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Last week, during a celebration of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible in Oxford, David Cameron said "the Bible has helped to give Britain a set of values and morals which make Britain what it is today," and that a "return to Christian values" could counter the country's "moral collapse". Admitting that he's a "committed but vaguely practising Church of England Christian" might explain Cameron's ignorance of what the Bible actually says. For example:

When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;

And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

(Deuteronomy 7:1-4)

As for Christian values:

But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

(Matthew 10:33-37)

Interesting piece in the New York Times by Eric Weiner, on Americans and organised religion.

For a nation of talkers and self-confessors, we are terrible when it comes to talking about God. The discourse has been co-opted by the True Believers, on one hand, and Angry Atheists on the other. What about the rest of us?

The rest of us, it turns out, constitute the nation’s fastest-growing religious demographic. We are the Nones, the roughly 12 percent of people who say they have no religious affiliation at all. The percentage is even higher among young people; at least a quarter are Nones.

In my experience, even more British people are Nones too, and can you blame them? Angry atheism is as off-putting to many people as in your face religion. What's wrong with keeping your beliefs private? It would make a change.

This week's National Secular Society e-newsletter quotes Irish writer Jennifer Johnston saying, "Personally I think that religion should be abolished and I think when you look around we're doing not too bad a job of it in this country at the moment. It's all just moving and about time, too." This was in an interview with the Irish Independent. Johnston's attitude is understandable, when you read about her own and her family's experience of Catholicism, but abolishing religion isn't the answer. I remember being shocked when, some time ago, I heard one of the British Humanist Association's leading activists say more or less the same thing - and he was serious. It's an attitude that persists in online atheist forums. Calling for the abolishment or banning of religion isn't a rational response to the problems that it causes. It was tried by the Soviets and by the Chinese during the Cultural Revolution, but they only succeeded in driving it underground. There have always been extremists, religious and atheist, and they've always caused destruction.

The answer is secularism, or an end to religion in civil affairs and no religious instruction in schools. Children might learn about religion but not to be religious. Teach children to think, not to believe. Most organised monotheistic religion is about power. Remove that power, and you remove most of the damage it causes.

"A good teacher makes you think, even when you don’t want to." (Tom, aged 10)

Teach people to think, and maybe they won't make foolish statements like, "Ban religion!"

We've had emails from parents whose children want to join the Guides or Scouts, but have been shocked to find that they're expected to make a promise to "love God". Letters and emails to the association have failed, so far, to achieve any sort of compromise. Now, after persistent campaigning by the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association, Girl Guides may no longer have to pledge to "love God" as part of their Guide promise. Presumably, this would apply to Scouts too. An increasing number of parents have complained that the current pledge discriminates against children who don't have a religious faith. If they make the promise, they have to lie. Some have opted for the alternative organization, the Woodcraft Folk (which ignores religion) if there's a branch in their area.

Today's Telegraph reports,

... the association is considering reviewing the wording of its affirmation for new members, to remove religious references.

The move comes after parents complained it was unfair to exclude children who had not received a Christian upbringing.

Seems you can't even get on a bus these days without risking some god-botherer trying to convert you. Mormons have been targetting passengers on Stagecoach buses in Lancashire. The Guardian reports,

Robert Preston, England Manchester Mission President for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church, said he considered the 140 young people in the north west of England actively engaged in trying to convert people as "persistent and courageous". He added: "They will sit next to someone, and they will introduce themselves and try and have a good conversation to explain a point of view that someone might never have heard before. We do encourage this, but we would not want people to feel intimidated. "If it becomes clear that someone does not want to hear that message they should move away."

Stagecoach has asked the Mormoms to stop bothering its passengers.

We've been concerned that the Conservatives' 'Big Society' idea offers a lot of encouragement for faith organisations to provide public services, yet faith-based welfare is fraught with problems. Now former MP Dr Evan Harris and grassroots Lib Dems are warning the Government that it shouldn't press ahead with this policy without ensuring that strict rules are in place to prevent proselytising, among other things. Today's Guardian quotes Harris as saying,

Any increased use of faith-based organisations delivering essential public services will need stricter safeguards to prevent discrimination against vulnerable and captive populations on the basis of religion or sexuality, as well as to prevent employees needing to pass 'faith tests'.

The Lib Dems have made clear that religious organisations have as much right as anyone else to provide services, but until legal loop-holes are closed we expect the Government to ensure that contracts contain non-discrimination clauses.

In the Independent, Adrian Hamilton writes,

... this Easter week, I can't help feeling more than ever that the Church of England will not survive my children's lifetime and quite possibly not even my own.

He opines that the C of E may do better if it severs its ties with the state. We'd like disestablishment too, wouldn't we?