken out of context. Snow was frankly not interested in whether the plays of Shakespeare or the second law of thermodynamics was the more appropriate starting point for a full and rich understanding of contemporary Britain. Rather, the lecture was the culmination, rather than the beginning, of a postwar debate about the role of science in British society.

On September 7, three British men — Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain — were convicted of conspiring in 2006 to bomb seven transatlantic passenger flights, using liquid explosives hidden in drinks bottles. Five others were tried with them. One, Umar Islam, was convicted of conspiracy to murder, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on three others. The fifth, Donald Stewart-Whyte, was cleared altogether.Yet only a day later, attention was diverted by events closer to home. Police in Northern Ireland discovered a 600-pound bomb in County Armagh, which was thought to be the work of a dissident republican group. In January another bomb was found near an army base in County Down; in March two soldiers were killed when gunmen attacked a base; and in May bomb components were discovered in County Fermanagh. Also on September 8th Neil Lewington, a white supremacist, was jailed in England for planning a terrorism campaign against the “non-British”.

Gordon Brown has insisted that Britain remains a Christian country and defended the right of worshippers to express their faith in public.

A British police association for Pagans seeks to take its place among Muslim and Sikh counterparts.

Sharia courts should not be recognised under Britain’s 1996 Arbitration Act, according to a new report from independent think-tank Civitas.

GIVE Richard Dawkins a child for a week’s summer camp and he will try to give you an atheist for life. The author of The God Delusion is helping to launch Britain’s first summer retreat for non-believers, where children will have lessons in evolution and sing along to John Lennon’s Imagine.

Less like their non-Muslim compatriots than adherents of Islam elsewhere, but British nonetheless

Less like their non-Muslim compatriots than adherents of Islam elsewhere, but British nonetheless.

For Muslim youngsters, studying their faith is a time-consuming business

Extremist Muslim preachers who claim that Western society is incompatible with their religion are to be targeted by the Government.

Almost two thirds of the Church of England General Synod believe Christians are the victims of discrimination in the workplace.

We are not going to understand the growth of creationism in modern England so long as we think of it as a primarily Christian phenomenon, or even a religious one.