The weekly update on the Secular Policy Institute’s coalition
by Johnny Monsarrat

This week, the SPI Coalition leaped to 233 members, with the biggest news being the growth of national and international groups. We now have 39 VIP groups, and just in the last week, we’ve been joined by:

• Atheist Alliance of America, the major US group that publishes Secular Nation Magazine, hosts the Secular Nation Podcast, and whose next annual conference is October 15-18 in Atlanta, Georgia.
• Atheist Association of Finland
• Atheist Foundation of Australia has a new billboard campaign, seen by over 100,000 drivers and their passengers each day
• Atheist Ireland just held the first ever formal meeting between an Irish Prime Minister and an atheist advocacy group in the history of Ireland



• Atheist Union of Greece
• Camp Quest UK is a summer camp for free-thinking kids!
• Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain is the most prominent group supporting Muslims who are going through the trauma of leaving their religion
• Foundation For Critical Thinking is a research center and online forum that in July will once again host the world’s longest running annual conference on critical thinking.
• Freethought Gulu and Humanist Empowerment of Livelihoods are groups in Uganda that help vulnerable girls, such as child mothers, rape victims, victims of domestic abuse, and returnees from rebel captivity
• Indian Rationalist Association is run by Sanal Edamaruku, a prominent TV debunker of superstitions, who is now in self-imposed exile in Finland



• The Institute for Science and Human Values was founded by the late great Paul Kurtz, founder and longtime chair of SPI coalition member the Center for Inquiry
• Lichtpunt is an open-minded television show in Belgium
• Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers (MAAF) represents nonbelief members of the armed forces, for example pushing to allow atheist military chaplains
• Rationalist International is another Finnish group joining this week
• Rationalist Society of Australia is Australia’s oldest freethought association
• Secular Connexion Seculaire (SCS) is preparing for Canada’s nationwide election in October 2015
• United Coalition of Reason (UnitedCoR) is an organizing force that helps groups in dozens of metro regions collaborate locally for outreach

Find them all and links to their websites on the SPI coalition page.

Do you run a secular group? Contact johnny@secularpolicyinstitute.net to learn about the benefits. It’s free and there are no obligations to members. Joining just puts us in touch so that we can work together to accelerate your projects and help you get to the next level!

Tomorrow is the birthday of Charles Darwin, so itÔÇÖs a good time to ask the blasphemous question: Who cares about Darwin? More precisely: Who cares about what Darwin wrote?

Charles DarwinÔÇÖs On the Origin of Species revolutionized biology. In the history of science, heÔÇÖs a god, but in biology today, DarwinÔÇÖs writings donÔÇÖt count for anything. No one checks their results against DarwinÔÇÖs thinking. No biologist says, ÔÇ£ThatÔÇÖs an interesting hypothesis, Chuzzlewaite, but letÔÇÖs compare it against the Great Darwin to see if it holds up.ÔÇØ

The weekly report on the Secular Policy Institute’s Coalition
by Johnny Monsarrat

This week we’ve been adding coalition members so quickly that we haven’t even had time to post them all and reformat our coalition page. Less than a month from the start of our outreach campaign, we now have 181 members, with another 105 groups talking it through with us, most waiting for their next board meeting to come around.

These groups come from all around the world, with recent joins from Uganda, Ireland, Romania, the Phillipines, the Netherlands, Signapore, Australia, and so many more. We several from the UK and Canada.

Like last week, some of the newest joiners are some of the world’s most important secular groups!

• American Atheists, run by always-in-the-news, international troublemaker President David Silverman, is arguably the world’s most prolific media generating, political lobbying, and legal challenging secular organization in the world. At least, we like ’em.
• Foundation Beyond Belief is our movement’s most prominent charity organization, showcasing nonbelievers as real people through volunteerism and aid, for example by raising more money for leukemia research than any other non-profit in the world. They have a “peace corps” that every nonbeliever should know about, called the Humanist Service Corps.
• The Freethought Society (FS), run by Founder and President Margaret Downey, provides fellowship and services to the non-theist community throughout the US and Canada. The goal of the Freethought Society is to raise awareness and acceptance of the non-theist community, including their Tree of Knowledge and celebrity speaker series.
• Humanist Association of Ireland promotes the ideals and values of Humanism, working for people who choose to live an ethical life without religion. See the SPI’s newsletter article this week on Irish blasphemy laws!
• Humanist Society (Singapore) represents non-religious people in Singapore who pursue ethical and fulfilling lives.
• Uganda Humanist Association promotes secular schools, secular health centers, and has a youth wing, a womens’ organisation, and a library / secular center in Kampala
• The International Freethought Film Festival Foundation‘s annual festival is May 8-10 in Orlando, Florida. Their call for entries ends March 1st!
• Atheist Association of Finland, and I recently was sent this article on religious privilege from Kim Sj├Âstr├Âm of Helsinki Freethinkers.
• Atheist Centre, India will celebrate 75 years with the 9th World Atheist Conference, January 6-7, 2016, and has invited the SPI to speak.

See the coalition list for more, and we’ll be updating and reformatting it fully this week if we can just catch up on emails with the nearly 200 groups wanting to talk with us about the coalition this week! Email johnny@secularpolicyinstitute.net to discuss the benefits of your own group joining.

It took one session on Jan. 10 for a court in the Nile Delta province of Beheira to sentence Karim al-Banna, a 21-year-old student, to three years in prison for saying on Facebook that he was an atheist. The studentÔÇÖs lawyer complained that he was denied the right even to present a defense, but an equally chilling aspect of Mr. BannaÔÇÖs case is that his father testified against him.

Also telling is that Mr. Banna was originally arrested, in November, when he went to the police to complain that his neighbors were harassing him. This was after his name had appeared in a local newspaper on a list of known atheists. Instead of protecting him, the police accused him of insulting Islam.

Such tag teams of family, media and state are not uncommon in cases against atheists. Because atheism itself is not illegal in Egypt, charges are laid under laws against blasphemy or contempt for religion. In 2012, a 27-year-old blogger, Alber Saber, received a three-year sentence on charges of blasphemy for creating a web page called ÔÇ£Egyptian Atheists.ÔÇØ In 2013, the writer and human rights activist Karam Saber (no relation) was convicted of defaming religion in his short story collection ÔÇ£Where Is God?ÔÇØ

Criticizing Irish Blasphemy Laws

On Tuesday, a group of leading secularists from around the globeÔÇöincluding SPI Fellows Richard Dawkins and Steven PinkerÔÇöjoined in criticizing Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny for failing to repeal his countryÔÇÖs six-year-old blasphemy law. Last fall, the Dublin government suggested that the law would be included in a series of national referendums on such topics as gay marriage equality, but at the end of last year, officials seemed to renege on the blasphemy topic. Violations of the law, introduced by a former regime, are still punishable with fines of up to Ôé¼25,000 (┬ú19,000).

At an unprecedented gathering of Irish atheists before their Prime Minister, the group told Kenny that it was his duty to protect those ÔÇ£intimidatedÔÇØ within Ireland and those persecuted elsewhere for their behavior and beliefs. Along with Dawkins and Pinker, many renowned scientists, writers, comedians, politicians, and activists signed a formal letter to the Taoiseach noting that ÔÇ£

An international group of atheists and secularists including the scientists Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker has challenged the Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, to hold a referendum to repeal IrelandÔÇÖs 21st century blasphemy law.

Ahead of an historic first meeting between a taoiseach and Irish atheists in Dublin on Tuesday, the group told Kenny that it was his ÔÇ£duty to protect a strong position on behalf of those intimidated in Ireland and, more importantly, on behalf of those facing execution by nations who cite Irish blasphemy laws in justification and mitigation of their behaviour.ÔÇØ

The blasphemy law was introduced in July 2009 by the then Fianna F├íil-led government. Breach of the law is punishable with a fine of up to Ôé¼25,000 (┬ú19,000).

A California atheist has won a settlement of nearly $2 million after being sent to jail on a parole violation for objections he made about participating in a faith-based rehab program.

Barry A. Hazle Jr., 46, served time for a conviction of methamphetamine possession in 2007. As a condition of his parole, he was enrolled in a drug treatment program where participants were required to acknowledge a “higher power,” according to the Sacramento Bee.

Hazle complained and asked for a different treatment program, but was told the only option in his area was the faith-based, Westcare 12-step program, according to the Record Searchlight.

The weekly report on the academic research and demographic polls of secularism,
by Dr. Greg Neimeyer, SPI Fellow

Should scientists begin to intervene to counter the earth’s climate change, or back off and let nature take its course? These topics were at the heart of a recent report on climate change interventions where experts were asking themselves the “fix it or nix it” question; should scientists meddle with Mother Nature to combat global warming, or should they leave her alone and let nature takes its course instead. After reviewing the issues and available strategies, the consensus of the report, produced by the National Research Council that advises the federal government, was to “wait and see” at this time, in part because many of the innovative strategies for climate intervention may not be ready for prime time at the moment.

But that doesn’t mean that science should sit idly by argues Waleed Abdalati of the University of Colorado in Boulder, a coauthor of the reports. Instead, scientists should redouble their efforts to explore and perfect intervention options so that they are ready to deploy them in the event that things continue to deteriorate at an accelerating pace.

Current schemes to manually manipulate the planet’s temperature may read like the plot of a Jules Verne novel, but they nonetheless merit exploration and, if need be, intervention in the years ahead. Among the principle plans are two different strategies to dodge the destructive impact of global warming. One is to effectively vacuum vast volumes of planet-warming carbon dioxide directly out of the air and pump it deep underground for storage. The second is to shield the earth from the sun’s scorching rays by reflecting them back into space. For this method, researchers have examined the possibility of spraying tiny particles into the atmosphere that might reflect the warming radiation. This approach might mimic volcanic eruptions, which are known to have wide-scale cooling effects on the planet. Other ideas might include generating synthetic cloud cover and deploying this periodically to cool the planet and regulate its climate.

Of course, no one knows the extent to which these strategies might work, the precision with which we might control the “earth’s “thermostat,” or the nature of the downstream implications associated with their implementation. Massive cloud cover, for example, could register a significant impact on crop production and weather patterns. And, of course, both methods would only represent “band aid” solutions; as soon as we stopped siphoning off gases and diverting them to underground storage, or pumping the sky full of solar-reflecting cloud cover, the earth would begin warming again without, moreover, fully understanding the consequences of this man-made cycle of cooling and warming on the planets’ various life forms.

But research into even the most fanciful of these ideas needs to continue, says Abdalati. A co-author of the reports, Abdalati argues that humans may one day find themselves in a climate emergency when the risks of doing nothing outweigh the risks of an intervention, making it prudent to examine those risks now so that more informed decisions can be made then, if the need should arise. If things ever get really bad, we don’t want to find ourselves in the earliest stage of experimentation, notes international relations specialist David Victor of the University of California, San Diego. The Council’s recommendation to keep pursuing research is an important step toward developing those global back-up plans.

Citations

Climate intervention: Carbon dioxide removal and reliable sequestration (2015), Committee on Geoengineering Climate: Technical Evaluation and Discussion of Impacts; Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate; Ocean Studies Board; Division on Earth and Life Studies; National Research Council, Published February 10, 2015.

Climate intervention: Reflecting sunlight to cool Earth (2015), Committee on Geoengineering Climate: Technical Evaluation and Discussion of Impacts; Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate; Ocean Studies Board; Division on Earth and Life Studies; National Research Council, Published February 10, 2015.

the weekly US and World Report on Public Policy
by Edwina Rogers

Global Report: Geoengineering Climate Change

Staff from the Secular Policy Institute attended the Tuesday release at the National Academy of Science of the CIA commissioned new Climate Report. The report covers Short term fixes for climate change. Geoengineering covers a variety of technology fixes for the problem of climate change whether rooted in human behavior or not. For example, tiny particles of sulfur dioxide could be sprayed into the upper atmosphere. That would mimic the effects of a volcanic eruption. The thin haze would reflect sunlight, cooling Earth’s surface. The full reports are covered in more detail in this newsletter.

United States

President Barack Obama addressed the nation on Wednesday regarding his request for congressional authority to use military force against ISIS.

Lawmakers on Wednesday morning received a draft Authorization to Use Military Force for six months against the militant group. The text of the resolution does not authorize “enduring offensive ground combat operations.”

On another note, President Obama has 10 days to issue a veto on a bill authorizing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline now that the House has passed a final version, 270-152.

Twenty-nine Democrats voted with Republicans to pass the measure, which Obama has repeatedly said he will veto. He says the decision to build the pipeline should rest with the executive branch.

Neither the House nor Senate passed the proposal by a wide enough margin to override a presidential veto.

National Prayer Breakfast

President Obama attended the National Prayer Breakfast last week. He called the Islamic State a “brutal, vicious death cult.” Then he dared to note that Islam is not the only religion to have been perverted to justify violence and atrocities. This fact drew public daggers from Christian conservatives.

Here is the full quotation to underscore the inoffensiveness. “From a school in Pakistain to the streets of Paris, we have seen violence and terror perpetrated by those who profess to stand up for faith, their faith, profess to stand up for Islam but, in fact, are betraying it.”

“We see ISIL, a brutal, vicious death cult that, in the name of religion, carries out unspeakable acts of barbarism – terrorizing religious minorities, like the Yazidis, subjecting women to rape as a weapon of war, and claiming the mantle of religious authority for such actions. We see sectarian war in Syria, the murder of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, religious war in the Central African Republic, a rising tide of anti-Semitism and hate crimes in Europe, so often perpetrated in the name of religion”

Obama’s offending words: “And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.

“Obama Insults Christians,” blared the Catholic League; its president, Bill Donohue, termed Obama’s comments “an attempt to deflect guilt from Muslim madmen.”

US Senate

On Wednesday the Senate had pending business on a motion to proceed on the Department of Homeland Security. This is the third attempt on the DHS appropriations bill. There will be another vote before the week is over. Ash Carter for Secretary of Defense will have his final vote this week. The Senate is in recess next week for President’s Day break. After the recess the Senate will address Keystone again, force against Islamic State, No Child Left Behind, Cyber Security, Gitmo Bill and the Budget.

The weekly report on the SPI’s Coalition

by Johnny Monsarrat

Having built a critical mass of more than 100 coalition members, this week we reached out to some of the largest secular groups in the world! Discussions are still underway with most, but a few have already joined!

The Center for Inquiry is one of the largest and most active secular groups in the world, and we also welcome President Ron Lindsay as our newest SPI Fellow this week. Skeptic Magazine and The Skeptic Society dominate the world opposed to UFOs, Bigfoot, and other skeptic bugaboos, and Founding Publisher Dr. Michael Shermer is also an SPI fellow.

We also welcome international and US national groups:

• The Clergy Project, a support and advocacy group for religious leaders who have given up God
• Ex-Muslims of North America is the leading support group for former Muslims in the US and a sister group to the prominent Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain
• FreeThoughtAction is one of the world’s major “freethinker” groups
• The Humanist Association of British Columbia is one of Canada’s largest secular groups
• Hispanic American Freethinkers is the primary group to look to for America’s largest growing minority
• The Bertrand Russell Society is the scholarly organization that pubishes the Bertrand Russell Society Bulletin in honor of the philosopher and mathematician who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

And many more can be found and are to come. Would your group like to learn about the many benefits of joining the coalition, which include active support and funding for your local projects? Contact johnny@secularpolicyinstitute.net.