Israel's 60th anniversary: more from our new issue

Today Israel is celebrating its Independence Day, which this year marks 60 years since its foundation (initially I was confused as independence was declared on 14 May 1948, but a trusty Wikipedia search tells me Israel celebrates its Independence Day on the 5th of the Jewish lunar month Iyar, which is today).

To mark the 60th anniversary of Israel's foundation we asked two Jewish writers – Mike Marqusee and Eliane Glaser – to consider what Israel means for them. Their answers reflect the mixed feelings the issue invokes in those with attachments to Israel (and in those without them) and are sure to attract some strong opinions.

Have a read and then discuss by leaving comments on this post.

Campaign 2008: Nailing the faith vote

Barack Obama's march to the nomination seems to be back on track following last night's victory in North Carolina (though Hilary's just lent herself $6.4m so she can carry on fighting), so this seemed like an appropriate time to shamelessly plug our May/June cover story, in which James Crabtree discusses how, in the current campaign, both parties are courting the evangelical vote.

Read it, it's very good.

Peanut butter disproves evolution

Anyone out there who thinks the theory of evolution might be true may as well just forget it, as it's almost certainly disproved by jars of peanut butter which, if the theory stood up, would occasionally contain new life when you opened them:



Thanks to New Humanist reader Alistair Scott for sending this in. He was convinced it was a gag until he Googled the presenter, Chuck Missler, and found out that he's a well-known evangelist and a former "Branch Chief of the Department of Guided Missiles" in the US military...

Jesus Camp on TV tonight

Readers in the UK might be interested to hear that the Oscar-nominated documentary Jesus Camp is showing on Channel 4 tonight at 11.05pm.

The film profiles the Kids on Fire School of Ministry, a Pentecostal summer camp in North Dakota where fire and brimstone pastor Becky Fisher trains children to join the "army of God".

I haven't seen it, but it was critically acclaimed when it was released in 2006 and it looks suitably disturbing – see the trailer below:

Robbie Williams obsessed with aliens

On this blog we're big fans of stories concerning irrational turns taken by major celebrities, be they YouTube videos of Tom Cruise (they're in the public domain, okay) or stories of Madonna telling a Vanity Fair reporter that our souls choose the gender of our children.

So imagine our delight when it turned out that fading pop superstar Robbie Williams has retreated into the world of alien conspiracies. The Sun recently caught up with Robbie at a UFO convention in Nevada, where he confirmed "his belief that UFOs are 'there all the time' but only show themselves on Earth when they make mistakes and their 'protective shields' come off".

Sporting a new look that may disappoint his female fans (think an overweight Fidel Castro) Robbie meets a mother who claims her son is regularly abducted by aliens, and who believes he is "an 'Indigo Child', who has been put on Earth as a psychic sage. She's taken photographs of him being abducted, but they never come out "because she is not a very good photographer and only owns a disposable camera".

It turns out Robbie's always had an interest in the paranormal, telling the Sun that “Mum was a tarot card reader. On the shelf just outside her room there would be the books about the world’s mysteries — elves, demons and witchcraft. She’d have people round to read the tarot cards and read their palms. She’d talk about spirits, ghosts . . . the other side. I was that scared that I never talked to her about it and just lived in fear of this stuff.”

He says he's tried visiting psychics in the past but has always found them to be "charlatans" and now he's hoping the same won't happen with his interest in UFOs. For the moment he's happy to spend "hours holed up in his LA mansion researching UFOs on the net and watching DVDs about alien conspiracies".

Robbie's not the first celebrity to develop an obsession with alien conspiracies (Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters star Dan Ackroyd believes alien/human hybrids might be walking among us) and, as our exclusive graph reveals, there seems to be a correlation between fame and increased irrationality. But then again, they might be the rational ones...

Tune into Radio 4 tonight at 6.30pm, when Robbie Williams will be talking to Jon Ronson about his interest in UFOs.

Royal girlfriend converts from Catholicism to marry a royal

Yesterday I wrote about the debate at the RSA held to mark the launch of a new group, British Muslims for Secular Democracy. During this debate the journalist Yasmin Alibhai Brown made the point that Britain is not yet a proper, religiously neutral secular state.

And what better way to illustrate the absurd, established state we live in than by turning to our distinguished royal family? You see, according to the Sun (yes I'm linking to the Sun) the girlfriend of someone from the royal family has made, in their words, a "dramatic" 11th hour conversion from Catholicism to the Church of England in order to ensure that her beau doesn't lose his vital position as 11th in line to the throne.

As any self-respecting secularist should know, the 1701 Act of Settlement declared that any royals who married Catholics would have their names stricken from the line of succession, and that piece of legislation still stands to this day.

However, anyone concerned that the girlfriend may have received an unfriendly nudge in the right direction from senior royals shouldn't worry too much – Buckingham Palace insists it was all her own decision and that "She was welcomed into the Church of England some time ago."

[Names withheld from this article due to irrelevance]

RSA debate agrees – a secular state is best for Islam

Broad agreement was the order of the day this lunchtime at the Royal Society of Arts, where four leading commentators on the role of Islam in Britain gathered to debate the question: "The Secular State – the best option for British Muslims?" The debate was chaired by the Muslim peer Baroness Kishwer Falkner.

Speaking first was Dr Usama Hasan, director of the City Circle, an organisation that seeks to promote the development of distinct British Muslim identity. Hasan opened by stressing that political secularism is desirable for all, but that many Muslims, himself included, would find it difficult to accept a state of "metaphysical secularism" – one that operates on the assumption that there is no god.

Hasan was followed by Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain, who suggested that the question taken on by the debate was something of a red herring. He stated that among the majority of Muslims in Western democracies there was no problem with secularism, and that the real debate concerns the roles of Islam or secularism in the governments of countries with majority Muslim populations. Bunglawala suggested that some Muslim countries have had negative experiences with secularism, for example in Turkey where the hugely popular governing Islamic AK Party has come under attack from a militant secular minority well entrenched in the state apparatus.

Next up was the Independent columnist Yasmin Alibhai Brown, Chair of the organisation British Muslims for Secular Democracy, who began by stressing that secularism should not be seen as a "backdoor way of privileging atheism", and claiming that she finds "the fundamentalism of Richard Dawkins and Islamic fundamentalism" to be "two sides of the same coin". Brown added that she opposes the French style of secularism - which in her view has been used in "racist ways" and has given secularism a bad name. She stated that there is the greatest potential when the state is religiously neutral, pointing out that this is not yet the case in Britain. As an example of how a secular state can succeed in comparison to an Islamic one, Brown asked the audience to consider the relative stability and development in India since independence when compared to neighbouring Pakistan.

Ed Husain, author of The Islamist and founder of the counter-extremism think tank the Quilliam Foundation, was last to speak and, along with the others, came down in defence of secularism, stressing that it is the reason Muslims are able to live in the UK today. To highlight this he used the example of Abdullah William Quilliam, the British covert to Islam after whom the Foundation is named, who in the far less secular 1890s was stoned along with his followers for leading Muslim prayers in Liverpool.

Husain advanced three reasons why some Muslims have a "psychological block" against secularism. Firstly, the words for secularism in some languages, such as Urdu, have meanings equivalent to "atheism", which can prove off-putting. Second he blames the rising influence of Islamism, whose proponents have been more effective than others in making themselves heard, and lastly the reluctance of the liberal intelligentsia in the UK to stand up for secularism and liberal democracy. He thinks that the answer may lie in better teaching of the values of secularism and democracy in schools, particularly in history lessons where students need to learn about the conflicts and obstacles we had to overcome to establish the secular, liberal democracy we have today.

The debate was rounded off by Kishwer Falkner, who described her own experiences with religious groups lobbying the House of Lords. She praised groups, such as Muslims and Catholics, for being well-organised and ensuring they have a say in public affairs, but warned that at times the religious demands for exceptions from the law can go beyond belief in democracy and reach very exceptional levels.

So, that's my quick-fire rundown of the debate this lunchtime. It would have been interesting to have someone on the panel who wasn't backing secularism, but it's still fair to say there's plenty to chew on here. It's clear that while the speakers all support a secular state, there was uneasiness among them about the role of atheism (see Usama Hasan's problem with "metaphysical secularism"), and Yasmin Alibhai Brown's suggestion that the likes of Richard Dawkins are "fundamentalists" on a par with Islamic fundamentalists is sure to raise a few eyebrows. Brown also had strong opinions on the merits of French secularism (in her view it's "racist"), an issue covered by Joan W Scott in the March/April New Humanist.

Join this debate by leaving some comments on this post...

Is George Bush about to follow Blair into Catholicism?

Could converting to Catholicism be set to join hitting the after-dinner speaking circuit on the list of things for world leaders to do after they leave office? According to the Italian weekly Panorama (via Reuters' Faith World blog), George W Bush is poised to follow the Reverend Tony's lead and covert to the Catholic faith once he leaves the White House next January.

Before anyone gets too carried away, let us clarify that this story appears spurious at best. Reuters' blogger Philip Pullella is entirely unconvinced, saying that "the odds of this happening appear as good as those of the proverbial snowball in hell."

Panorama's evidence for this claim amounts to the fact that Methodist Bush prayed with Pope Benedict during his recent visit to the US, that Bush's brother Jeb converted to join his Mexican wife as a Catholic, and that several of the President's close advisers are Catholic.

And that's pretty much it. Catholic blogger Father John Duhlsdorf provides his own English translation and dismisses the story with the introduction "Wanna read an article typical of much of the Italian press?", before concluding that "A lot of this article is pure fantasy. "

So, to sum up, don't expect to see George W confessing in a booth adjacent to Tony's any time soon.

Who needs a priest when you can just confess online?

I'm immensely grateful to an anonymous commenter on an old post about the Catholic Church's seven new deadly sins, who has alerted me to a website where sinners can gather to confess online.

I Confess Myself markets itself as a place where you can "Let it all off your chest in a risk-free environment", and is basically a blog with 7 posts covering Gluttony, Sloth, Lust, Envy, Greed, Wrath and Pride. All you need to do is leave a comment on the relevant post to get those pesky sins off your chest.

A quick look through the confessions shows they range from the mundane – "I ate a McDonald's meal and now I feel sick" – to the downright callous – "I was so jealous of my friend being skinny that I kept pushing her to eat more until she got pudgy and then I made fun of her until she got an eating disorder."

Okay, so the website hasn't really taken off yet and, if you ask me, it's lacking some good old fire and brimstone qualities, but this didn't stop me thinking – imagine if the Catholic Church, with its 2,000 years of history, ended up being replaced by a blog.

For this premium unleaded, may the Lord make us truly grateful...

Fuel's in the news right now, what with the recently-ended Scottish refinery strike (advice to drivers "Don't panic". Cue mini-panic) and a convoy of truckers entering London to protest against rising diesel prices.

With this in mind, perhaps all those worried about petroleum-related matters should study the antics of Rocky Twyman (what a name) of Washington state, who last week held three separate "gas-station pray-ins".

Rocky's worried about rising "gas" prices in the States (perhaps he should try filling up over here) and has asked fellow motorists to join him in a simple call of "God, deliver us from these high gas prices."

And his efforts haven't gone unnoticed, at least here on Earth, with a representative of the group Consumer Watchdog saying: "Given the complete inertia and silence of this White House on a crisis that has people feeling just hopeless, prayer is probably as good as anything. Frankly, I wish them luck."

[Thanks Christina]

Questionable ways to defuse a sectarian atmosphere...

Given that Celtic vs Rangers is a football derby with a long history of sectarian rivalry, you'd think the players at the two Glasgow giants might see it as wise to rise above it all and stay out of matters relating to the respective merits of Protestantism and Catholicism.

But if you're Celtic's Polish goalkeeper Artur Boruc, it seems the appropriate way to celebrate keeping the championship race alive with a 3-2 victory over Rangers is to remove your jersey to reveal a t-shirt bearing a photo of the late Pope John Paul II alongside the slogan "God Bless the Pope".

Boruc's a pious chap - nicknamed "Holy Goalie" by Celtic fans - and this isn't the first time he's fanned the flames of sectarianism at the Old Firm derby. In 2006 he received a police caution for breach of the peace for allegedly making "obscene gestures and blessings" to the Rangers fans, and at the next derby he was abused by Rangers supporters after crossing himself before the match.

It doesn't seem Boruc's latest antics have landed him in too much trouble with manager Gordon Strachan who told reporters "He's not a bad lad, to be fair (the Pope). If it was 'God bless Myra Hindley', I might have a problem."

Russian priest tricked into blessing a strip club

A quick gem here courtesy of Christina Martin:

A priest in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk was tricked by the owners of a lapdancing club into offering a blessing for their fine establishment.

Father Nickolai, an Orthodox priest, was told that Studio 74 gentlemen's club was a training school for ballet dancers and only discovered later that it was a venue for a differing kind of dancing.

Despite the priest's outrage the club's owners are delighted, claiming the blessing is responsible for the fact that business is now booming: "Ever since we had this sacred act performed on our premises customers say they have experienced an entirely new atmosphere here and more people are coming in. The blessing seems to be working."

So nothing to do with the naked women, then?

Modern society to blame for Catholic priests' sex abuses

Apologies for the lack of activity on this blog this week. Just thought I'd make a quick observation regarding the Pope's visit to the US. Much has been written of his non-apology for the sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests over there (not to mention elsewhere in the world).

The closest he came to apologising was to say that the scandal had been "sometimes very badly handled" by the Catholic Church, before going on to lay the wider blame on "the degrading manifestations and the crude manipulation of sexuality so prevalent today."

You see, it's all to do with "the values underpinning society". So nothing at all to do with the fact that the Catholic Church denies its clergy the right to explore their sexuality as consenting adults, then?

Darwin's private papers now freely available online

For anyone interested in Charles Darwin (which I'm assuming is a lot of you), the Darwin Online project have just now made his entire private papers (around 20,000 items) freely available on the internet.

I spoke to the project director John van Wyhe earlier this week, who told me he thinks the availability of this archive means "we might be on the verge of a new revolution in the study and appreciation of the work of Charles Darwin." Read my interview to find out what's in the archive (letters, original notes, experiments, news clippings, photos, Emma Darwin's recipe book, and so much more) and discover links to some of the best bits.

Now you can make your home smell like Jesus

Regular readers will know we're big fans of novelty religious tat, supported by the efforts of stand-up comedian Christina Martin, New Humanist's tat-finder extraordinaire. And now Christina has discovered what could be the best piece of tat so far – Jesus-scented candles.

Bob and Karen Tosterud, of South Dakota, USA, concocted the "His Essence" candle from a list of ingredients provided by God/someone who wrote a bit of the Bible (delete as appropriate to your religious views) in Psalms 45. "It's a Messianic Psalm," explained Karen, "referring to when Christ returns and his garments will have the scent of myrrh, aloe and cassia."

So, inspired by this heavenly recipe, the couple did what any other sensible person would have done and produced a scented candle that apparently produces "a flowery, cinnamon aroma". For anyone wondering what the point of any of this is, allow Karen's husband Bob to explain: "You can't see him and you can't touch him. This is a situation where you may be able to sense him by smelling. And it provides a really new dimension to one's experience with Jesus."

This may bring a smile to the faces of us rationalists, but when you bear in mind that the Tosterud's have flogged over 10,000 of these candles at $18 a pop, it's hard not to feel that they're the ones who should be laughing, preferably en route to their local bank.

Presidential candidates could win by clamping down on porn

Forget all the talk about Iraq or the economy: if the US presidential candidates really want to ensure victory in November's presidential elections, all they need to do is promise to make it harder for citizens to get their filthy hands on pornography.

Well, at least according to Morality in Media, a Christian group so determined to deny Americans the right to produce and peruse porn that it made it its sole aim. According to the good folks there, if the next US president were to "do all in his or constitutional power" to crack down on "hardcore pornographic materials ... proliferated in the form of videotapes and DVDs sold in sexually oriented and mainstream video stores, films distributed on cable, satellite and hotel TV systems, and still pictures and video disseminated on the Internet", they would have the "total support" of 75 per cent of American adults.

No doubt we can expect a shift in the focus of the campaign in the coming days...

The day Ricky Gervais became an atheist

American men's magazine Best Life has a short piece by comedian Ricky Gervais on how he became an atheist.

After saying how, at the age of 9, he was a massive fan of Jesus – "More than pop stars. More than footballers. More than God" – Gervais describes the day his 19-year-old brother, Bob, walked in just as he was drawing Jesus on the cross as part of his RE homework:

"There I was, happily drawing my hero when my big brother Bob asked, 'Why do you believe in God?' Just a simple question. But my mum panicked. 'Bob,' she said, in a tone that I knew meant 'shut up.' Why was that a bad thing to ask? If there was a God and my faith was strong, it didn’t matter what people said. Oh…hang on. There is no God. He knows it, and she knows it deep down. It was as simple as that. I started thinking about it and asking more questions, and within an hour, I was an atheist."

So, a fairly rapid conversion then. And Gervais goes on to describe the "gifts" that opened up to him as a result of his "newfound atheism":

"The gifts of truth, science, nature. The real beauty of this world. Not a world by design, but one by chance. I learned of evolution—a theory so simple and obvious that only England’s greatest genius could have come up with it. Evolution of plants, animals, and us—with imagination, free will, love, and humor. I no longer needed a reason for my existence, just a reason to live. And imagination, free will, love, humor, fun, music, sports, beer, and pizza are all good enough reasons for living. But living an honest life—for that you need the truth. That’s the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, in the end leads to liberation and dignity."

Nice one, Ricky. And thanks for giving me a great excuse to put up a clip of the hilarious Genesis scene from stand-up show Animals:

Psychics under-fire both on- and off-screen

It's really not a good time to be a psychic. As was reported in the Observer last weekend, in a month's time they face new Consumer Protection Regulations that will come into force following the repeal of the Fraudulent Mediums Act. To the untrained ear the repeal of such an act might sound like a step backwards for rationality, were it not for the fact that less than 10 people have been prosecuted under it in the past two decades. In fact, the old law provided protection for 'genuine mediums', though quite how they were defined is anyone's guess. Under the new regulations, this absurd protection is gone and the onus will be on mediums to prove that they have not exploited 'vulnerable' subjects.

As if this wasn't enough, TV watchdog Ofcom has just issued new regulations aimed at clamping down on premium rate phone-ins. Any digital channels that exist purely as a platform for running phone-ins would be shut down, as the regulations state that the "primary purpose of the programme must be editorial, and any commercial activity associated with the PRS [premium-rate services], such as generation of call revenues, must be secondary to that purpose." In addition to leaving many late-night viewers high and dry by wiping out dedicated quiz channels and adult chat programmes, the regulations will also put paid to any psychic channels.

Told you it was a bad time to be a psychic. Which I guess means it's a good time to be a rationalist.

Boom time for tat as New York prepares for Papal visit

Readers of our print magazine will have seen Christina Martin's collection of religious tat - the Argod Catalogue - in the current issue, and in keeping with this theme we were delighted to hear that New York is currently experiencing an explosion in the sale of Catholic tat as it prepares for next week's visit of Pope Benedict XVI.

The New York Daily News reports that tat-mongers are cashing in on the Pope's visit by peddling high-class items like Papal bookmarks, coffee mugs, baseball caps, t-shirts and (our favourite) Benedict XVI cologne.

Catholic gift shop owner Neil Fusco took time off from counting his sacred cash to tell reporters that"Our Holy Father is coming, everyone is excited and every body wants a piece of him." And that wont be a problem at Neil's store – he's set up a cardboard cut-out of Benedict outside his shop so customers can stop off to have and have their picture taken with him. We're not sure if he's charging them for this, but we'd be disappointed in his tat-instincts if we found out that he isn't.

Church of England tells young people to listen to God for careers advice

Anyone concerned about a perceived lack of direction in the youth of today can rest assured that this problem will be solved by the end of this week, when churches across the UK hold Vocations Sunday 2008.

The Church of England has come up with a five-session course entitled 'Get a Life!', aimed at encouraging 13-18 year-olds to think about their future career paths. Youngsters will be urged to listen to God's voice in choosing their careers, and the course will employ "fun activities, meaningful exercises, biblical parallels and specially written prayers to give young people a stronger understanding of their gifts and passions."

With all this in mind, I'm putting my neck on the line and predicting that unemployment in Britain will have disappeared by 2018.

Charlie Brooker on the pseudoscience infiltrating our schools

Not for the first time on this blog, I'd like to salute Charlie Brooker, who in this week's instalment of his Guardian column trains his sights on Brain Gym – a series of exercises said to make children perform better at school, but which are widely regarded by experts as being based on little other than pseudoscience (it features an exercise called the "energy yawn", for example).

Watching a feature on Newsnight, Brooker was shocked to learn that Brain Gym ("educational kinesiology") is being widely used in British schools, having been endorsed by the government, despite the fact that it's been discredited by the British Neuroscience Association, the Physiological Society and the charity Sense About Science.

If you haven't heard about Brain Gym before it's worth reading Brooker's column just for that, but what we really love is his ability to eloquently sum up the concerns of rationalists regarding the prevalence of nonsense in modern society:

"Because we, the adults, don't just gleefully pull the wool over our own eyes - we knit permanent blindfolds. We've decided we hate facts. Hate, hate, hate them. Everywhere you look, we're down on our knees, gleefully lapping up neckful after neckful of steaming, cloddish bullshit in all its forms. From crackpot conspiracy theories to fairytale nutritional advice, from alternative medicine to energy yawns - we just can't get enough of that musky, mudlike taste. Brain Gym is just one small tile in an immense and frightening mosaic of fantasy."

Dawkins to appear in Doctor Who

No doubt this is already big news across the web, but we were interested to hear that Richard Dawkins is to make a guest appearance in the new series of Doctor Who.

Writer and producer Russell T Davies, who is an atheist and a massive fan of Dawkins, says the show's crew were delighted to see Dawkins on set: "People were falling at his feet ... We've had Kylie Minogue on that set, but it was Dawkins people were worshipping."

Needless to say we can't wait to see this. There doesn't seem to be any news yet on what sort of character Dawkins is set to play, so we thought we'd run a poll. What character would you like to see Richard Dawkins play in Doctor Who?

• Timelord
• Cyberman
• Good scientist
• Evil scientist
• God
• He should be true to himself

Vote at the top right of this page.

The Faith Roundup (4 April 2008)

Faith's back at the top of the news agenda following Tony Blair's speech at Westminster Cathedral last night, but it's not just our erstwhile PM who's been keeping the faith this week. In the stunning return of our negligibly popular, yet possibly weekly, Faith Roundup let's take a look at who's been placing their faith in what and who's been backing who this week.

First up is Mohamed al Fayed who, according to Sky Sports, is "keeping the faith" that Fulham can avoid relegation. He's just emerged from one losing battle in trying to prove that Diana and Dodi were murdered and, with Fulham six points from safety in the Premier League, it looks like it might be another leap too far for the Harrods owner.

Across the pond, residents of McHenry, Illinois look to hold back the forces of nature as "Homeowners near rivers keep faith but fill sandbags" in the face of potential flooding. For its combination of hope and pragmatism, this story might just have taken the non-existent award for best item this week.

Elsewhere, Dolly Parton has been busy this week restoring one website's faith in reality TV claptrap American Idol, while Brazilian striker Ronaldo demonstrates that faith isn't just a one way street as he "vows to repay AC Milan's faith". Finally there seem to be rocky times ahead for the bullion market following a shocking instance of "misplaced faith in gold's pricing laws".

As for who's backing who/what this week, Desmond Tutu is backing a possible deal to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis, Hamas is backing a Palestinian state on 1967-lines, Alex Ferguson is backing Wayne Rooney to deliver the Premier League title, Bernie Eccleston is backing Formula 1 chief Max Mosley amid allegations of "romping with five hookers at a depraved NAZI-STYLE orgy in a torture dungeon", and experienced jockey Carl Llewellyn is backing firm-favourite Cloudy Lane to win Saturday's Grand National.

Take that last one as a tip if you like – just don't blame us if you lose.

Tony Blair calls for more faith

So, last night our former Prime Minister made a speech declaring the aims of his new Faith Foundation, the reasons he thinks religion can solve the world's problems, and why all the religions are capable of getting along by uniting around "common values".

You can read all about Tony's big moment in the Westminster Cathedral spotlight through these reports on the Guardian and Independent. It's also worth checking out the Times' political sketch: "This was an important speech for Mr Blair, really his coming out speech as a Christian. The politician who did not do God no longer exists. In his place is a man who does God and does God big."

What particularly struck me was one of the reasons Blair gave for why politicians might not want to publicly express their religious zeal – because people might think they are "somehow messianically trying to co-opt God to bestow a divine legitimacy on your politics."

So Tony's clearly saying that he didn't seek "divine legitimacy" for his major decisions. This from the man who told Michael Parkinson that God will judge him over Iraq.

Humanist debating Embryology Bill on BBC News

I've only just watched this, but it's very good. On the weekend when religious leaders made their pronouncements on the Embryology Bill, eventually persuading Gordon Brown to allow his MPs a free vote, our friend Andrew Copson from the British Humanist Association went on BBC News 24 to debate the matter with someone from the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children: