"The design of public services around the needs of the public not the needs of the state enabled by the Internet, that's the big change," he said.

"I'm not sure that the government can re-engineer itself from the inside out," he said. "It's going to take the demands of people to force it into shape."

He counselled attendees to "shout loud and force change" on local and central government.

He told conference goers: "You" are the future of public services not .gov.uk."

'Using such networks could help parents educate their children about online risks - and do something to bridge the digital generation gap, Prof Byron believes.'

"There are opportunities and benefits with the Internet and there is digital hatred. For parents who have not grown up with technology (I am 58, they should stop doing 'other things' and switch on; not very difficult, for their children's sake), it can be very difficult."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/default.stm

We have used Club Penguin for years and my children have learnt about password security, been put on an instant ban for so many hours; mostly they are very distraught about this happening, often because they have told someone else their password and that their Penguin may have been abusive for overstepping the rules - a most efficient service and a great fun learning process for younger kids. Parents - Guardians can monitor, can change passwords, and generally get into discussions about some more advanced social networking safety for a later date. To deny the 'bright new world of Internet Communication' to any child would be a drastic measure, and I would of thought socially quite irresponsible!

http://www.clubpenguin.com/

What could be the 'hang up'?

"Children, I'll argue, have a human right not to have their minds crippled by exposure to other people's bad ideas—no matter who these other people are. Parents, correspondingly, have no god-given licence to enculturate their children in whatever ways they personally choose: no right to limit the horizons of their children's knowledge, to bring them up in an atmosphere of dogma and superstition, or to insist they follow the straight and narrow paths of their own faith.

The isolated Ancient Greek city-state of Sparta was a ferocious opposite to the cosmopolitan port of Athens. Spartans were hostile to outsiders and rhetoric, to philosophy and change.

Two and a half thousand years on, Sparta remains famous for its brutally rigorous culture of military discipline, as inculcated in its young men through communal living, and terrifying, licensed violence towards the Helots, the city-state's subjugated majority. Sparta and its cruelty was used as an argument against slavery by British Abolitionists in the early 1800s, before inspiring the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s.

Yet Sparta also produced poets of great skill: Tyrteaus wrote marching songs for the young men; Alcman wrote choral lyrics for the young women. Moreover, the city-state's rulers pioneered a radically egalitarian political system, and its ideals were invoked by Plato. Its inhabitants also prided themselves on their wit: we don't only derive the word 'spartan' from their culture, but the word 'laconic'.

Paul Cartledge is AG Leventis Professor of Greek Culture and a Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge; Edith Hall is Professor of Classics and Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London; Angie Hobbs is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Senior Fellow in the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Warwick.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nvz72

• Find out how you can support and promote the “Don’t Label Me” billboard campaign.
• Join the Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=347810175444
• Follow the campaign on Twitter: http://twitter.com/PlsDontLabelMe 

“We urgently need to raise consciousnesses on this issue,” said Richard Dawkins, Vice President of the BHA, President of RDFRS, and co-sponsor of the campaign. “Nobody would seriously describe a tiny child as a ‘Marxist child’ or an ‘Anarchist child’ or a ‘Post-modernist child’. Yet children are routinely labelled with the religion of their parents. We need to encourage people to think carefully before labelling any child too young to know their own opinions and our adverts will help to do that.” http://www.dorsetforyou.com/media/pdf/f/o/Transfer_Junior_or_Middle_School_-_September_2010.pdf

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/humanist-poster-stirs-up-religious-storm-14566599.html

At last, 2011 - Growing Up 'Primary school children in England will have to learn about evolution and British history under a shake-up of the national curriculum.' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8369172.stm What shall We Tell The Children http://www.mindmeister.com/13207398 Do my children get any form of public apology (from the clever imbeciles - not an insult, because I was one of them. Ref, Koestler 'Bricks to Babel')?, for being publicly force fed and made to say out loud - Compulsory Worship UK (you can't be a member of my class -  unless you believe in - so on...) creationism, intelligent design, or some: incredibly muddled form of (PC) polytheism, which could take many hours for parents to unscramble, or make some sense of, to their children, if this is at all possible - being such an insidious and pervasive form of silliness (madness) and heavily indoctrinated to a very susceptible, naturally vulnerable, and totally captured young audience - repeatably, by movements: stand up, sit down, bow heads, say out loud / Hymns / Graces / Prayers, so on...

Independent Schools Council "hummed, hhmmm, the humbugs". Faith Schools and Church Schools. ('Young Gentlemen Forget' P.Gibbs writing 1914 - 1918) Why haven't we learnt anything? "What price Christianity?" Asked another, inevitably, "What have the Churches done to stop war or preach the Gospel of Christ? The Bishop of London, the Archbishop of Canterbury, all those conventional, patriotic, cannon-blessing, banner baptising humbugs. God! They make me tired"!

So What  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6925781.ece Reinforcing the point!

Gordon Brown has played down claims that public money was given to two schools which, the Tories say, have links to Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. Running hard for a 'cover up' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8379070.stm

From buses to billboards: the next stage of the Atheist Bus Campaign is unveiled for Universal Children’s Day 

Billboard adverts will go up today in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, as the internationally renowned poster campaign which began earlier this year on London buses launches its second phase. So much money was donated towards the campaign after the bus posters had been launched that it was announced that further money raised would be put towards new adverts later in the year. 

The billboards will remain up for two weeks and you can see them here. The BHA has launched a fundraising campaign to coincide with the unveiling of the billboards which will raise money for campaigns to phase out state funded 'faith schools’ and allow our dedicated campaigns officer to keep his job for another year. You can donate here and help to raise your voice against faith schools 

“One of the issues raised again and again by donors to the campaign was the issue of children having the freedom to grow up and decide for themselves what they believe, and that we should not label children with any ideology,” said Ariane Sherine, original creator of the Atheist Bus Campaign. “I hope this poster campaign will encourage the government, media and general public to see children as individuals, free to make their own choices, and accord them the liberty and respect they deserve.” 

The posters display some of the labels routinely applied to children that imply beliefs such as ‘Catholic’, ‘Protestant’, ‘Muslim’, ‘Hindu’ or ‘Sikh’ mixed up together with labels that people would never apply to young children such as ‘Marxist’, ‘Anarchist’, ‘Socialist’, ‘Libertarian’ or ‘Humanist’. In front of the shadowy labels are happy children, with the slogan, ‘Please don’t label me. Let me grow up and choose for myself’ in the now world-famous font of the Atheist Bus Campaign. The billboards are being unveiled to coincide with 20 November, Universal Children’s Day, which is the United Nations ‘day of worldwide fraternity and understanding between children’. 

• Find out how you can support and promote the “Don’t Label Me” billboard campaign.
• Join the Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=347810175444
• Follow the campaign on Twitter: http://twitter.com/PlsDontLabelMe 

“We urgently need to raise consciousnesses on this issue,” said Richard Dawkins, Vice President of the BHA, President of RDFRS, and co-sponsor of the campaign. “Nobody would seriously describe a tiny child as a ‘Marxist child’ or an ‘Anarchist child’ or a ‘Post-modernist child’. Yet children are routinely labelled with the religion of their parents. We need to encourage people to think carefully before labelling any child too young to know their own opinions and our adverts will help to do that.” 

Andrew Copson, BHA director of Education, said, “The labelling of children becomes even worse when it is implemented as a matter of public policy. One of the issues we hope to highlight with these adverts is the continuing and increasing segregation of children according to parental religion in state-funded “faith schools.” Social cohesion and preparation for life in a diverse society is best achieved in inclusive community schools, where children from different backgrounds learn with and from each other without being divided by labels that they are not old enough to have chosen for themselves.”

http://www.allgreatquotes.com/peace_quotes.shtml 'If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.' Mahatma Gandhi. 'We should take care, in inculcating patriotism into our boys and girls, that is a patriotism above the narrow sentiment which usually stops at one's country, and thus inspires jealousy and enmity in dealing with others... Our patriotism should be of the wider, nobler kind which recognises justice and reasonableness in the claims of others and which lead our country into comradeship with... the other nations of the world. The first step to this end is to develop peace and goodwill within our borders, by training our youth of both sexes to its practice as their habit of life, so that the jealousies of town against town, class against class and sect against sect no longer exist; and then to extend this good feeling beyond our frontiers towards our neighbours.' Robert Baden-Powell

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/humanist-poster-stirs-up-religious-storm-14566599.html

British Humanist Association e-bulletin 9^th November 2009 

TAKE ACTION!

Remembrance Sunday

The BHA notes with regret the passing of a further Remembrance Sunday that fails to accommodate individuals from a non-religious background.  As with a number of national events, the current Remembrance ceremony disregards the variety of beliefs held within the armed forces and the population as a whole. 

Despite making representations on the matter, including to the Home Office and the Royal British Legion, non-religious people continue to be excluded from the official acts of Remembrance, although many local groups and volunteers attend the ceremonies and may take part in them unofficially.  

The BHA strongly advises all supporters to contact your MP to register your dissatisfaction with the current arrangements, and urge them to campaign for a pluralist ceremony incorporating those of all religions or beliefs. 

You can find out who your MP is by going to the official House of Commons website and entering your postcode. 

You can write to your MP at his or her constituency office or other address, but the best way is to send a letter to: 

House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA 

Most MPs have e-mail addresses - you can check yours on another page of the House of Commons website but a letter is more effective than an e-mail. 

A special Humanist Remembrance Day ceremony is taking place on Wednesday 11^th at 10:45am in The Private Chapel, The Old Farm, Welbeck Road, Mansfield, Woodhouse, NG19. The third of its kind, the ceremony will be led by BHA Celebrant Don Sharpe. More details, 01623555969 

EDITORIAL 

Tuning in

Due to a debate in the Lords last week and the religious-heavy remembrance service coverage, the BBC find themselves very much in the public eye regarding religious broadcasting. When the Communications Act 2003 was passed, the BHA scored a considerable success in its long struggle to get humanist broadcasting. Since that Act, the law requires programmes on "religion and other beliefs" but we are still waiting to see programmes about Humanism.  

Despite this we are inundated with Songs of Praise, Heaven on Earth, Around the World in 80 Faiths, A history of Christianity, Alleluia, Prayer for the Day, Devotional Sounds and, of course, the infamous Thought for the Day. Hours and hours of religious programming on both TV and radio. 

With a humanist now on the BBC’s Standing Conference on Religion and Belief and the debate in the Lords highlighting the discrimination against Humanism, we are hopeful that the wait may be over and we will soon be tuning in to more inclusive and relevant programming.

NEWS

See the full stories on our website.  

BHA welcome changes to PSHE education

The BHA has responded to the announcement from Rt Hon Ed Balls MP, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, that a number of changes will be made to Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education in England following a government commissioned review and public consultation on the subject.

PSHE, which includes Sex and Relationships Education (SRE), is to be made part of the national curriculum and compulsory in both primary and secondary education. The parental right to withdraw their children from SRE until they are 19 will be reduced to 15. 

BHA welcomes inclusion of evolution in primary school science

The BHA has welcomed a statement from the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) that the theory of evolution is to now be included in primary school science lessons in England. 

In April this year the government began consultation on a new primary school curriculum, which like its predecessor, failed to make any mention of the theory of evolution or process of natural selection. 

During the summer the BHA organised a public letter from a group of distinguished scientists and science educators, calling on government to include evolution in the primary curriculum. The BHA made its own submission to the consultation and encouraged members and supporters to do the same, as well as petitioning MPs and ministers on the issue.

Read Andrew Copson’s Comment Is Free article on this issue. 

Lords call for humanist broadcasting at the BBC

The BHA has echoed the Government’s response to a debate in the House of Lords last night on the BBC, Humanism, and Thought for the Day, saying that it ‘hopes the BBC has been listening’. The debate, called by Lord Harrison, and in which a number of peers declared their interest as ‘Happy Humanists’, took place on the eve of the BBC Trust’s deliberations on whether to allow non-religious contributors to the Today programme’s Thought for the Day.

Andrew Copson, BHA Director of Education and Public Affairs, said, ‘In a welcome break with past policy, humanists are now represented alongside religions in the new body liaising with the BBC on matters of common concern – the Standing Conference on Religion and Belief. While this change is significant in principle, in practice the BBC continues to discriminate against humanists and Humanism in its broadcasting. In speeches in last night’s debate, the extent to which humanism is ignored by the BBC was laid out – not one programme by humanists for humanists, not a single humanist contributor to Thought for the Day.'  

Science and free speech go hand-in-hand

The BHA has reasserted its position that free speech principles must be core to science. The BHA has made its comments in light of Professor David Nutt, Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, being asked to resign his post following the publication of an academic paper on scientific research into the relative harms of illegal drug use and other pursuits.

Naomi Phillips, BHA Public Affairs Officer, said, ‘Science provides us with the evidence on which we all can make rational and informed decisions and it is vital that scientists are able to discuss their research and findings freely and openly.’

‘We expect government to pursue evidence-based policy making although we know that this regularly does not happen. In reality, the government can ignore independent advice and evidence if it chooses. At the very least, however, those advising the government must be able to do so free from fear of being discredited or losing their jobs.’ 

Thinking of getting Sky TV for Christmas?

When new customers subscribe to Sky+ HD via the webshop the British Humanist Association will receive £120! If you are thinking of joining Sky please do so via our webshop so we can receive this huge donation. 

Call for evidence regarding the infiltration of schools

Earlier this year, a petition appeared on the number 10 petition website saying, “We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to provide a mechanism that would prevent the infiltration of non-faith schools by religious groups who seek privileged access to pupils in RE, PSME or Citizenship classes, for example; and prevent such groups from loading the staffroom with their adherents.” 

Details of the practice were included:  “Increasingly, across the country, non-faith schools are being purposefully infiltrated by religious groups who gain privileged access to pupils and seek to convert them to their religious (usually fundamentalist) beliefs. Typically, such groups do not have precise published teachings or aims. They infiltrate schools by offering free staffing for RE, PSME or Citizenship lessons and holding Assemblies where they can encourage membership of their clubs and religious organisations, offering inducements, such a chocolate bars, for attendance. They may offer counseling services to pupils, eat in school canteens and ‘hang out’ in corridors. They engage in these activities over the heads of parents. This practice is both deceitful and unethical. Unqualified volunteer staff with a fundamentalist agenda are being given unsupervised access to our children. There is no point requiring teachers to qualify if unpaid, unqualified volunteers can take their jobs. This practice must stop.” 

The government’s response is below:

“We would of course look very closely at any specific cases where it can be demonstrated that this is occurring in non-faith schools and is causing concerns to parents.  It would therefore be helpful if you could provide substantive details of where this is occurring to the appropriate policy team within the Department for Children Schools and Families.  Please forward details to:

Terms and Conditions Division, Young People Directorate, Mowden Hall, Staindrop Road, Darlington, DL3 9BG” 

If you have any information about such practices in a school near you, please forward details to the BHA or to the address above.  

New Kiva gift certificates

You can now get gift certificates that keep on giving! Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend to unique entrepreneurs around the globe. The BHA endorses the Humanist Team on Kiva and you can now get gift certificates here.  

Take action to end child poverty

The Campaign to End Child Poverty has just released a new call to action for children living in the UK. A report, released by the campaign, has shown that as unemployment rises more families are being tipped into poverty. This isn’t just happening in deprived areas but in more affluent areas too. It’s a reminder that as the recession continues we’re all in this together. The government couldn’t let the banks fail; so they mustn’t fail our children. 

We know you feel passionate about ending child poverty in the UK. Please take this action to support children in the UK.  

BHA EVENTS 

‘Darwin and the Darwinian Controversy’ By A C Grayling

18th November 2009, Main Auditorium, St Peter's House, University of Manchester, Precinct Centre, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9GH. A lecture organized by the British Humanist Association, Chaired by Professor John Harris. Lecture commences at 18.30 and runs until 20.00 (doors open 18.00). A. C. Grayling will address the controversy surrounding Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, followed by questions. The event will be chaired by John Harris, professor of Bioethics at the University of Manchester and member of the Humanist Philosophers. Tickets are £7 (£5 for members of the British Humanist Association or Greater Manchester Humanists) and can be purchased from www.humanism.org.uk/shop/tickets or by telephoning 020 7079 3580 

The lecture will be preceded by two optional events organised by Greater Manchester Humanists. There is a guided tour of the Darwin exhibition at Manchester Museum from 3pm and an optional buffet in Cafê Muse from 5pm. There is no charge for the tour, but advance booking is required. The buffet will cost £9, and must also be pre-booked. For enquiries about the tour or the buffet or to book a place on either please email secretary@gmh.humanist.org.uk. 

What is the role of faith in community development and cohesion work? - New Event!

19th November 2009, Conway Hall, (Brockway Room), Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL, 1:45pm - 5:30pm.

A discussion seminar presented by the British Humanist Association for Interfaith Week 2009.

Current government policy appears to champion the contribution of ‘faith groups’ in community work. 'Faith' and the 'faith sector' are seen as playing a key role in defining communities, as well as fostering social capital and providing much needed services.

But the ‘faith sector’ tends to be seen as being somehow separate and distinct from the voluntary and community sector as a whole.

Featuring...

Polly Toynbee, BHA President and Guardian Journalist, Prof. A.C. Grayling, Professor of Philosophy, University of London, Dr. Henry Tam, Community Empowerment, Department for Communities and Local Government, Gabriel Chanan, Community Development Consultant and former Director of Policy and Research at CDF, Dr. Doreen Finneron, Executive Director of the Faith Based Regeneration Network, Pragna Patel, Southall Black Sisters and Women Against Fundamentalism, Prof. Marjorie Mayo, Professor in Community Development 

Who is this seminar for?

Local Authority equality officers/ regeneration officers/ community cohesion practitioners, People engaged in community development practice, management or policy development, People involved in empowerment issues in the voluntary sector, Academics, People involved in ‘interfaith’ work, Local Councillors and other politicians, Community activists

Download the full poster Purchase a ticket (£25)

Bentham lecture 2009 - The Strange Rebirth of Liberalism

20 Gordon Street (Christopher Ingold Building), Chemistry Lecture Theatre, University College London, WC1H 0AJ, 26th November 2009, 6.30pm - 8.00pm

150 years on from the publication of John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, there is a view that liberalism is in crisis. Richard Reeves, Director of the think-tank Demos, will argue that true liberalism - the liberalism of Mill - is not the problem, but the solution. His latest book is John Stuart Mill – Victorian Firebrand, an intellectual biography of the British liberal philosopher and politician, which was shortlisted for the Channel Four Political Book of the Year, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Richard is a political columnist for Prospect magazine and a regular contributor to The Guardian, Observer and New Statesman as well as a range of national radio and television programmes. In 2005, he was a presenter of the four-part BBC2 series, Making Slough Happy. 

In 2006, Richard was selected by The Guardian as a ‘Thinker to Watch’ and was featured in the paper’s regular ‘Ideas Interview’. He is also a former Columnist of the Year and Young Financial Journalist of the Year. Richard is the author of The 80 Minute MBA (2009) and Happy Mondays – putting the pleasure back into work (2001) nominated as a Sunday Times business book of the week and described by Theodore Zeldin as a 'wonderful book - optimistic, wise and thoughtful.' Other publications include CoCo Companies - Work, Happiness and Employee Ownership (2007), Papering over the Cracks, Rules, Regulation and Real Trust (2006, with Edward Smith), ‘Good work and professional work’ in Production Values (2006, with John Knell), and The Politics of Happiness (2003). 

The Chair will be Jonathan Wolff, Professor of Philosophy, UCL. Introduction by Peter Cave, Chair of Humanist Philosophers. Tickets are free but you must register here. 

AFFILIATED GROUP EVENTS 

Cotswold Humanists

Friday 27th November, Milsom Street Day Centre, Milsom Street, Cheltenham, GL50 4BA, 7.30pm. 

The Changing Face of Funerals - a Celebration of Life. A talk by a local Funeral Director.

http://www.humanism.org.uk/meet-up/groups/south-west/cotswold  

Humanist Society of West Yorkshire

Thurs 8th November,7pm, Swarthmore, 3-7 Woodhouse Sqaure, Leeds, LS3 1AD.

“Student Atheist, Humanist & Secular Societies” - Norman Ralph, former president of the The National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies.

http://www.humanism.org.uk/meet-up/groups/north-east/west-yorkshire 

OTHER EVENTS 

Gilbert is Dead

by Robin French

Hoxton Hall, London, November 4th-29th, 2009 

The play is a tragi-comedy about evolution. Set in London in the early 1860s, we follow eminent taxidermist Lucius Trickett, who finds himself on a mission from Queen Victoria to help explorer Gilbert Shirley find the mysterious ghost loris – a primate that proves Darwin’s theory wrong and thus that God exists… 

Cast: Ronan Vibert, Kate Burdette, William Chubb and Suzan Sylvester, Directed by Robert Wolstenholme

Tuesdays – Saturdays 7.30pm

Sundays 4pm

Sign Language interpreted performance Tuesday 17th November

TicketWeb Online Box Office – Click Here 

Do faith schools promote religious intolerance?

Saturday November 21st, 8 pm at Bushey & District United Synagogue, 177/8 Sparrow Herne, Bushey Heath, WD23 1AJ. 

A debate on religious schools as part of Hertsmere Interfaith Week. For more information, or to become a part of Hertsmere Interfaith Week, please contact Event Co-ordinator, Deborah Berenson interfaith.herts@googlemail.com, 07849305785 

TAKE ACTION! 

Take two minutes to petition the Prime Minister on assisted dying

Despite continued public support for a change in the law, Parliamentarians are reluctant to take a stand on assisted dying for fear of losing the support of a vocal minority of anti-choice campaigners. 

Please add your name to an online petition, calling on the Prime Minister to launch an independent commission to investigate the impact of an assisted dying for the terminally ill law and to guarantee enough parliamentary time to debate, and if necessary, act upon, the findings. 

Please add your name today: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Assisted-dying/ 

Tell the BBC what you think of their programming!

The BBC is running a consultation on BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four. This is your chance to tell them what you think about their programming. 

We want an end to the privileged status and position of religions and religious broadcasting by the BBC, and for some programmes about humanism or from a humanist perspective to be broadcast. In spite of legislation making clear that religions and beliefs, including non-religious beliefs such as Humanism, should be treated equally in terms of broadcasting, the BBC continues to resist doing so. 

We want the BBC to fulfil its obligations and include Humanist programmes in its broadcasting. Find out more about the consultation. 

Find more information about the BHA’s work on broadcasting. 

Not already a BHA member? Join now and support our vital work!

Melvyn Bragg and guests Richard Corfield, Jane Francis and Sanjeev Gupta discuss the geological formation of Britain.

Around 600 million years ago the island that we now call Britain was in two parts, far to the south of the Equator. Scotland and north-western Ireland were part of a continent (Laurentia) that also included what is now North America. To the south-east, near the Antarctic Circle, meanwhile, you would have found southern Ireland, England and Wales. They formed a mini-continent (Avalonia) with what is now Newfoundland.

Over the course of hundreds of millions of years, as they inched their way north, the two parts came together - first as part of a vast unitary continent (Pangaea) {Gondwana}, later as a promontory on the edge of Europe, and eventually, as sea levels rose, as an island.

The story of how Britain came to be where it is now, in its current shape - from the separation of North America and Europe to the carving out of the English Channel - is still being uncovered today. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n8t48 

Richard Corfield is senior lecturer in earth sciences at the Open University; Jane Francis is professor of palaeoclimatology at the University of Leeds; Sanjeev Gupta is a Royal Society-Leverhulme Trust research fellow at Imperial College London.

ScienceDaily (1999-08-10) -- Fire provided the spark for modern human evolution, but not because it allowed our ancestors to eat meat. Rather, it was the ability to cook tuberous roots akin to carrots, potatoes and beets that caused hominids to turn a major evolutionary corner about 1.9 million years ago, according to anthropologists Richard Wrangham of Harvard University, Gregory Laden of the University of Minnesota and Harvard colleagues David Pilbeam, Jamie Jones and NancyLou Conklin-Brittain.

And,  Starch 'fuel of human evolution' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6983330.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8270000/8270396.stm 'A Protection Racket'

Ref, 'Evolution. Fish to Man. Man's Debt To The Past' http://luckyme0.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A18BF3FCC5E126A2!960.entry

Ref, 'The Prehistoric Mind. How did Prehistoric Man Think? The Primitive Mind' - http://luckyme0.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A18BF3FCC5E126A2!1520.entry

Self-deception at 'Creationist Schools' - mostly today - are the 'Private Schools' or 'Independent Schools' (Private - family, homes, so on...). Nursery (some) and in the earlier learning 'Primary Schools'. By my experience: 'religious services' of schools, generally, and those that are aimed at older children UK. Reaction to my personal confrontation of the current 'authority' or 'status quo' = generally; with some amusement or more like impertinence. Ref, 'the impertinent insolence of truths or dogmas, and in those who have 'total certainty' about their faith or belief: impertinent insolence flying in the face of the Divine'.

(Some, private funded schools and some: Church Schools or Faith Schools - some, will tell you they teach quite differently they are happy to lie - 'school gates' are kept firmly shut)

Click the top line for the 'correct size article'.

Behind those school gates, the 'easier answers' and 'superstitious ones' are everywhere, and in many, repetitive constant' prayer' or praying is considered very important! They are not learning, how to: 'handle freedom and not conformity' or that, 'respect for authority is nearly always wrong and violence is sometimes right'. 'True freedom, always, and by most generations, will have to be hard fought for'. Ref, Karl Popper and Others. PC - ness of today.

I would like you to consider the meaning of freedom that much used, but misunderstood word. Freedom is a word rather like time, everyone thinks 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 today in Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Iran, and many other Nations. 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, values, and goals, remain the primary determinants of human action. Knowing this; the sophisticated and 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 mankind 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 l?" For, it is the ability to frame these questions that separates us from the rest of the animal world and nothing else. And, it is the approach to fording 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 a ruthless determination, to avoid conclusions that are based on poor evidence, or on 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 for psychological reasons that is beyond the scope of this lecture. Few people will ever try to do so! (Have given up! Ref, `The Long Childhood' tribal culture - J.Bronowski. 

Most prefer what Huxley called, "The sleep of everyday 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 was merely a parrot, prompted by other parrots". Sir Winston Churchill spent 40 years looking at the countryside, but noticed nothing before he started painting it.

We are part of the evolving animal world and that this 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 that 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 recognize it and do so in time!

If you take the trouble to study the evolution of Primates, Hominids (us) and their brains, ancient and modern group behaviour and how you have come to have certain loyalties and attitudes a structure will appear. All the meaningless little pieces of knowledge will form a coherent whole, perhaps, what you now consider sensible will seem trivial and ridiculous. Ref, 'The Fear of Freedom' Erich Fromm 'The Proper Structuralised View Of The World.

A new kind of freedom will have been achieved.

There is also however, a more personal answer. 'Science tells us what we can know, but what we can know is little, and if we forget how much we cannot know, we become insensitive to many things of very great importance. Theology, on the other hand, induces a dogmatic belief that we have knowledge, where in fact we have ignorance and by doing so generates a kind of impertinent insolence towards the Universe. Uncertainty, in the presence of vivid hopes and fears is painful but must be endured if we wish to live without the support of comforting fairy tales ('The Infantile Situation GB' -'Identity and Violence' Amartya Sen) . To teach how to live without certainty, and yet, without being paralysed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy in our age can still do for those who study it.'

The Church of England.

How aware are our children and parents of this matter. Do they know what is going on, now, in our Schools!

Are they at all aware of History, and of 'Human Group Behaviour? And, why do humans like to believe in something that is quite often preposterous. In fact, humans seek a faith or belief or an ideology - it is in their nature to do this, for better or worse.

Bewildered And Afraid:­

With regard to all basic questions, a great sector of our culture has just one function to, "Befog The Issue"! One kind of smokescreen is the assertion that the problems are too complicated for the, "Average individual to grasp"! On the contrary, it would seem that many of the basic issues are very simple, so simple in fact that, "Everyone Should Be Expected To Understand Them"!

To let them appear to be so enormously complicated that only a "Specialist" can understand them tends to discourage people from trusting their own capacity to think. The result of this is two fold.

1) A scepticism and cynicism towards everything that is said or printed.

 2) A childish belief in anything that is told with authority.

This combination of cynicism, and naivety, is typical of the modern individual.

Another way of paralysing the ability to think critically is the absence of any kind of "Structuralized Picture Of The World" or "The Proper Structuralised View Of The World". (Proper = Scientific and an outline knowledge of Cosmology, Evolution and the History of Man.

Facts lose the specific quality, which they can have only as parts of a structualised whole, and retain merely an abstract quantitative meaning, each fact, is just another fact, and all that matters, is whether we know more, or less. The Media have a devastating effect on this score. The announcement of the bombing of a city, or the deaths of hundreds of people, is shamelessly followed by an advertisement for soap or wine. Those of a fashion show, follow, pictures of war. The trite thoughts, or breakfast habits, of a fashionable nonentity, are reported with the same seriousness, as events of a scientific, or artistic importance.

Because of all this, we cease to be genuinely related to what we hear, our emotions, and our critical judgement become hampered, and eventually, our attitude to what is going on in the world assumes a quality of flatness and indifference. Life loses all structure, it is composed of many little pieces, each separate from the other, and lacking any sense as a whole.

The individual is left alone with these pieces, like a child with a puzzle. The difference, however, is that the child knows what a house is, and therefore, can recognise the parts of the house in the little pieces he is playing with. Whereas, the adult does not see the meaning of the whole, with the pieces which come into his hands, he is bewildered and afraid and just goes on gazing at his little meaningless little pieces.

Economic crises, unemployment, war, govern man's fate. (IMF http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8282074.stm) Man has built his world, he has built houses and factories, he produces cars, and clothes, and he grows grain and fruit. But, he has become estranged from the products of his own hands, he is not really the master any more of the world he has built, on the contrary: this man made world has become his master before whom he bows down, whom he tries to placate, or to manipulate, as best he can. The work of his own hands has become his God. He seems to be driven by self-interest, but in reality his total self, with all its concrete potentialities, has become an instrument for the purposes of the very machine his hands have built.

He keeps up the illusion of being the, "Centre of the World", and yet, he is pervaded by an intense sense of insignificance, and powerlessness, which his ancestors once consciously felt toward God.

Barmy Britain through the Looking Glass

'how an obsessive adherence to certain laws 'flies in the face of common sense''. Ref, Creationism, or 'fundamental religiosity' in our Schools - "An impertinent insolence that flies in the face of the Divine".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/philipjohnston/6238090/Barmy-Britain-through-the-looking-glass.html