Books

While Michael Gove's Academies Bill offers more opportunties for people to set up faith schools or to make existing ones less accountable, the Labour leadership candidates all say they're pro-faith schools. Faith schools are a part, a rather large part, of the problem of "multiculturalism", about which so much nonsense has been spoken and written by ignorant politicians.

Rumy Hasan's book, Multiculturalism: Some Inconvenient Truths, ought to be on every MP's holiday reading list. Barry Thorpe's review for the NSS explains clearly why:

This book articulates very clearly the dangers and fallacies inherent in the current concept of multiculturalism, illustrated with example after example. It should be compulsory reading for every MP and every government department.

Richard Dawkins has struck a book deal with Transworld, part of the Random House group, with a title aimed at teenagers, due out in autumn 2011:

Aimed at the adult and young adult market, the book addresses big questions about the natural world, including What is a Rainbow? Why are there Seasons? and Who Was the First Man and the First Woman? Each question is answered first by myth and legend, and then by lucid scientific explanation.

An Atheist's Guide to Christmas is in the shops now (and if it isn't, it jolly well should be). Edited by the lovely Ariane Sherine, of Atheist Bus fame, a whole bunch of atheists, including some very funny ones, have contributed their thoughts about the festive season, including how to avoid it.

The royalties will go to the UK charity, the Terrence Higgins Trust, which seems particularly appropriate now that Pope Benedict, that homophobic old goat*, is about to visit the UK with his message that condoms shouldn't be used in countries where AIDS is rife.

You can buy the book now at Amazon, or take a trip down to your local bookshop and demand that they put it in a window display.

*Actually, I take the goat insult back - I like goats.

You can read Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’ online, if you can’t be bothered to buy it.

If you click on the link on this web site to shop at Amazon, we’ll get some commission to add to our funds.

You could begin with a copy of Jim Herrick’s book, ‘Humanism: an introduction”, for £14.50 (free delivery). Jim will be our guest speaker next month.

In Slate Magazine, Christopher Hitchens (author of ‘God is Not Great’) attacks the Vice-Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, for her ignorance, which she regards as a virtue, and her religious fanaticism.

Note: GOP means ‘Grand Old Party’, or the Republican Party.

If you order ‘God is Not Great’ via the Amazon link on this website, we get commission.

Reading the comments after this Telegraph blog post was heartening. I’m glad to learn that Telegraph readers don’t subscribe to such nonsense.

The turning point in Britain's relations with its Muslim population came on January 14, 1989, when Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses was burnt in public in Bradford. Now, Salman Rushdie has declared that he has nothing against true believers until their faith spills over into the public sphere and becomes "my business". That, he must know is a fallacious distinction. It is like saying that one has nothing against a novelist as long as he does not publish his novels.