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June 29
CAMPAIGNING
Affected by faith schools?
We are trying to gather evidence about the impact of faith schools on pupils, teachers and parents and we’re really keen to hear about your experiences if you, your family or friends have been affected by faith schools in the last five years. Was your child unable to attend the local school because it had religious admissions criteria, or you felt uncomfortable with its ethos? Did your child attend a faith school and feel pressured into being religious, or isolated as a result of being withdrawn from assembly? Are you a teacher who has found it difficult to get jobs or promotions because of posts reserved for religious teachers, or have you felt less valued because you don’t have religious beliefs? Or maybe you attended a faith school yourself and felt that the RE curriculum taught at your school did not adequately prepare you for the diversity of beliefs and values in modern Britain.
Equally, you might have come across interesting ways that community schools foster a positive ethos without pushing a religious doctrine, and we would like to hear examples of that as well. Faith Schools Campaigner Alex Kennedy says, “It really helps us to understand the situation and make our case well if have plenty of real world examples of the impact of faith schools.”
Email alex@humanism.org.uk with your experiences. Any information you give will be used in a way which respects your right to anonymity, unless you give us express permission to use your name.
A qualified welcome to changes to equalities legislation
We have welcomed moves towards greater equality as set out in the Government’s Equality Bill White Paper, but urged caution against the potential unintended consequence of increased discrimination against individuals. Hanne Stinson, BHA Chief Executive, said, “Humanists are committed to the full implementation of human rights and equality for all and we look forward to working with the Government in the coming months to ensure that the Bill achieves this in practice. We welcome the White Paper which aims to extend and promote equality between different people. However, we must be very careful that some proposals, such as extending positive action in employment and the proposed additional public duty in relation to religion or belief, do not inadvertently increase discrimination against individuals based on actual or perceived affiliation to a group.”
We hope that the new law will also address existing problems of discrimination by religious organisations, which are currently exempt from some aspects of equalities legislation.
'The Republic Of Plato'
Chapter X1X p,184 1941 Edition
( Philodoxical - 'Mankind' or 'Humankind' )
"But what of those who contemplate the realities themselves as they are for ever in the same unchanging state? (regarded as static in Plato's time) Shall we not say that they have, not mere belief, but knowledge"?
"That too follows".
"And, further, that their affections goes out to the objects of knowledge, whereas the others set their affections on the objects of belief; for it was they, you remember, who had a passion for the spectacle of beautiful colours and sounds, but would not hear of beauty being a real thing".
"I remember".
"So we may fairly call them lovers of belief rather than that of wisdom - not philosophical, in fact, but philodoxical. Will they be seriously annoyed by that description"?
"Not if they will listen to my advice. No one ought to take offence at the truth".
The Four Stages Of Cognition. Highest to the lowest. 'The Structuralised Levels of Consciousness' or 'The Structuralized Levels of Consciousness'. Ref, 'The Proper Structuralised View of the World' or 'The Proper Structuralized View of the World'. Fromm. And, 'The Structural World View'. Dawkins.
Objects States of Mind
The Good!
Intelligence
(noesis)
Intelligible World Forms Knowledge*
(episteme)
Mathematical objects Thinking
(dianoia)
Visible Things Belief
(pistes)
World Of Appearances Imagining
(eikasia)
*"The Being of Platonic philosophy - except that Plato seems to have made the enormous, the grotesque mistake of separating Being from becoming, and identifying it with the mathematical abstraction of the Idea" ('poor fellow'). Huxley. (Becoming human is a process, not some event.) And, Tolstoy - "As soon as man reaches the highest degree of development (in Tolstoy's case it was just 32 years of age), he sees that all is bunkum and deceit; and that the truth, which he values above all, is terrible: that when you look at it well and clearly you awake with horror".
Then, when they are fifty, those who have come safely through and proved the best at all points in action and in study must be brought at last to the goal. They must lift up the eye of the soul to gaze on that which sheds light on all things; and when they have seen the Good itself, take it as a pattern for the right ordering of the state of the individual, themselves included.
Why fifty years of age?
You must have seen how youngsters, when they get their first taste of it, treat argument as a form of sport solely for the purpose of contradiction. When someone has proved them wrong, they copy his methods to confute others, delighting like puppies in tugging and tearing at anyone who comes near them. And so, after a long course of proving others wrong and being proved wrong themselves, they rush to the conclusion that all they once believed is false; and the result is that in the eyes of the world they discredit, not themselves only, but the whole business of philosophy. An older man will not share this craze for making sport of contradiction.
He will prefer to take for his model the conversation of one who is bent on seeking truth, and his own reasonableness will bring credit on the pursuit.
Something that we all learn, "In time, it is true, experience teaches him that magic formulas and ceremonial gestures do not give him what he wants. But until experience has taught him - and he takes a surprisingly long time to learn - man’s behaviour is in many respects far sillier than that of the animal". Huxley. "Eventually, my rejection of authority spilled into self self-indulgence and self-destructiveness, and by the time I enrolled in College, I'd begun to see how any challenge to convention harbored within it the possibility of its own excesses and its own orthodoxy". Barack Obama 'The Audacity of Hope'.
The Modern Matrix?
'The Making of the Human Mind' by Colin Renfrew and the 5 sequential stages of human development, "a very persuasive one". The first three stages are 'unilineal' (where the idea of memes or memetics of Dawkins is found to be a bit loose in its terminology) as in the evolution to Homo sapiens from Homo erectus. Based on 'Origins of the Modern Mind' Merlin Donald 1991 and refined by Colin Renfrew and later accepted by Donald.
1) Episodic Stage - Primate cognition 2) Mimetic Stage - 4 million to 400,000years (peaking with Homo erectus) 3) Mythic Stage - first use of complex language - 500,000 years to the present (peaking with Homo sapiens) 4) Material Symbolic Stage. Leslie White recognised this as defining the 'importance in human culture' (icons of religious faith, amongst the many other symbols) 5) Theoretic Stage. Donald calls this 'institutionalised paradigmatic thought' (writing - 'massive external memory storage'). A better and more detailed explanation can be found in Colin Renfrew's fascinating book 'Prehistory'. Writing this to try and clarify it in my own mind, as it must be (and in my great ignorance), the ground breaking formation of a basis (and) origin for all leaning! - stunning! June 25
Clash of Worlds. TV BBC 2.
Palestine:
The story of the extraordinary tensions and mutual misunderstandings, wars and reconciliations that have haunted two cultures, Christian and Muslim, during Imperial Britain's rise and fall. And how the centuries-old conflict between Islam and a Christian West can help us understand the causes of terrorist acts in the 21st century.
The final programme of the series looks at the politically-charged history of Palestine and how decisions made by the British rulers of Palestine 90 years ago, when they supported the idea of a nation state for Jews in Palestine, are held to blame for intensifying a conflict that continues to this day.
In December 1917 the British General Edmund Allenby entered Jerusalem with TE Lawrence, the guerrilla leader of an Arab army, by his side. More than 800 years after they were evicted from Palestine during the Crusades, the British again ruled over the Holy Land.
From the deserts of southern Jordan, through the West Bank and Israel, this film traces the roots of the Palestine Issue and the competing nationalist demands that the British faced. On one hand the Balfour Declaration in 1917 promised a homeland for Jews. On the other, children in schools in the West Bank and militants fighting the Israeli army today remember British rule over Palestine as a simple betrayal of the Arab cause. [AD,S]
Ref, British Religion and Power. Disasters. (Proof of cultural-religious or sectarian bias, and departmental (leader) indoctrination guiding British Foreign Policy)
Disaster of British Foreign Policy. Jewish - Zionism. The Christian Crusaders - Balfour - Sykes-Picot Agreement - Blair and Bush. Sykes at his Family Seat (an estate in Lancashire) and dressing up in ancient Crusader armour etc., and the (attempted) gag on the press, "To not combine Crusading with Arab subjugation".
The Secret Faith of Blair. Ref, Notes, "Carl Sagan and the madness of our political leaders".
"If Blair had been able to relate this vision to his policies, we would have had more constructive social policy at home and principled policies abroad."
Mr Blair's ex-spokesman Alastair Campbell famously warned reporters: "We don't do God."
He acknowledged to the programme that his former boss, "Does do God in quite a big way", but that both men feared the public would be wary.
What the Peace Makers and the New Zionists can learn from the book: 'Desert Queen' Janet Wallach (the life of 'Gertrude Bell').
"Islam is the bond that unites the western and central parts of the continent, as it is the electric current by which the transmission of sentiment is effected, and its potency is increased by the fact that there is little or no sense of territorial nationality to counterbalance it. A Turk or a Persian does not speak of , "my country" in the way that an Englishman or a Frenchman thinks and speaks; his patriotism is confined to the town of which he is a native, or at most to the district in which that town lies. If you ask him what nationality he belongs he will reply : "I am a man of Isfahan," or "I am a man of Konia," as the case maybe, just as the Syrian will reply that he is a native of Damascus or Aleppo - I have already indicated that Syria is merely a geographical term corresponding to no national sentiment in the breasts of the inhabitants".
"We feel that the Arabs and Jews are cousins in race...[and] have suffered similar oppression at the hands of powers stronger than themselves... We Arabs, especially the educated amongst us, look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement... We will wish the Jews a hearty welcome here...People less informed and less responsible than our leaders and yours, ignoring the need for co-operation of the Arabs and Zionists, have been trying to exploit the local difficulties that must necessarily arise in Palestine in the early stages of our movements". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Bell
"If we defend the title to our land or the sovereignty of our country, we do it for reasons no different, no less innate, no less ineradicable, than do lower animals. The dog barking at you from his masters fence acts for a motive indistinguishable from that of his master when the fence was built. Quoted in - Robert Ardrey, 'The Territorial Imperative'.
June 21
Hit 'em in the balls - USA's (new) 'wonder drug' - Tony Benn is right or wrong!
The paradox of religion is that although so much of it's substance is demonstrably false, yet it still exists in all societies.
How can such a force in society be extracted from a tissue of illusions?
One answer is that virtually all forms of sacred rites serve the purposes of communication. In primitive societies ceremonies can offer information on the strength and wealth of tribes and families. For example: a group gives a ritual dance and individuals indicate their willingness to give military support to a leader. In more advanced society's military parades, embellished by the paraphernalia and rituals of the state religion serve the same purpose.
To sanctify a procedure or statement is to certify it beyond question! This certification, the heart of all religions is granted to the practices and dogmas that serve the most vital interests of the group. The sacred rituals for the supreme effort and sacrifice prepare the individual. Overwhelmed by shibboleths, special costumes, and the sacred dancing and music, so accurately keyed to his emotive centres he has a religious experience. He is ready to reassert allegiance to his tribe and family, perform charities, consecrate his life, leave for the hunt, join the battle and die for God and Country. "Deus Vult" (God wills it) was the rallying cry of the First Crusade. Ref, 'An Adult's Guide To God's', Part 2.
"For nationalism has a traditional and highly elaborate ritual of its own. Revolutionary democracy can offer nothing to compare with the royal processions, the military parades, the music pregnant with associations, the flags, the innumerable emblems, by means of which patriotic sentiment can be worked up and the real presence of the motherland made manifest to every beholder". And, "In time, it is true, experience teaches him that magic formulas and ceremonial gestures do not give him what he wants. But until experience has taught him - and he takes a surprisingly long time to learn - man’s behaviour is in many respects far sillier than that of the animal". Huxley.
British Ask: `Will Obama Forgive Britain for Torture of His Grandfather?'
Bankrupt Britain - Credit Crunch
June 18
The weapon of the Taliban. 'The immediate threat to take over our land'!
A knowledge of, and the respect for 'anthropology' (Primitive Man, "How did Primitive Man think"? Nomadism vs Sedentism) and not of God - might be of some importance. It is rather a 'long word' and a quite a 'large subject' for the UK's/Bush's administration to fully understand. Also, there is not really a lot of money in it or some 'greater strategic placement in the region' (oil and gas - Iraq Oil Minister agrees that the USA came into his country purely for oil)! Does the UK support countries that have any 'gross human rights record', worth in all, or in some respects, much worse than that of the Taliban?
In Iraq under the USA and UK, now, is supposed to have; a worse human rights record than that which was and at any time, under the horrendous dictatorship of Saddam Hussein! Are the abuses in human rights of the Taliban (the ones we hear so much about - just propaganda?) much worse than in some of the countries that the USA/UK do readily support and arm. And, how bad is it all getting within our own countries' with their constant and steady march towards totalitarianism. Is there any moral high ground that is worth any sacrifice, and on our behalf, for any human rights or has this been recently lost (Bush and Blair)? Was 'it' ever their at all? And, even; in any of our world history?
A, "will-o'-the-wisp": a 'scientifically' correct definition for all our 'war like' history (except that lying in - myth, legend, and government propaganda)? Example: an Afghanistan teacher with his head cut of by the Taliban for teaching girls to read and write - the use of the weapon below and other unspeakable devises used to kill, maim, and blow the arms and legs off an 'enemy' (innocents, women, and children).
 Reaper 'unmanned plane'.
'Our' latest (unmanned) weapon to spy on and destroy theirs!
Pakistan Taleban 'execute spies'
Why we should not glorify any war or bask its presence; in any form - in the present or the 'past tense'!
Why we should not (ever) believe in our 'modern' government's (USA's, UK's, NATO's) and any other 'propaganda of warmongering'.
It is very unfortunate that young people are dragged into this 'very badly managed war' by their peers: who by knowing history and having experience, should know very much better! However, young people should be capable of making their own minds up to whether this is a 'just war' or have they all become impotent? Or, by having no experience - they think it is a 'fun war' for their own excitement and/or adventure' or have they been made impotent by the violence and threats by all our government's control and its 'steady marching' towards totalitarianism!
'Social mobility' has been 'blocked' or declining in our modern Britain, with 'Childhood Welfare', at, or next to, 'third world levels' (lowest in 27 industrialised countries). A pointless, powerless, thus: 'impotent electorate', without the access to balloting with 'positive abstention'; making any voting pointless except on local or area (single) matters - democracy having been destroyed and at its worst! "Never has so much power been in the hands of so few".
Impotency and Dangers
"There is endless talk of enterprise and creativity, but actually we are more and more impotent; we are more and more restrained by centralised standards, targets and perverse incentives, dreamt up, very often, by quangoes, both here and in Brussels. Because of this, nothing is ever anybody's fault. It is the system - the state - that is to blame, and there is no way to hold either to account. That makes people angry. Or rather, it is at long last beginning to. This mentality is extraordinarily deep-rooted; it will take an immense and radical struggle to tear it out. That will take enormous energy and courage, more than any political party appears to have today. Meanwhile, perhaps, there will indeed be more civil unrest in this country. http://www.minettemarrin.com/
" Ref, 'Quangoes of Religiosity' 'suiting the meddling aspirational middle class'!
"The mechanism of successful propaganda may be roughly summed up as follows. Men accept the propagandist’s theology or political theory, because it apparently justifies and explains the sentiments, and desires, evoked in them by the circumstances. The theory may, of course, be completely absurd from a scientific point of view, but this is of no importance so long as men believe it to be true. Having accepted the theory, men will work in obedience to its precepts even in times of emotional tranquillity. Moreover, the theory will often cause them to perform in cold blood acts, which they would hardly have performed even in a state of emotional excitement". Huxley. Ref, "Why we have this irresistible itch to meddle" after 1946.
British Ask: `Will Obama Forgive Britain for Torture of His Grandfather?'
A Way Forward?
 I am now going to try and make a personal loan. I will try to get our whole School involved! Anything is better than war!!!
Interesting - severe prolonged stress (childhood 'abuse' - UK's government policy of working (single) mother - child to nursery policy and the government's child poverty - inaction and low support level: well below the poverty line (UK). In 'primitive people': low Cortisol = Addison's Disease Osama bin-Laden may be an Addisonian. Lawrence Wright (The Looming Tower, 2006, p. 139) notes that bin-Laden manifests all the key symptoms, such as "low blood pressure, weight loss, muscle fatigue, stomach irritability, sharp back pains, dehydration, and an abnormal craving for salt". Bin-Laden is known to have been consuming large amounts of the drug Arcalion to treat his symptoms.
T. S. Eliot. Wilhelm Muller. Albert Camus.
Modern nations are driven by powerful forces along the roads of power and domination . . . They hardly need our help and, for the moment, they laugh at attempts to hinder them. They will, then, continue. But I will ask only this simple question: what if these forces wind up in a dead end, what if that logic of History on which so many now rely turns out to be a will o' the wisp?"
Into the deepest mountain chasms
A will o' wisp lured me;
How to find a way out
Doesn't worry me much.
I'm used to going astray,
And every way leads to the goal.
Our joys, our sorrows,
Are all a will o' the wisp's game !
Through the mountain stream's dry channel
I wend my way calmly downward.
Every river finds its way to the ocean,
And every sorrow to its grave.
June 16
Happy 'gay' Vicars - wonderful!
At last out of the 'closet' and 'right up under the frock'! Some bigots say that they should be defrocked - what an appalling degree of ignorance and hatred is at large in our world today. Lets back them up to the 'hilt' and fight all the smut.
If only, many of the other religions could follow this example; one could feel that our children will be safe from where most of the bigotry and hatred comes from in this world.
I doubt, that this: with all the monitoring that is available, would be the slightest bit possible to achieve within Education UK in the 'Quangoes of Religiosity' and the ghastly - branded, and dogmatic pseudo virtuousness of some people!
Ref, "In the deep, deep down" - 'Nuclear Self' or 'Citadel of Self'
June 13 "David Davis has said his surprise resignation was no "moment of madness" but a stand against the government's "assaults" on civil liberties".
Freedom and Values
Freedom is a word rather like time: everyone thinks that they know what it means, but cannot define it. The foundation of freedom is knowledge and without knowledge - "no man can be free". That is why religious and secular dictators throughout history have burned and censored books, closed universities, imprisoned professors, and do so in some parts of the world today. Freedom is the ability to choose courses of action and to make decisions that are based on an objective knowledge of the world. Without such knowledge primitive subjective feelings (The Savage Mind or, "How did primitive man think?"), values and goals: remain the primary determinants of human action. Knowing this the unscrupulous manipulate the credulous.
True freedom is frightening to many, because it necessitates the individual breaking out of the cocoon of half-truths, ignorance, and ready-made opinions; in which most of humankind is happily and comfortably imprisoned. No man can be free until he seeks objective answers to three questions, namely: "Where am I"? "What am I"? "Why am I"?
For it is the ability to frame these questions that separates us from the rest of the animal world and little else. And, it is the approach to finding the answers that distinguishes the educated from the ignorant and the cultured from the philistine. Any attempt to answer these questions must be made with ruthless determination to avoid conclusions that are based on poor evidence or a desire to see the world as so many wish it to be: magical and made for us.
I say any attempt to answer these questions, because few people ever try to do so. Most prefer what Huxley called, "The sleep of every day living". Even the brilliant Voltaire wrote, "Through a quarter of my lifetime I was absolutely ignorant of the reasons for everything I saw, and heard, and felt, and I was merely a parrot: prompted by other parrots".
Knowledge and freedom are nowadays regarded as values, but the role of values in human behaviour has always been a difficult problem. As values may be expressed in poetry or in prose. I have selected examples of each in order to make a particular point.
Roaring Boys an Whores
While food has flavour and limbs are shapely
And hearts beat bravely to fiddle or drum
Our proper employment is reckless enjoyment
For soon the noiseless night will come.
"Our species has been favoured on this planet, although we have not always been good caretakers of our globes resources. Our stay here in the spaces of geological time has been brief. No one can tell us our business. But, I think it is something more than to consume as much as we can and then blow the place up"!
Undoubtedly, Auden's poem represents the viewpoint of many; right across the age and social spectrum. Whilst Thompson's prose suggests a different attitude to life is desirable. Both viewpoints are tenable, but whilst the poem contains only one fact - the fact of death, the prose incorporates a number of scientific statements.
What I wish to suggest is that values may be obtained from knowledge and the more comprehensive our knowledge the more worthwhile are our values likely to be. The great Dr Bronowski (The Ascent of Man - TV series and book) wrote, "I believe that science can create values and will create them, precisely as literature does by looking into the human personality, by discovering what divides it and what cements it".
Science is not technology!
Science is a Latin word meaning knowledge and one of Bronowski's great achievements was to show the unity of art, and science. Can a few lines of poetry contain as much knowledge as a prose passage, and thus: suggest worthwhile values? You may consider that Wordsworth accomplished this difficult feat when he wrote.
The world is too much with us, late and soon.
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers,
Little we see in nature that is ours,
We have given our hearts away…..
Look around you. I think Wordsworth's poem contains a number of facts - yes facts - about human behaviour and he uses his knowledge to create values. The essential message of Thompson's prose and Wordsworth's poem is that we are of the evolving animal world and that this is a fact, which individually and collectively, we prefer to ignore. We pretend we are god like creatures playing with nature, not subject to her inexorable law: smart organisms survive and those which fail to make sense of their environment - perish. We must understand ourselves and our place in nature or die!
There is no choice about this. The only choice is to recognise it and to do so in time.
June 12
   In the palms of their hands . . .
By Ruth Meech
Comment
JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, Sunninghill School, Dorchester
THEY promised that they would bring us adventure and that is just what they did - in spadeloads and with so much more besides.
For almost an hour the young cast had their audience in the palms of their hands as songs, drama and a healthy dollop of slapstick blended together to tell the tale of hapless Jack. And, most impressively of all, no one forgot their lines - a huge undertaking for seven, eight and nine-year-olds who had to fit rehearsals in with a packed academic timetable.
The lynchpins of the show were Christopher Williams, whose Jack blossomed from brow-beaten wimp to save-the-day hero as the play progressed, and Alice Palm, a cantankerous old bat of a mother who had the audience either in fits of laughter or quaking in its boots.
Fran Hayes played the magical bean seller as an Arfur Daley character - shiftily opening her big red coat to show beans, instead of cheap watches, pinned to the lining - while Natasha Walker was a smashing front end of Daisy the cow, complete with fantastic model head.
But this tale wasn't just about the main actors, and the supporting characters were brilliant to a fault. In the straw-strewn farmyard scenes, the children adopted the characteristics of the creatures they played with gusto, topped by wonderfully creative wire and paper mache heads.
When the giant appeared, depicted by highly skilled shadow puppetry and voiced by Grace Cairnes and Alec Dodds, the whole hall seemed to shake.
At the end of the show the parents - who had been given cones of popcorn to keep them quiet during the performance - clapped and whooped and demanded an encore.
Jack may have been the hero of the hour, but on the day all of the performers were stars.
www.dorsetecho.co.uk/search/display.var.2300855.0.in_the_palms_of_their_hands.php#comments_form June 09
The very costly, current, and great mistake: could be easily be rectified! The Central Government and Local Authorities (Councils in England and Wales) considerable number (see, below the examples of just a few) of what I call: the embarrassing costly muddle of 'Quango's of Religiosity' UK - "disassembled" : saving us all fortunes. And, as is said recently by Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society, "The only equitable answer is to seek the phasing out of religious involvement in schools, not invite even more”.
"The reason for the lack of public outrage is because the (whole) system so strongly favours the aspirational and manipulative middle and professional classes who are the ones who would normally be making the most noise".
"They preferred the ancient light of divinely blessed authority to the
distant glimmer of democracy. "God saith, 'Touch not mine anointed' ",
wrote a Cavalier knight as he reluctantly girded on his sword for the
battle". 1640-1660 English Civil War. Sir Winston Churchill.
At the BHA we are lobbying the Office of National Statistics to change the 'religion' question in the 2011 Census, as we believe that the 2001 question - 'What is your religion?' - led to deeply flawed results.
Our objective is to ensure that the question or questions about religion in the 2011 Census give an accurate picture of religious affiliation in the UK.
At least 15.5% of the population is non-religious according to the 2001 Census, making this the second largest 'belief' group in the UK, being two-and-a-half times as numerous as all the non-Christian religions put together. This figure, however, is by any sensible reckoning far too low. Firstly, the Office of National Statistics itself admits that the leading nature of the 'religion' question meant that many people, especially those with a loose (for example, merely cultural) affiliation to a religion, would have identified themselves as religious when they are not [Office of National Statistics (ONS) (2004) 'Focus on Religion', 11th October 2004. http://tinyurl.com/2dpnqw ] This is particularly true of those who identified themselves as 'Christian'. Secondly, a large proportion of those people who identified themselves as affiliated in some sense to a religion in fact have no active involvement.
Apart from the inaccuracy of the data collected on religious affiliation, there are real, practical problems with the use of this data. The Census data on religion says nothing about the actual religious practice, involvement, belief or belonging of the population. However, both central and local government use this data in resource allocation and for targeting equality initiatives. And the figure stating that 72% of the population are 'Christian' has been used in a variety of ways, such as to justify the continuing presence of Bishops in the House of Lords, to justify the state-funding of faith schools (and their expansion), to justify and increase religious broadcasting and to exclude the voices of humanists in Parliament and elsewhere.
The Office of National Statistics has written to the BHA telling us that they have done some testing of the question and that their results show that the 2001 Census question on religion should be used again. In light of how the data has been misused, we believe that this is a highly irresponsible decision. In order to strengthen our case, we need evidence that demonstrates the difficulties created by the 2001 Census question.
Therefore, we would be very grateful if you could look out for information in your locality which justifies 'faith-based' practices by public bodies based on Census results. Examples of this may include making funding decisions using this data or changes in service delivery or justifying the allocation of resources on the basis of Census data on religion.
If you have any pertinent examples, please let us know so that we can build up evidence showing the misuse of the questionable 2001 data. All information should be sent to Naomi Phillips, BHA Public Affairs Officer, naomi@humanism.org.uk by email.
Thank you for your help.
All - Jedi Knight's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi The 2001 Census results should show that my local Council, combined with Central Government should be building a Star Ship of some description!
People in Northern Ireland were most likely to say that they identified with a religion (86%) compared with those in England and Wales (77%) and Scotland (67%). About sixteen per cent of the UK population stated that they had no religion. This category included agnostics, atheists, heathens and those who wrote Jedi Knight. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=293&Pos=1&ColRank=2&Rank=224
The Position In British Society of Those Who Profess No Religion
NABA (The National Association of British Arabs)
"The truths contained in religious doctrines are after all so distorted and systematically disguised," writes Sigmund Freud, "That the mass of humanity cannot recognize them as truth. The case is similar to what happens when we tell a child that new born babies are brought by the stork. Here, too, we are telling truth in symbolic clothing, for we know what a large bird signifies. But the child does not know it. He hears only the distorted part of what we say, and feels that he has been deceived; and we know how often his distrust of the grown-ups and his refractoriness actually take their start from this impression. We have become convinced that it is better to avoid such symbolic disguisings of the truth in what we tell children and not to withhold from them a knowledge of the true state of affairs commensurate with their intellectual level".
The Guilty: Education UK - Ruination of Britain
'Quango's of Religiosity' UK. Faith Schools and Church Schools. Private Schools and Public Schools. Central Government and Local Authorities. Local Councils. SACRE and NASACRE. Religious Education Council of England and Wales - policy decided in the 'secret sessions of the medieval courts'. 'The Power of the Guardians': 'Never has so much power been in the hands of so few' Nobel Prize winner (economics) Amartya Sen. Costing the UK taxpayer - fortunes, in the 'denial of medieval-ism' and its appalling inherent 'traditional' past. Security Risk. Divisiveness. Self-harming in children and the vulnerable. Sectarianism and so on... Power of Royalty, Church, and State. UK. Unicef, UK bottom of 21 wealthy nations for happiness relationships and health and safety for older children. Why? See, above. UNCRC - UK punitive imprisonment of children and deaths in custody and parents penalised 'more than ever' for children's behaviour - not supported. Esp: Refugee children lack care!
Shocking: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/children-at-breaking-point-knives-guns-bulliesa-shocking-look-at-growing-up-in-todays-uk-842505.html?r=RSS Independent on Sunday!
Albert Camus.
" It is true that we cannot 'escape History', since we are in it up to our necks. But one may propose to fight within History to preserve from History that part of man which is not its proper province . . . Modern nations are driven by powerful forces along the roads of power and domination . . . They hardly need our help and, for the moment, they laugh at attempts to hinder them. They will, then, continue. But I will ask only this simple question: what if these forces wind up in a dead end, what if that logic of History on which so many now rely turns out to be a will o' the wisp?"
Afghanistan: British Forces war dead today at 100. Total war dead (women and children + injuries on all sides?) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7443331.stm Promise to the British people (taxpayers) by the Westminster Parliament (2 years ago) "Not a shot will ever be fired in anger" Dr John Reid. "A will o' the wisp"!
World War Three - The War On Terror
T. S. Eliot. 1946.
"Justice itself tends to be corrupted by political passion; and that meddling in other people's affairs which formerly conducted by the most discreet intrigue is now openly advocated under the name of intervention. Nations which once shrank from condemning the most flagitious violations of human rights in Germany, are now exhorted to interfere in other 'countries' government - and always in the name of peace and concord. Respect for the culture, the pattern of life, of other people . . . is respect for History; and by History we set no great store." Westminster Parliament UK Defence Secretary Des Browne added no loss could be compensated for, but he remained convinced the campaign was "the noble cause of the 21st century". "A will o' the wisp"?
Dream on... http://www.britishcouncil.org/home-diversity-areas-of-activity-religion.htm British Council
Professor Amartya Sen - Nobel Prize Winner
The Power of The Guardians
Remove the 'Guardians' in the UK (Human Rights Law). The saving from the (medieval - secret) 'Quango's of Religiosity' or the 'Quango-es of Ideology' could result in £millions being saved and an awful lot of time; if not - all the wars of hatred and divisiveness!
Never have so few had so much power (buildings - schools, etc., and money) for a medieval pastime!
A friend thought you'd like this streaming media. Play it now with your RealPlayer:
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£10 million for a Hindu School. UK. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/dec/24/politics.religion
Only Five Men! (In Britain we should be proud of them - instead our 'disconnected' government denies them: their pattern of thinking is pre-enlightenment and backwardness)
"Charles Darwin, Sir Charles Lyell, Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley, and Alfred Wallace, had evolved into the most creative and productive group in the wide area of Natural History in Great Britain. Without the others Charles Darwin knew his life would have been narrow and restrictive. Minus: the life giving fluids of friendship, constructive criticism, encouragement and acceptance. Everything they thought and projected came partly from each other's brain. Their hailstorm of letters, articles, monographs, and books; travelling all over the world, affording insights, and knowledge: educated an entire generation.
Together they had, "Turned The World Around".
Had changed the patterns of man's thoughts about himself and the world he lived in, wiped out prejudice against those who were unorthodox in their religious beliefs: provided release from the rigid dogma of the Church, as well as escape from the power of the Clergy, Rabbi, or Imam. And not only the hierarchy's interlocking control of the schools, press, government, but the mass of the of the people who did not have the right to determine their daily lives.
Now there was hope for intellectual independence; the individuals freedom from the shackles of dictatorial restraint. With man's brain no longer encased in the iron chains of mythical belief, what wonders would he not accomplish!
Becoming his own master, men would have freedom, which causes greatness"! Irving Stone 'The Origin' - compressed.
Instead, our children are all 'stuck in the gutter'. The 'quagmire of superstition', belonging to 'primitive man' living in a state - of not much more than - prehistoric history: living with an appalling (the) 'savage mind' (anthropological) set and with a totally 'un-structuralised' worldview.
 The 'opening ceremony'! It looks like serious fun - let's have many more (forget all the boring lessons and the rotten (secular - hum and haw, compulsory worship and the lessons in how to pray - 'failed schools UK') and we can all go down the plughole together! About a third of schools in England are faith schools - including Jewish, Sikh, Muslim and Christian denominations. But so far there has not been a Hindu school!
A parliamentary Committee is looking at the proposal to remove the restrictions in the 2005 Serious Organised Crime and Police Act relating to demonstrations within Parliament Square and the vicinity of Parliament.
Lady Mallalieu made a powerful case for the right to demonstrate in the area around Parliament, saying: ".... this House is the people's House, this square is Parliament Square, and it may be very convenient for the authorities to say the demonstration should take place down on the South Bank or elsewhere, but noise and things that are unsightly or things that are inconvenient or irritating to MPs are things which have to be tolerated in a parliamentary democracy. People are entitled to come to their House and express their views to their MPs and that will on occasions lead to difficulties and to people getting fed up and to inconvenience, but it is a small price to pay in my view for parliamentary democracy and freedom of speech."
Time and the (male) menopause, "As you get older time speeds up - don't do 'routine' - time (then) slows down".
English - getting one's knickers in a twist or 'knot'.
June 04 The National Secular Society has said that it will try to find a Case with which to challenge the policy that forces children to worship in schools, even if it is against their conscience.
A Case (for the Court of Human Rights or Other Court of Law) every day, if not - several times a day: most of our UK School children!!!
Another: 'damaged' (home-grown/State sponsored/self-harming) generation - on the route to adulthood in 2008!
Dear .............. (Head of 'School Pastoral Department')
Our fight ('freedom against indoctrination' and 'authorised bullying' - the 'young person' and 'vulnerable') continues!
What "right" has any one person: school or government (the 'Cant of Choice', only belonging - in the Government 'realm' or 'circle' i.e., the serving of 'itself' and not of the people it represents - 67% don't want Church or Faith Schools and 87% think that 'religion' does more harm than good) have:- to forcibly teach my children to (learn to) pray and say a 'Grace' (in any one particular format or any format - which, most unfortunately, they are habitually constantly doing, probably against government guidelines - the last thing on their minds would be any of the professed humility of morality) causing the above and below - the recently 'modern global/localised', very costly, and very obvious: 'divisiveness of medieval-ism' within globalised multicultural/multiracial tolerant society we are all (most of us) trying to create.
The Law must be changed. If not from above, but from a strong persuasion below: with Parent and Teacher power. NUT and PTA groups. The very costly current and great mistake, could easily be rectified and the Central Government and Local Authorities considerable number (see, below the examples of just a few) of what I call the embarrassing costly muddle of 'Quango's of Religiosity' UK' - disassembled: saving us all fortunes. And, as is said, by Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society, "The only equitable answer is to seek the phasing out of religious involvement in schools, not invite even more”.
Many Regards
Name...
Religious Education contravenes children’s human rightsby David Masters May 16, 2008
A committee of MPs has released a report contending that forcing school children to engage in religious acts of worship and religious education classes could constitute a breach of their human rights.
The report from the cross-party joint committee on human rights states that any child of ’sufficient maturity, intelligence and understanding’ should have the right to opt out of religious activity whilst at school.
This includes religious acts of worship in assemblies, and religious education classes.
If measures to allow opt-outs aren’t put into place, the committee warns that this could constitute a breach of children’s human rights under Article 9 of the European convention of human rights.
Currently only 6th form students are allowed to choose whether or not to attend religious acts of worship.
The National Secular Society welcomed the report, and have said that they will take legal action against the government if the report’s findings are not acted upon.
The British Humanist Association also support the report’s findings, and have written to the government endorsing the report.
However, the Church of England has defended the continuation of compulsory worship in publicly funded schools. Religious worship was made compulsory in schools in 1944.
http://www.interfaith.org/2008/05/16/religious-education-contravenes-childrens-human-rights/
Of course, in particular - Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church and all the other religions who are involved with the education of (our) children (sponsored by the UK State): portraying themselves as upholding charity, morality, and virtuousness; should, therefore, be: severely admonished by the public and all the media (especially the BBC, who is so lackadaisical towards religious abuses) for using as little 'pawns' our own - very young vulnerable children and young adults in their self-centred power struggle, which is so very obviously against any spirit of the Law that can be found in the current Human Rights Legislation (on this subject, already passed into Law). There should be no need - at all - to take them to a Court of Law over this matter. They should relinquish their hold on a barbaric and medieval position - forthwith. I am afraid that any humility on 'their behalf' is the last thing on their selfish minds. This can be seen by their appalling behaviour towards all the other Human Rights and Equality Legislation, recently that has been very bravely passed through the UK's Parliament. It shows: bigotry and hatred of 'fundamentalism in religion' that is hiding very near the surface, sometimes, darkly cloaked by many disguises and that is 'routed deeply' in the normal (secretive) everyday activities in our Schools. UK. Especially, as some of the worst extremes can be found in the Private Educational Sector that consists of Faith Schools and Church Schools. I can't say that this is on a par (using 'discernment': a favourite term of the Churches and misused) with the sexual abuses of children, but I would of thought, it does come a fairly close second; as it does effect the stability and nucleus of the multicultural and multiracial family in today's globally advanced family structure of 'interfaith' and in the unity of the relationships - particularly, when this is 'banded about' (Canon Law or Ecumenical Law) so strongly by the Roman Catholic Church!
For all their comfort and good works, they set the most extraordinarily bad example to our children who are attempting to live in a fully globalised, hopefully: 'free world' of (complete) toleration and with some sort of equanimity (happy and kindness) of natural nature! Maybe our social ills and illnesses (especially - in the young, as far as any trust is concerned and beyond) that can be 'put down' (in writing) by the many people who would agree: to the Churches appalling involvement in Education (or other 'forms of social life') UK.
'Sneaky' http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/alice_miles/article1826519.ece "If you stop to think about it even for a minute, it is extraordinary that we allow publicly funded schools to exclude children simply on the basis of an accident of birth. How many four-year-olds even know if they are Christian? The reason for the lack of public outrage is because the system so strongly favours the aspirational and manipulative middle and professional classes who are the ones who would normally be making the most noise".
Religious Education is an abuse of human rights http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article1749195.ece
The British Humanist Association, in its press release on the matter, said “The best situation would be the replacement of the law requiring religious worship with a law requiring inclusive assemblies that would be suitable for all children.” But Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “All-inclusive’ assemblies will mean even more religion in schools as each faith seeks to have its share of school time. The only equitable answer is to seek the phasing out religious involvement in schools, not invite even more.”
What A Costly Mess!
A traditionalist Anglican has said he will continue with a campaign for the Church of England to work explicitly to convert Muslims to Christianity. (You can only be redeemed or have salvation and go to Heaven, if you believe - and more - in Jesus)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7418957.stm
http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2008/5/25/nazir-ali-backs-initiative-to-convert-muslims-to-christianit.html
A new £12.5m fund is to be launched by the government in an attempt 'to tackle radicalisation in the Muslim community'. How about the Christian Community and the Church Schools, Faith Schools, and Private Schools - who are mostly all 'totally radicalised' - NOW! This is where it starts!!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7432051.stm
In much of Europe the God-fearing used to burn old women suspected of being witches, an arduous duty they felt had been clearly put upon them by the (their interpretation) of the Bible. The facts of witch burning are clear enough!
First: faith made otherwise decent people commit acts of unspeakable horror; showing how ordinary and everyday feelings of human kindness, and revulsion at cruelty, can be, and have been: 'overruled by religious belief'.
Secondly: it exposes as utterly hollow the claim that religion sets an absolute and unchanging foundation for morality.
Some maintain that their man God had something new to say. Consider therefore this extract from the writings of China-man Mo Ti who lived in the Fourth Century B.C. MO-TI
"The mutual attacks of state on state; the mutual usurpation's of family on family; the mutual robberies of man on man; the want of kindness on the part of the Sovereign and of loyalty on the part of the Minister; the want of tenderness and filial duty between father and son, these, and such as these, are the things injurious to the Empire. All has arisen from want of mutual love. If but that one virtue could be made universal: the Prince loving one another would have no battlefield, the Chiefs of families would attempt no usurpation's; men would commit no robberies; rulers and ministers would be gracious and loyal; fathers and sons would be kind and filial; brothers would be harmonious and easily reconciled. Men in general loving one another: the strong would not make pray of the weak; the many would not plunder the few; the rich would not insult the poor; the Noble would not be insolent to the mean, and the deceitful would not impose on the simple".
I find this message more inspiring than the 'unproved' promises of immortality and Hellfire.
School Ethos
June 02
THINGS IN ME THAT MAKE ME A BELIEVER
Published (for fun) by the kind permission of Father Frank O'Sullivan who is a Roman Catholic Priest and Family Friend (corrected - rightly, or wrongly - Microsoft Word and Google Spell Check)
Above these words there is a space. Take a good look at it. Can you see anything in that blank space? Look again! There is more to this piece of paper than meets the eye. You can't see them, but there are millions of atoms, each of which is made up of a nucleus and electrons. The electrons are whizzing around the nucleus billions of times a second. Yet this piece of paper shows no visible signs of moving!
Look again! This piece of paper has colour, shape, size, texture and composition. How did it get the way it is? By chance? Or because of intelligence?
Looking at this piece of paper I can deduce the fact that someone, somewhere, some time ago, must have decided to make this piece of paper the way it is. They thought it up, and with the help of chemists, some wood pulp, bleach; or dyes, and various bits of machinery, they produced this piece of paper.
I know that somewhere there is a factory where it was made. I may never see that factory. But I know it exists, or existed at some time in the past, because this piece of paper exists.
Of course, every bit of machinery in that factory was itself the product of intelligence. And all the parts that made up each machine were produced by other machines that were also the product of intelligence.
Then there was the power station that produced the electricity that produced the motive power, and the oil refinery that produced the lubricants for the machinery. The paper factory probably used computers 'to control the paper-making process. They also were the product of intelligence.
So it is evident that this paper only exists the way it is because MINDS have been at work. The knowledge gained by millions of minds all down the ages has resulted among other things in the production of this piece of paper.
Each of these minds used a brain and a nervous system made up of over 50,000,000,000 nerve cells. Each of these cells was in fact a 'computer', with hundreds of strands that were interlinked to form an incredible network of communications throughout the human body.
Incredible as it is, the brain is only a small part of the human body. Inside the fertilized ovum at the moment of my conception there were already present, inside something one hundredth the size of a pinhead, 30,000 factories. Every gene is a factory. Each has its own job to do, each has its own part to play in the formation of another human being. At the moment of my conception 'I 'began to exist. From that moment I began to develop. My heart was already formed and working three weeks later, before my mother knew she was pregnant!
Inside that fertilized ovum there was a bone factory, all set to produce 206 bones, 50 of them in my hands. I'm told my hands can perform 58 distinct operations, thanks to the many bones, tendons, joints involved. The muscle factories produced 650 muscles. With the help of bones and tendons they enable me to walk, to speak, to sing. to carry things and to throw things.
I'm sure you have seen photographs of an oil refinery. Crude oil is fed in at one end, and with the help of various processing plants around 130 chemicals are refined. As that fertilized ovum developed it brought about a food processing plant that 'refines' food and water. It extracts from this, with the help of stomach, intestines, liver, kidneys and some home-made enzymes, a great variety of chemicals, which are passed into the blood system. My body produces thousands of enzymes, protein molecules that combine with other molecules in the food we eat, and among other things, aid my digestion of food.
Compare the size! An oil refinery, that produces around 130 by-products, and our food processing and digestive system .These are able to manufacture the dozens of types of chemicals my body needs in order to breakdown the food I eat. These are then passed on to each part of my body, each part receiving the particular chemicals it needs in order to do its allotted task, and for its maintenance and good order. And it was all inside that fertilized ovum!
But the more you look into that fertilized ovum the more amazing it gets! There was another factory that eventually produced the 60,000 miles of pipelines that form the blood system. There were more factories that for twenty-four hours every day work to provide blood. My blood has a 'clotting agent' that contains twenty-eight elements. These help the healing process when my skin is punctured. If any one of these were absent I would become a haemophiliac.
Apart from the chemicals of which it is itself made, blood also acts as a transport system enabling chemicals manufactured elsewhere in the body to be shunted off where they are needed: a bit of calcium here, a bit of potassium there, etc. It also transports oxygen, which is provided by another factory, the respiratory system.
My lungs take in air from which they extract oxygen and transfer it to the blood system. If the supply of oxygen is cut off from my brain, brain cells will die, and after a while, so will I. My diaphragm is a muscle, connected to my lungs, that enables me to draw in air, especially when I sing.
At the moment of my conception there was also a factory that produced the heart, a pump that keeps the transport system going. This pump, with its own 'non-return' valves, beats over 100,000 times a day, and pumps 73,000,000 gallons of blood around the human body in an average lifetime.
Glands are some of the smallest parts of my body. Within that fertilized ovum were contained several gland factories, that produced a pituitary gland, a pineal gland, my thyroid glands, my pancreas, adrenals, prostate etc. Each of these produces hormones vital to my physical and emotional well-being.
At some stage the Eye factories came 'on stream', producing lens, corneas, retinas, optic nerves etc. They produced 120,000,000 'rods' that enable me to see black and white, and 8,000,000 'cones' that enable me to see colour. These receptors, shaped like 'rods' and 'cones', are clearly visible under an electron microscope.
My ears, with the help of my eyes and my brain can receive and interpret masses of information on a continuing basis, and even hear a pin drop! The cochlear in each ear, something the size of a pea, has within it 100,000 nerve cells.
How important are eyes and ears! Without them I would have a mind and an imagination, but they would be of no use to me. It's my eyes and ears that provide the information that enable me to form ideas, concepts and imagination pictures. My tongue and teeth enable me to communicate to others the information I have gained.
In addition to the above, there was also a skin factory, which together with hair, and sweat glands, is part of a temperature control mechanism.
The body has its own repair, restoration, and maintenance plants. These manufacture on a continuing basis replacement cells to keep my body 'toned up'.
To help fight off disease, from out of this fertilized ovum came the body's 'defence department', the Lymphatic system. There are three wires in a three core electric flex, each of which is 'sheathed' to separate them from each other. My spinal cord incorporates three 'sheathed' systems containing arterial blood, venal blood and lymph.
There was yet another factory that produced a waste disposal system that enables my body to dispose of things for which it no longer has any use.
It is an astounding fact that the fertilized ovum already contains within itself factories that will ensure the continuance of the human race. If I had been born a girl, ova would have already been present at the time of my birth, waiting to mature and be fertilized. As a boy, in the course of time the complex system that enables 1,000,000 sperm to be manufactured each day would develop. The various elements that together make up the reproductive system make it possible for human beings to experience the most intense pleasure, while at the same time playing their part in the process that brings into existence another human being. What an incredible power we possess?
To cap it all there were a series of factories that produced 50,000,000,000 computers. Every one of the nerve cells that make up my brain and nervous system is in fact a computer. Computers are man-made machines that are able to receive, process, store and retrieve millions of pieces of information, and activate other systems. My brain is able to function in similar ways, only more so!
All the above, and lots more, were packed into something a hundredth the size of a pinhead, and nobody told it what to do. It was 'programmed'. At a predetermined time within the nine months from conception to birth each of these factories came into operation. Some factories only came 'on stream' some time after my birth. For over eighty years I have just taken in food, air and water, and done a little exercise, and my body has done the rest. Even when I have been asleep there have been 50,000,000 operations going on within me.
So much was packed within that fertilized ovum. How did it get there? And how did all the different elements of the genetic material come to acquire the abilities they undoubtedly possess, and to develop in the ways they have done?
Were all these things the result of chance? Or do they all point to the existence of some intelligence?
If it requires millions of minds to explain how this piece of paper came into existence, how much more intelligence would seem to be required to explain the coming to existence of all the processes that result in the formation of a human being?
Chance? or intelligence? Which is the more reasonable conclusion in the light of all the evidence?
DO CHAMPS COME FROM CHIMPS - OR IS THERE A GENIUS BEHIND THE GENES?
Another important question comes to mind. Every one of those 30,000 genes present at the moment of my conception had a purpose. It had a job to do. Do 'I' have a purpose? 'I'- the one who is at the centre of all these bits and pieces that make up my body - Do 'l' have a purpose? Is there a purpose to my existence? Have I a job to do? If so, what is it? And, “how am I to know what it is”?
'I' am not the same thing as my body. Every cell in my body is continually being replaced. But 'I', the Person, remain. There is so much more to me than meets the eye. The various 'systems' that make up my body enable me to continue living. I depend on them.
But I am aware that there is so much more to me than the physical. I use my mind and my imagination, but it is not my mind that thinks or my imagination that imagines. It's ME. Its 'I' who reason out things, who can 'see' the truth, or spot the lie. It's 'I' who can use my mind and imagination to design a skyscraper and work out the details. They may work out the detail, but the building will only start when 'I' use my will to start the building, and it’s only by continuing to use my will that the skyscraper will be finished.
So there is much more to me than my body. Much that is mystery. Much that you will never find if you cut my body into millions of pieces. There is so much more to 'me' than any evolutionary process can begin to explain.
There is a body of evidence that an evolutionary process may have enabled inanimate life to evolve into primitive forms of life and eventually to evolve into human beings. The evidence is persuasive. But it leaves too many unanswered questions.
Proponents of Darwinian evolution and its 'derivatives' offer various theories, and present evidence to support them. But an examination of the biochemistry involved in what Michael Bebe calls 'Darwin's Black Box' reveals how often the proponents of evolution assert that 'organisms have evolved and adapted to changing conditions on a geological time scale and continue to do so. But nothing else is said'. He goes on to say: 'Many students learn from their text books how to view the world through an evolutionary lens. However, they do not learn how Darwinian evolution might have produced any of the remarkably intricate bio-chemical systems that those texts describe.' (p.183)
'Intelligent Design' offers a more satisfactory explanation of why the process began than the arguments of the Darwinians. It isn't just a matter of complexity. It's the irreducible complexity of each of the systems, and the interdependence of each on the whole, that points to Intelligent Design. Added to this is the 'complexity of the atoms (quarks, gluon's, etc) that are present in the various chemicals that make up each part of these systems.
Just to take one example based on the number of atoms contained in the protein in an average human body. It is estimated that the average human body contains 30,000,000,000,000 cells. Each cell contains 250,000 protein molecules. Each molecule consists of 20,000 atoms. So there are no less 150,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms in the protein of the average human body.
Supposing, for the sake of argument - that we accept that things did evolve as Darwin suggested. It means that primitive single celled living things like amoebas or hydras must have possessed within themselves the capacity (potential, power, ability) to develop into all the living things we know to exist, and eventually to produce human beings. They must have had the capacity to do so because they have done it! How did they get these capacities? Did they arise by chance or intelligence? Which is the more reasonable conclusion in the light of all the evidence? If it takes intelligence to explain how this piece of paper you are now looking at came to exist, with the colour, shape, etc. it has, how much more likely it is that intelligence was at work to account for all that must have been involved in the production of human beings from amoebas? The potential to produce a human being must have been present in some way right from the start if human beings have in fact developed from primitive life. How did it get there?
Some biologists say that the study of DNA has revealed that 98% of the DNA in human beings is found in other living things. But if this is related to the fact that there are 30,000 genes in the human cell at conception, 2% means 600 genes! Quite a significant variation! If the 2% relates to the 6 billion variations in the DNA coding, then 2% means 12 million variations! No small difference!
Some scientists argue that life originally came from non-living matter, and this original 'matter' was present in an incredibly dense form at the moment of the 'Big Bang'. The same problem remains. How did the matter in the Big Bang come to exist at all, and how did it come to possess within itself the potential to form the 106 chemical substances we know to exist, to develop into some form of primitive life; to produce the process of photosynthesis that enabled plants and trees to develop, and also for creatures to emerge that swim, fly, crawl and walk, and eventually develop into human being? Since nothing else existed, the matter present in the Big Bang must have contained within itself the potential (power) to produce all these things and the processes involved. How did this potential get there to start with? Chance? Or incredible Intelligence? 'Chance', whatever meaning you attribute to the word, does not explain how things came to exist, or to be the way there are? The more complex the original 'thing' out of which everything else developed, the more intelligence would seem to be required to explain how it came to exist, together with the potential involved.
Furthermore, this takes no account of the complex make-up of the atoms involved. According to some estimates I have read, the diameter of the atom is 1/100,000,000`h of an inch. The nucleus of the atom is about 1/100,000"' of the atom in diameter: i.e. about 1I100,000,000,000,000"' of an inch. The electrons make 100,000,000,000,000 circuits a second around the nucleus. The figures stagger the imagination: it can't cope, but our mind can understand the difference between 1000, and 100,000.
One of the problems human beings have with regard to the possibility of accepting Intelligent Design, or an Intelligent Designer, arises from the failure to distinguish the different functions of the Mind and the Imagination.
A little example might help. If I told you the temperature in the middle of the sun is 10,000,000 degrees centigrade, what sort of imagination picture would you have? I suggest you would have a picture of something very hot. It I told you it was 15,000,000 degrees centigrade, what sort of imagination picture would you have? I suggest it would be almost certainly the same: something very hot. But my mind understands that 15,000,000 is half as much again as 10,000.000.
Our Mind and our Imagination have different jobs to do. Our imagination is limited to doing certain things that can be very creative. But my mind can go beyond colour, shape and size. It can form concepts, and can then think about them, and even arrive at new knowledge.
Can you imagine a Chimp saying to his or her mate: What a beautiful sunset? Can you imagine them sharing a joke?
Humour depends on the ability of the mind to understand the relationship (connection) between things.
So in the light of all the evidence that scientists have provided it is more reasonable to conclude that there must be a 'Source' of unimaginable intelligence, wisdom and power, a 'Source' that exists outside and beyond this and every other universe of galaxy that exists, and is quite different from them. Another KIND of Being, not just, a super human being. The evidence points to the existence of such a Being. I may never see this Being face to face, but I know from the evidence that He/She/It must exist, just as I know the factory that made this pieces of paper exists, even though I will never see it.
Human Beings have given different names to this Being. Some say this process is due to a 'Higher Being', or a ‘Higher Intelligence', or even 'Nature'. To say it is all due 'to 'Nature' in no way explains how things came to be the way they are, In our language and culture most people understand what is meant when people called this Being 'God'. Many people are reluctant to call this Being 'God'. This may be because once you call this Being 'God' you enter into the realm of Religion, and Religion involves you in a way of life that calls for a response to God that we call Prayer, and the following of 'rules' that demand of us that we change our behaviour and our attitudes. Some people are unwilling to take this step. Such considerations are not quantifiable, so they are not the substance of Science but matters of faith. Other considerations also enter in especially when examining how a God who is said to be perfect can create, or allow, so much evil in the world. But that opens up a topic that we haven't the space to deal with here.
THE LIMITATIONS OF SCIENCE
Some people seem to think that one day Scientists will be able to explain how things came to exist AT ALL. Strictly speaking, when they question why things exist AT ALL, they cease to be Scientists as such. They are Philosophers.
The discussion of the ultimate questions concerning how this and every other Universe of Galaxy came to exist is the realm of Philosophy and Religion, not science. Questions like: Why am I here? What is life all about? Is there life beyond the grave? Are part of Religion and Philosophy.
For centuries the teaching of the various Religions has been seen as so 'unscientific' that the findings of Science have seemed to be more intellectually acceptable.
But the finding of modern bio-chemistry, are now giving the scientific community food for thought. What is required is open honest dialogue on all sides, with a willingness to be open to wherever the dialogue leads and the conclusions it points to.
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