Religion

The seasons are determined by the time it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun – just over 365 days – and the way the Earth tilts on its axis. The Summer Solstice is the longest day (Midsummer Day in June), and the two equinoxes (Spring and Autumn) are when night and day are the same length. The Winter Solstice is the shortest day (tomorrow, 21^st December 2008), when the North Pole is furthest from the Sun because of the Earth’s orbit and its tilt.

The Spring Solstice has been celebrated through the ages as a festival of new life. The Church introduced a religious festival called Easter (a name derived from an Anglo-Saxon goddess’s name) at about the time of the Spring Equinox; the date isn’t fixed in the ecclesiastical calendar, as Christmas is. The date that Christmas Day falls on has changed because the calendar has been changed. The most commonly used calendar today is the Gregorian Calendar, decreed by Pope Gregory XIII in February 1582. It replaced Julius Caesar’s Julian Calendar, which was introduced in 46 BC, and that replaced a series of Roman calendars that were essentially lunar. The Greeks had other calendars.

Consequently, the year began and ended at different times in different eras, and the midwinter festival that had previously been based on the solstice was claimed as a Christian festival and fixed at 25^th December in 237 AD. That’s 25^th December in the Gregorian Calendar. In the Julian Calendar it falls on 7^th January; Christmas is still celebrated in January by some Orthodox Christians.

This is from Terry Sanderson’s editorial on the NSS’s Newsline, the weekly e-news from the National Secular Society. To read more, go to the NSS website. To get Newsline in your inbox, sign up on the NSS site.

Every person in Britain who values the secular nature of our society will be alarmed and, indeed, frightened, by a publication this week from the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR). Entitled Faith in the Nation, it is a collection of essays by “senior faith leaders” which begins with a foreword by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Mr Brown, like most of the other contributors, invokes the census figures as his starting point, which enables him to assert: “One message comes across clearly and consistently: that religious belief will continue to be an important component of our shared British identity as it evolves, and that British society can and does draw strength from its diverse faith communities.” This is the first of many lies and dissemblings in this book.

Ariane Sherine (of Atheist Bus Campaign fame) was on BBC Breakfast this morning (3^rd December). She was discussing the Church's new Christmas Ad campaign (Nativity in a bus shelter) and the Christian representative made the most glorious defence of faith in God by saying, "I don't understand how TV works, but I believe it does."

As the kids say nowadays, I "LOL'D" all around the living room

The One Law for All campaign against Sharia law in Britain is to be launched at the House of Lords on International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2008 from 4:00 to 5:00pm.

Last year, I persuaded one of my local churches to withdraw their support for Operation Christmas Child, run by the Samaritan’s Purse charity, by explaining that its agenda is destructive. We still hear of local schools and organisations that are taken in by its ostensibly charitable purpose, encouraging children to fill shoes boxes with gifts for needy children overseas, unaware that they’ll arrive with a toxic message.

From Suffolk Humansts & Secularists Chairman David Mitchell:

On this morning's Andrew Marr Show, Carol Vorderman reviewed the papers and made a comment that I for one am pretty fed up with hearing.

She described the young parents of the recently born conjoined twins, who decided to take the pregnancy to full term despite knowing the children were conjoined, as “devout Christians”.

Below is a comment I sent to the show via the BBC website. As yet it hasn't made it amongst the criticisms of Jackie Smith's dire performance and given there's far more evidence of the BBC being a Christian conspiracy than a Liberal one I doubt it'll get aired.

Carol Vorderman's description on today's show of the young parents of the newly born conjoined twins who decided to take the pregnancy to full term as 'devout Christians' cannot go unchallenged. The clear implication of her throw away comment is that atheist or Humanist parents would  have chosen to terminate the pregnancy. Moral decisions, difficult decisions, 'doing the right thing' and generally being 'good' are human characteristics and nothing to do with medieval religious superstition. Tens of millions of people know you don't need God to be Good so please stop equating good with Christianity. It's rubbish.

What’s this about, d’you think?

Critics say it is wrong for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to give taxpayers' money to a controversial organisation whose stance would be found objectionable by many members of the public. Neil Addison, a Roman Catholic barrister who specialises in religious discrimination, said: "It's a bit like paying the Taliban to lecture on women's rights.”

This is from The Telegraph. I can imagine Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells, encouraged by Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent for The Telegraph, hopping up and down, incandescent with rage, at the news that the BHA will get a grant from the Equality and Human Rights Commission for a series of four events about the place of religion in public life. Good grief! What’ll these uppity atheists want next? Complete equality? A totally secular society?