There is no humanist creed, no set of beliefs to which every humanist has to subscribe. Humanism is not a dogma or a sect…as human beings we can find from our own resources the shared moral values which we need in order to live together, and the means to create meaningful and fulfilling lives for ourselves.

The BHA has a new website, The Really Simple Guide to Humanism, “to inform interested newcomers to humanism”. We wonder if they got the idea from our simple guide, A Good Life Without Religion?

Our man in Ghana took this photo while his colleague Nicholas was talking about hygiene to school students. Nathan says, “I took the picture but I was giving the talk as well. We hope to develop an awesome double act.”

It’s been claimed that waiting for the outcome of a police investigation into the News of the World’s phone hacking allows those involved plenty of time to “lose” a lot of the evidence. Maybe you’d like to sign a petition calling for a full public enquiry now? Click here to sign Hacked Off’s petition.

Over 10 million people are at risk in East Africa due to conflict and some areas being affected by the worst drought in 60 years. The DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal will support the work of its members in affected areas of Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan. Your donations can help provide life saving aid such as food, water, care for malnourished children and medical treatment. Please click on the image to donate now to the East Africa Crisis Appeal.

Have you heard of Kiva? Kiva is a non-profit organisation with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Using the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world. There are currently 597,615 members of Kiva, and 16,319 of them are part of the international Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious lending team, demonstrating that we’re all part of one human family.

They’ll be discussing the upcoming season of talks, and it’ll be an opportunity to bring along a bit of science.

Have just discovered a piece that Mark Steel wrote for the Independent in January 2009, taking the mickey out of the Creationists and Intelligent Design, which he suggests is more like “Vindictive Design”, since a god who designed some of the stuff we have to put up with can’t have been very intelligent. Steel wrote: … if all species were designed, it was hardly done by someone intelligent. If it was, how do you account for the parasitic wasp that lays eggs on its prey so they hatch and eat its victim while it’s still alive?

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.

I’m an atheist. I can’t embrace a male god who has persecuted female sexuality throughout the ages.

Religion, noun: A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever would believe in him would probably believe just about anything.

Faith: a firm belief for which there is no evidence.

The world is so exquisite, with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there’s little good evidence. Far better, it seems to me, is to look Death in the eye and be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.

Christian Creationism is bogus science and deplorable. But Islamic Creationism is bogus science that it’s “culturally inappropriate” to criticise. Which is more dangerous, do you think?

Unhappy, let alone angry, religious people provide more persuasive arguments for atheism and secularism than do all the arguments of atheists.

If your religion doesn’t teach you the difference between good and evil, your religion is worse than useless.

Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair colour.

The reason why so many sects hang around airports looking for converts: they know that people there are at their most vulnerable and perplexed, and ready to accept any kind of guidance.

If there is a God, atheism must seem to Him as less of an insult than religion.

[My] purpose is is to transform theologians into anthropologists, lovers of God into lovers of man, candidates for the next world into students of this world – I negate the fantastic hypocrisy of theology and religion only in order to affirm the true nature of man.

It has never mattered to me that thirty million people might think I’m wrong. The number of people who thought Hitler was right did not make him right… Why do you necessarily have to be wrong just because a few million people think you are?

Children are naive – they trust everyone. School is bad enough, but, if you put a child anywhere in the vicinity of a church, you’re asking for trouble.

Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.

David and Victoria Beckham have been criticised for setting a bad example by having a fourth child, as the world’s population is due to reach 7 billion. It’s unlikely that the Beckhams have considered whether the size of their family is anyone’s business but their own. Affluent parents who choose to have more than one or two children are likely to take exception to any criticism, perhaps feeling that if they can afford it, why shouldn’t they have a large family?

We take our toilets for granted. Most people think that we owe our modern flushing WC to Thomas Crapper, but it seems that Sir John Harrington first had the idea in the 16th century. Now here we are, in the 21st century, where four out of ten people worldwide don’t have access to a toilet. Our webmaster, Nathan, is rather preoccupied with them as he’s currently involved with a scheme to provide latrines in Ghanaian villages.

Just off the A14/A1156 junction at Nacton, Ipswich.

Seven Hills Crematorium on Felixstowe Road, Nacton is holding a Dispelling the myths and Cream Tea Event in support of The Treehouse Appeal. The crematorium will throw open its doors with access all areas for the public. Entrance will be free but Cream and High Teas will be on sale and served in the garden. Experts will be on hand to offer free advice on such subjects as wills and what is available in the way of funeral choices.

Since our post on the proposed Fullfledge free school in Suffolk, our supporter and correspondent Esther Fidler has met some of the people who plan to set up this school, and has blogged about their lack of qualifications or credible objectives. On the influence of Steiner’s ideas and the responses she got to her questions, Esther wrote, I began to get the impression that knowledge, unless gained specifically from a (possibly unqualified) class teacher was not encouraged; the idea of a mystical, esoteric belief system based upon reincarnation and karma being the foundation of a school which does not encourage finding out information through books, TV or the internet was beginning to make me feel distinctly uncomfortable.

From George Broadhead of the Pink Triangle Trust, news of the Queen’s visit to Bletchley Park, where she praised the work of Alan Turing and those who worked with him. The IHEU reports: Humanists have warmly welcomed the Queen of Englands praise for the gay atheist Alan Turing, whose work breaking German codes played a crucial role in World War II. The creator of the modern computer, Turing received little recognition for his work during his life, which ended when he committed suicide after he was convicted of a homosexual act and forced to undergo chemical castration.

Touch the screen, touch the screen! Phil Collins & Genesis, from the album ‘We can’t dance’, 1991.