The weekly report on the SPI Coalition
by Julie Esris

Atheist Ireland is up to its elbows in activism of its own. This SPI Coalition member is outraged that the government┬áhas failed to protect children at religious schools from sexual abuse, denying responsibility as the schools are not government-funded. Check out Atheist Ireland’s report on their efforts in tackling this issue.

Every generation has different ideas about how to eat right and how to maintain a healthy weight. The problem is that this information changes constantly, sometimes even waffling from one set of ideas to another and back again. SPI Coalition member Conway Hall hosts Prof Tim Spector, Prof Barbara Prainsack and Sue Nelson, who do a wonderful presentation about this topic as part of the London Thinks series. It is now available on YouTube.

SPI Coalition member British Humanist Association is in its eleventh hour in trying to fill the position of Head of Education. Why eleventh hour? The application deadline is July 22nd, so apply right away!

Grow Another Row is a wonderful program in which surpluses of food from gardeners (both hobby and commercial) are sent to food banks and emergency food programs in Mesa County, Colorado. Last year, SPI Coalition member Humanists Doing Good volunteered to help during the harvests. Rumor has it that they are also volunteering this year!  Why not join Humanists Doing Good and help their volunteer efforts with Grow Another Row? Follow the links to learn more about Humanists Doing Good and Grow Another Row.

The law against blasphemy was recently abolished in Iceland, in part thanks to Icelandic SPI Coalition member Sidmentt (Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association). Learn more about how they helped!

SPI Coalition member┬áFilipino Freethinkers recently participated in the 2015 Metro Manilla (Philippines) LGBTQ Pride March. Check out this fun video that features highlights from the event as well as group members’ thoughts on the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in America.

SPI Coalition member Oklahoma Atheists also participated in a pride march, in this case in the Oklahoma City LGBTQ Pride Parade. Check out photos of them at the event on their Facebook page. Apparently a special mascot even made an appearance!

Do fundamentalists believe that┬ápregnancy is God’s punishment for having sex? That’s information that┬áJon Lindgren of SPI Coalition member┬áRed River Freethinkers┬áis gathering. After all, Colorado has reduced abortions by 40%, but not through abstinence or through forced birth.┬á

The Weekly SPI Fellows Update
by Julie Esris

We are pleased to introduce David Sloan Wilson, Ph.D., our newest SPI Fellow and President of the Evolution Institute. 

SPI’s other new Fellow is┬áDr. Silvian Ionescu┬áof Romania.┬áDr. Ionescu has a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Lucian Blaga University and a Ph.D. in Management from the Academy of Economic Sciences in Bucharest. He has also been┬áheavily involved in politics, having spent fifteen years Chief of Service for the Romanian Ministry of the Interior’s Intelligence Department. Recently, he also served as President of┬áthe Democratic Liberal Party for the 3rd District of Bucharest.

Philosopher and SPI Fellow┬áRussell Blackford recently wrote an interesting blogpost, “Life During the Culture Wars”.┬áJust how much does tribalism factor into modern society? Why do so many people have hair-trigger responses to the mildest criticism of an aspect about their culture? Are secularists guilty of this too? The answers to these questions may surprise you.

University professor and SPI Fellow┬áMark Juergensmeyer┬áalso has some thoughts on a similar topic. Religion seems to have enjoyed a resurgence at the end of the 20th century and the early 21st century, and with it the rise of religious extremism. How can┬ágovernments handle these extremists in non-violent ways when they are determined to get their way through violence? Find out in Juergensmeyer’s article on the subject.

Each era of human history has had its social inequities, argues history professor and SPI Fellow Ian Morris. In fact, to understand today’s inequities, it’s important not just to examine recent history, but also ancient history. Learn more about what that means in Morris’s┬áfascinating┬áNew York Times article.┬á

Why should politicians listen to secular people? The Secular Policy Institute knows! We just published The SPI Secular Resource Guide, which shows our large numbers and gives the demographics of where secular people live and the breakdown by gender, age, and other criteria.

It’s the world’s most comprehensive meta-analysis of secular people, 36 pages with 97 references to the most important surveys of secular people ever compiled.

Learn more about secular people, how they vote, where they live, and more. This important guide will prove helpful to groups looking to move toward a more secular America.

Get the Secular Policy Institute Secular Resource Guide.

Iceland’s parliament has abolished its blasphemy laws, despite opposition from some of the country’s churches.

A bill was put forward by the minority Pirate Party, which campaigns for internet and data freedom.

It came after the deadly attack the same month against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

The bill said it was “essential in a free society that the public can express themselves without fear of punishment”.

Read more at the BBC website

The weekly report on the SPI Coalition
by Julie Esris

SPI Coalition Member Central Florida Freethought Community, along with other secular organizations, is involved in a lawsuit against Brevard County, Florida, for their rejection of atheists, humanists, and secularists who wish to offer invocations before board meetings. Learn more about this lawsuit. 

Same-sex marriage was recently legalized in Ireland. What’s next? SPI Coalition member┬áAtheist Ireland┬ásupports and calls for a referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment to the Irish constitution and legalize abortion. Learn more about their efforts.

Whenever we hear about a terrorist attack, we think of Muslims. But are all terrorists Muslims, or are we guilty of a sort of unconscious bias? Reuven Firestone of SPI Coalition Member Atheist Alliance International shares his thoughts on this important topic.

What is it like to be an atheist in Singapore? That’s what SPI Coalition Member┬áFilipino Freethinkers wants to know. Check out their podcast in which they interview freethinkers from Singapore about this issue.

How does critical thinking apply to┬áeveryday life, including everyday emotions to which we don’t give much thought?┬áSPI Coalition Member┬áThe Critical Thinking Community┬áhas an interesting podcast with guest Dr. Linda Elder about this topic.

From the cradle to the coffin, the church owns you, argues Bart Stanek of SPI Coalition Member The Freethinker. Indeed, religious fundamentalism really can be a stranglehold on your everyday life. Read more about why in this interesting blog post.

It is only a matter of time before same-sex marriage is legal in Australia, as it is now in much of the Western world. But Australian politician Eric Abetz has his arguments against it. However, he is unwittingly making a case for same-sex marriage, argues Meredith Doig of SPI Coalition Member Rationalist Society of Australia. Find out why.

Last week we brought you an update on SPI Coalition Member Uganda Humanist Schools Trust and their progress on construction of humanist schools in Uganda. Learn even more this week about what these schools are like and how the children are faring.

Praise Bacon! When you sign up for SPI Coalition Member┬áUnited Church of Bacon‘s newsletter, you get a FREE 55-page eBook of secular love poems by people with names like William Shakespeare and W.H. Auden. Yes, these people express love without invoking God. Praise these great poets, and praise Bacon!

Finland is among the least religious countries in the world, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need secularist groups.┬áSPI Coalition member, Union of Freethinkers of Finland, is one such group. If you or someone you know is from Finland or at least speaks Finnish, check out their website!

The Weekly SPI Fellows Update
by Julie Esris

The Secular Policy Institute is proud to announce its new Fellow, Elliot Cohen! Elliot Cohen is a philosopher who has written a whopping twenty-five books, including What Would Aristotle Do?: Self-Control Through the Power of Reason and The Theory and Practice of Logic-Based Therapy. SPI is sure to expect great things from him.

What can we the United States do about ISIS? Would cooperating with Iran help? Sociologist and SPI Fellow Mark Juergensmeyer thinks so. Check out his interesting and insightful argument for such a cooperation!

Philosopher and SPI Fellow A.C. Grayling is no fan of religion. While he recognizes that many people find it meaningful, he also cannot ignore the fact that it also has some negative consequences. Check out his thoughts on the matter, in the form of a blog post and a video.

SPI Fellow Gregory Benford is a great science fiction author, but did you know that he is also a poet? His blog has some of his fascinating poetry about life, the universe, and everything!

“Islamophobia” is a term that is thrown around all over┬áthe secular community, online and off. But is this word misleading? Philosopher, author, and SPI Fellow┬áRussell Blackford weighs in on this issue.

The weekly report on US and International policy
by Edwina Rogers

Policy & Ecology – Secular Policy Insitute┬áReceived By Panamanian Ambassador This Week

On Tuesday, July 7th, Secular Policy Institute┬áCEO Edwina Rogers had dinner with the Ambassador of Panama at the Ambassador’s residence in D.C. ┬áH.E. Emanuel Gonzalez-Revilla was appointed to serve as the Ambassador of the Republic of Panama to the U.S. by the newly elected President of Panama, H.E. Juan Carlos Varela Rodriguez in August of 2014.

This spring, the Panamanian President signed a new law to create the Environment Ministry, formerly the National Environment Authority (ANAM). This move indicates┬áthat environmental issues will receive more consideration as Panama’s political agenda develops.

Mirei Endara, the head of the new ministry, outlined five priority areas in a recent interview:

1. Changing the Ministry’s procedures to be more efficient and transparent,┬álooking specifically at technology investments. This would include an analysis of the Ministry’s environmental impact study framework to identify areas of improvement.

2. Stimulating eco-tourism in protected areas. Tourism in general has been growing in Panama over the past few years, but this has contributed to over-development in sensitive environmental areas.

3. The Alliance to Reforest 1 million hectares of trees over the next 20 years. Announced several months ago, this initiative could mean more incentives for smallholder farmers to plant trees on their deforested land.

4. Addressing climate change by promoting low-carbon development.

5. Water, including better management of watersheds,┬áincreasing access to clean water in rural areas, and better information and monitoring systems. This would start with a baseline inventory of all the water systems in Panama to understand their quality and integrity, though it’s not certain that would extend all the way out into the types of rural villages where we work.

Iceland’s parliament agreed to abolish the blasphemy provision of the Criminal Code. The Pirate PartyÔÇÖs parliamentarians submitted the proposal in January, which received broad support from all other political parties in Parliament. The matter was unanimously supported by the committee examining the proposal. Icelanders have now taken an important step in guaranteeing human rights and joined other nations which respect freedom of speech and expression.

There was also extensive support for the bill among the various organizations consulted by Parliament: in addition to Sidmennt (The Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association), the bishop of Iceland, the Icelandic priesthood, the Association of Publishers, PEN Iceland, IMMI (The International Modern Media Institute) an Icelandic based international organization of information and freedom of expression and an atheist group called Vantr├║.

The bill is a response to criticism by various international institutions such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe and the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe which specifically concluded that countries should abolish the blasphemy provisions in their laws. 

Sidmennt has always focused attention on abolishing the blasphemy provision in the Icelandic Criminal Code and has sent parliamentarians memoranda about this in our annual letter to them with suggestions about important issues which promote human rights.

SidmenntÔÇÖs comments to Parliament on this bill included the following:
“Often, countries where there is a lack of democracy and freedom are criticized for punishing people for blasphemy even with death sentences. When those countries are criticized, their spokespeople frequently point out, correctly, that similar laws are in force in “Western” democracies. Therefore, it sends a vital message to the rest of the world if Iceland has repealed its blasphemy law. Nations which maintain blasphemy laws with serious consequences should not be able to point to Iceland and say that it has the same kind of law.”

The weekly report on research and demographics of the secular movement
by Julie Esris

At the end of June 2015, California passed a law that makes vaccinations mandatory for all schoolchildren, regardless of their parentsÔÇÖ religious beliefs, personal beliefs, or skepticism about the safety of vaccines. The only time a child attending school may be exempt from vaccination would be if the child has a medical condition in which vaccinations would pose a threat (such as in immunocompromised children). Over the past several years, whether or not to vaccinate oneÔÇÖs children has become a contentious and divisive issue. While it is old news that some people choose not to vaccinate their children for religious reasons, much more recently many parents have opted out of vaccinations out of fear. In 1998, Dr. Andrew Wakefield published a paper that claimed the MMR vaccine causes autism. The research was found to be fraudulent and Dr. WakefieldÔÇÖs medical license was revoked. However, the damage had already been done. Some parents remain convinced by WakefieldÔÇÖs paper. More parents, however, simply distrust pharmaceutical companies and are skeptical about the effectiveness and safety of vaccines. As a result, there has been a significant increase in cases of measles in the United States.

A Pew poll released in February 2015 asked respondents about their perceived safety of vaccines. The study revealed that 83% of respondents believe that vaccines are safe. 9% believe that they are unsafe, and 7% are undecided. This overwhelming approval knows no significant partisan or demographic bounds. However, those who are more skeptical about vaccinesÔÇÖ safety tend to be less educated. 92% of college graduates believe that vaccines are safe. This number drops to 85% of those who have had only some college education, and dips to 77% for those with a high school degree or less. Age is also a factor, with younger adults (77% of those aged 18-29) being less inclined than older adults (90% of those 50 and older) to trust vaccines.

There is a slight disparity in vaccine approval between ethnic groups, political affiliation, gender, location, and parental status. 87% of whites versus 76% of non-whites approve of vaccination. 89% of Republicans, 87% of Democrats, and 83% of independents trust vaccines. Women (85%) feel safer with vaccination more than men (81%). Those who live in the American East, South, and Midwest believe in vaccinesÔÇÖ safety at rates of 80%, 81%, and 82%, respectively. 90% of those surveyed on the west coast say that vaccination is safe. Additionally, parents of children under eighteen are slightly less likely (80%) than those without children under eighteen (85%) to trust vaccination.

Although the disparities between ethnic groups, political affiliation, gender, location, and parental status are relatively small, they are still worth considering. Compared to the other disparities between groups, the rate of trusting vaccinations between whites and non-whites is significant. Unfortunately, this poll did not refer to specific minority groups, only ÔÇ£non-whitesÔÇØ. Black people, for example, could have a good reason to mistrust the pharmaceutical industry. As if this group has not suffered enough injustices over the centuries, there was the appalling ÔÇô and relatively recentÔÇöTuskegee syphilis experiment. This clinical study, conducted between 1932 and 1972, followed the progression of untreated syphilis in black men in rural AlabamaÔÇöwithout their consent. Although penicillin was already proven to be an effective treatment, none of the researchers gave it to any of the infected men. It is worth asking if this study has impacted minoritiesÔÇÖ trustÔÇöor at least blacksÔÇÖ trustÔÇöof vaccinations.┬á

Although many people who mistrust vaccinations tend to be less educated, this study also illustrates that some tend to be younger and left-leaning. This could simply be a case of group identity. Occasionally, younger people believe that left-leaning means challenging anything that is an established norm. Vaccines have been the norm for over a century, and are thus a perfect target for a sort of ÔÇ£liberal skepticismÔÇØ, which could be part of a group identity for left-leaning young people. This sort of mentality may go hand-in-hand with a general mistrust of the government as well as the pharmaceutical industry, an industry that profits from selling treatments of diseases. It may be tempting to think that this profit motive leads the industry to produce treatments that only exacerbate certain medical problems, and that the cure is another ÔÇ£treatmentÔÇØ. There are even some individuals who believe that vaccinations are a government conspiracy to keep people sick and therefore subjugated.

It is disheartening to learn that some Americans believe that vaccinations are unsafe, but the fact that most do believe that they are safe is encouraging. Perhaps when the new law in California correlates with a significant drop in cases of measles, former vaccine skeptics will change their minds. It is also important to remember that there will always be conspiracy theorists as well as people who panic about certain issues despite reassurance from the experts.

After all, there was a time when many people wouldnÔÇÖt listen when scientists assured them that they could not catch the HIV virus from casual contact.

On Friday, June 26– nearly 46 years to the day after the after the infamous Stonewall Riots– the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples can marry nationwide. This is a major step toward┬áachieving equality for LGBTQI individuals.

After the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, Texas’s attorney general announced last week that county clerks who┬áobject same-sex marriage on religious grounds can refuse marriage licenses to gay couples. Conservative┬áLouisiana and┬áMississippi┬álawmakers issued similar statements of resistance — although Gov. Bobby Jindal insists that┬áLouisiana will follow federal law. Texas residents are largely divided on same-sex marriage:┬á48 percent┬áfavor,┬á43 percent┬áoppose. See a detailed breakdown of┬áwhat Texas residents think about the issue┬áand see┬áwhere residents of your state stand.

Conservative churches and faith-based organizations┬ámust face the new reality of same-sex marriage’s legality, writes Rachel Zoll for the Associated Press. Zoll points out that more than six in ten (62 percent) white evangelical Protestants oppose same-sex marriage — although majorities of Catholics (58 percent) and mainline Protestants (62 percent) support it. See where┬áAmericans from over 30 religious┬ágroups stand┬áon the issue.

To those of you who are tracking these actions ÔÇô ACLU, HRC, Lambda Legal, NCTE and others ÔÇô please keep the rest of us updated and let us know how ┬áwe can be supportive. Also, please inform is┬áif a bill begins to move in Congress on this.

 

California To Outlaw Personal Beliefs as Exemptions for Vaccinations

The California House has passed┬áa proposal that would outlaw a family’s personal and religious┬ábeliefs as reasons to exempt their children from school vaccinations.

SB277 now returns to the Senate, which must approve amendments for it to advance to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature. The Senate passed the initial bill in May.

Oklahoma Supreme Court Victory

Secular Victory: The Oklahoma Supreme Court rules that a Ten Commandments monument placed on State Capitol grounds is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion and must be removed.

On Tuesday, in a 7-2 decision, the Oklahoma Supreme Court declared the decalogue monument on capitol grounds unconstitutional, ruling the monument must be removed because the Oklahoma Constitution bans the use of state property for the benefit of a religion.

Huffington Post┬áreports┬áthe 6-foot-tall (1.8-meter) stone monument, paid for with private money and supported by lawmakers in the socially conservative state, was installed in 2012, prompting complaints that it violated the U.S. ConstitutionÔÇÖs provisions against government establishment of religion, as well as local laws.

The court┬ásaid┬áthe placement of the monument violated a section in the stateÔÇÖs constitution, which says no public money or property can be used either directly or indirectly for the ÔÇ£benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion.ÔÇØ

Republicans in Idaho are pushing a bill to make the Bible a reference book in public school classes teaching science and law, Patheos reports.

Members of the stateÔÇÖs Republican party have published a set of proposed resolutions┬áfollowing a central committee meeting this past weekend among Idaho GOP higher-ups. The policy initiatives the stateÔÇÖs conservative leadership dreamed up include ÔÇ£A Resolution Supporting Bible Use in Idaho Public Schools.ÔÇØ

Read more on rawstory.com