Our latest newsletter is here. [Click here to download it](http://www.suffolkhands.org.uk/files/1/SH&S News Dec 2009.pdf “December newsletter”). To open a pdf file, see our help page.

Due to the severe weather, our January meeting is cancelled. We’ll have ‘Recommended reading’ at our February meeting instead.

Postponed from January meeting, due to bad weather – Come prepared to tell us about one or two books that you’d recommend, whether because they’ve inspired you, amused you, informed you, or all of these things. Don’t worry about the usual Humanist stuff, like Dawkins’ ‘The God Delusion’ – what about something you just couldn’t put down, or you’ve read several times, or that makes you laugh? We’ll be in the usual place at the usual time.

Member Michael Imison first tried out his ethical jury idea at a 2007 meeting in Colchester. Now we’re going to do the same in Ipswich. Michael explains: It has long puzzled me that religions such as Christianity and Islam which were invented for the use of unsophisticated societies centuries ago have survived as strongly as they have into the post-Darwinian age. One possible explanation for their continued existence is that they are generally regarded as repositories of morality.

We’ll be in the usual place for our AGM in April, with an unusual guest. The Mayor of Ipswich, Cllr David Goldsmith, has been visiting the various faith groups in the town at their “places of worship”, and it’s our turn. No worshipping for his worship (sorry, couldn’t resist), but we will be able to give him a warm welcome, explain who we are and what we do, and talk about humanist and secularist interests.

Home of the South Place Ethical Society.

30th January – a day discussing alternative medicine. The speakers are – SIMON SINGH, author of Trick or Treatment, currently being sued by British Chiropractic Association ANDY LEWIS, runs Quackometer on the web PROFESSOR JOHN GARROW, founder member of the charity HealthWatch which promotes proper testing of the health claims of all therapies, alternative or orthodox. In conjunction with SPES. Venue: Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Holborn, London WC1R 4RL Main Hall.

As world leaders meet in Copenhagen to try to make a deal to prevent further global warming, why should East Anglians be concerned? Because what happened in 1953 could happen again. In 1953 I lived on the North West coast of England, and I didn’t hear about the floods in East Anglia. I didn’t hear of them for several years after I moved here, until I became a funeral celebrant. Then I heard stories from people who were affected by the North Sea surge.

Tim Minchin sings a rather lovely alternative song for Christmas. You can buy the song on iTunes here.

The church has been complaining again, this time about the BBC’s religious programming. There’s not enough of it, they say, or it’s not the right sort. The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, says, There is also a danger of the David Attenborough effect: religion always reported from the point of view of an observer of a fascinating and increasingly rare species, rather than explored as something of fundamental importance to the vast majority of the country.

Peter Tatchell, the human rights campaigner who came to talk to us at a Colchester meeting in March 2007, has been forced to cut down on his activities by the consequences of the beatings he’s had, the Observer reports today. He was going to stand as the Green Party’s candidate in Oxford East, but has had to quit because “horrific beatings have left him experiencing permanent symptoms of severe concussion.” Peter’s lifestyle and workload are punishing, but as he’s driven to continue campaigning, he’s unlikely to give them up.

Suffolk Coastal MP John Gummer won’t stand for re-election, he says, as he wants to concentrate on the campaign against climate change. That’s commendable. We need more people to campaign against climate change, but… Remember how he got cross about humanists at the Conservative Party conference? In a subsequent exchange of letters over his outburst, Mr Gummer was unapologetic, claiming that he didn’t hate anybody and that the story wasn’t true.

A 1959 BBC interview with Earl Russell on You Tube. Bertrand Russell (1871-1970) has been a strong influence on humanist thinking. His autobiography began, Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the sufferings of mankind. For more on Bertrand Russell, click here.