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07 November 2015 My parents were ‘Anglo-Catholics’, this is the extreme ‘high church’ end of the Church of England spectrum. Naturally, as a young child, I believed everything my parents said; so followed their religion. However, I did start having doubts even before my teens; and never received satisfactory answers other than ‘God moves in mysterious ways’. I did question how people could become Christian before Jesus was born; and also realised I was only Christian because I happened to be born of Christian parents. If they were say Hindu, I’d be Hindu. Furthermore, all religions teach that all other religions are wrong; hence atRead More →

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I became an atheist when I was about fourteen. My parents were both atheists, but I didn’t know that then, and was not brought up to be either an atheist, or religious. One of the attractive things about most of the atheists I have known is they don’t appear to feel a need to indoctrinate their children. They usually encourage them to think for themselves. My own parents tested my arguments by putting the opposite point of view, but never told me what to think. It was my job in life to decide what I thought. Lively discussion on a wide variety of subjects wasRead More →

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In: Objectives, OxHums

Preamble The 2011 Census recorded that almost a third of Oxford’s citizens didn’t have a religion. Yet we humanists are still largely treated by the establishment as little more than a fringe organisation and, at best, only mentioned as a tag-on to the well-known phrase “All Faiths (and none)”. Fortunately, the tag-on has at least enabled us to be given as much status over the past 2 years as other world religions during the annual [essentially Christian] Remembrance Sunday services. But few of you, I suspect, feel that this recognition is sufficient recognition for the over 30% of all local people we – in manyRead More →

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OXFORD HUMANISTS : CONSTITUTION 1. Name and Objects 1.1 The Group shall be called Oxford Humanists. 1.2 The objects of the Group shall be: To promote Humanism; To enable Humanists to meet together; To act as the local representative body of the National and International Humanist Movement. 2. Membership 2.1 Any person, who agrees with the objects of the Group, may become a full member, upon payment of the current annual subscription or, if joining after the April of that year, a pro rata proportion of the annual subscription. 2.2 The annual subscription shall be changed only at an Annual General or Extraordinary Meeting. SuchRead More →

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Reviewed – in good time for Christmas – by our very own Barbara Hudson: Strongly recommend ‘The Devil and Daniel Silverman’ by Theodore Roszak (Leapfrog Press). The blurb says ‘a wickedly funny novel about an outraged liberal trapped in a fundamentalist bible college.’ I’d thoroughly agree with that. The book is also scholarly and profound, I think. The hero is a gay non-believing Jew who happens to have a black partner and believes in a woman’s right to choose. The fundamentalists are a hilariously creepy lot and poor Daniel gets stuck among them because of a snowstorm that isolates  their campus. They think he isRead More →

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I am writing to thank you for your ongoing support for the Humanist Schools in Uganda. Establishing good schools is a long-term challenge, but we are making good progress and I want to give you an idea of where your money has been going during 2014. I attach a list of grants awarded and a small collection of photographs which I think indicate that development is proceeding apace. As a result of the funds being provided by our supporters: Scholarships have been allocated to 129 bright children from the poorest backgrounds to enable them to attend the schools. A new development in 2014 has beenRead More →

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In: Objectives, OxHums

Our beliefs As humanists, we make sense of the world using reason, experience and shared human values. We regard religions, and their doctrines and rituals, as human inventions. We take personal responsibility for our actions and believe that we can all live good lives without religion. We neither fear judgement, nor expect reward, in an afterlife. We find enough purpose and meaning in life itself. The Objects of the Group shall be: To Promote Humanism; To enable Humanists to meet together; To act as the local representative body of the National and International Humanist MovementRead More →