Cumbria Humanist Group
Promoting a Positive Caring Outlook for the Non-Religious
Links
(Click on the Links below to access the websites of these organisations, publications and media clips.)
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Humanist Organisations.
National Humanist and Secular Organisations.
Rationalist Association / New Humanist magazine.
Humanist Heritage. This site charts the contributions made to the history of the United Kingdom and Ireland from humanist and secularist perspectives.
Think Humanism. (Try the Quiz!)
AHS The National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies
International Humanist Groups.
International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU).
Local Humanist Groups.
(See also BHA website for Local Groups nationwide.)
Central London Humanist Group.
***************Culture and Media. (See also Quotes and Misquotes! page)
2 February 2010.
Terry Pratchett delivered the 34th Richard Dimbleby Lecture on “Shaking Hands with Death” on BBC1 last night, ably assisted by his friend and fellow campaigner Tony Robinson. Terry has been open about his situation since he was diagnosed with early onset Altzheimer’s a couple of years ago at the age of 59, and he now campaigns for Dignity in Dying and a change in the law on assisted suicide. For me the most moving line was “ If I knew that I could die, then I could live.”
The lecture is reproduced in part in today’s Guardian G2 section, and also features on the Leader page's In Praise of . . . and the website’s Comment is Free section.
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Newsnight on BBC2 is beginning a series looking back on the first decade of the twenty first century. The first of these, "What have the noughties done for God?" was broadcast on Monday 10 August 2009.
To quote . . . "The Noughties has been a controversial decade for religion. With secularism on the rise, churches closing down and religion finding itself increasingly at odds with artistic expression, atheists have seized the chance to promote their message of a godless universe." The BBC seems to make the increasingly common error of equating secularism with atheism, both here and on similar contexts. (See link for Jonathan Miller below.)
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A BBC Radio Cumbria programme, asking “Are we losing our religion?” was broadcast over the Easter weekend. I had a phone call from producer Graham Moss last November, asking if I would be interviewed for a programme he was putting together on the role of religion in Cumbrian life. After discussing it with Iain Paterson and George O’Hara I agreed. I met Graham, he recorded about twenty minutes and my interview in the programme is just over six minutes, about half way through the programme. You can hear it via the website link above. (CA 15 April 2009)
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Darwin: the Genius of Evolution. A series of programmes on BBC TV and radio throughout 2009 to celebrate Charles Darwin’s bicentenary, and an Open University site offering background to these programmes and more widely to Darwin's life and work.
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A wonderfully hilarious tirade from Marcus Brigstocke, broadcast on Radio 4’s “The Now Show” on 20 July 2007, against the three main monotheistic religions and the havoc they create! (Make sure your computer’s sound system is switched on when you link to this.)
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The BBC website for Jonathan Miller’s acclaimed series “A Brief History of Disbelief” on BBC4 in late 2005. That series alone could justify BBC's retaining BBC4. (Well maybe some of the music “Sessions” programmes also play a part!) Actually there’s no possible case for scrapping BBC 4 – it’s what BBC TV should be about; what BBC2 used to be about – Bronowski and Clark and . . . And Jonathan Miller is certainly in that Renaissance Man league. A campaign for a BBC DVD bore no fruit, but I have just found this online video of the full series.
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Conway Hall is a landmark of London's independent intellectual, political and cultural life.
For over one hundred years the Ethical Society had its centre at South Place in the City of London, where it fostered freedom in moral and spiritual life and thought. In order to have a wider range of influence and greater scope for development the Society decided to build a new home in Red Lion Square, Bloomsbury.
Conway Hall is renowned as a hub for free speech and progressive thought. In recent years we have seen on the platform speakers such as Salman Rushdie, Will Self, Tony Benn, and Mary Robinson to name but a few.
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Press.
National Newspapers.
Guardian ( Guardian Religious Affairs )
Local Newspapers in Cumbria.
Cumberland and Westmorland Herald
News & Star including CHG member Mike Bird's Blog
Magazines and Journals.
Also those that are essentially ‘political’ but regularly cover issues of humanism and secularism, often the same journalists: Lucy Mangan’s intelligent humour can be found in both Guardian and New Humanist. Similarly academics and writers such as Laurie Taylor and AC Grayling, both closely associated with humanism and secularism, are widely published in the general media.
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email : info@cumbria-humanists.org.uk