On December 10,┬á┬áUK women’s rights groups supported by┬áSPI Advocate Maryam Namazie┬áhand delivered a letter signed by nearly 400 individuals and organisations to urge┬áBritish Prime Minister David Cameron to formally look into the discriminatory nature of Sharia ÔÇÿcourtsÔÇÖ and other religious arbitration forums. They want to stop Sharia, the Jewish Beth Din, and other kinds of religious ‘courts’ from having sway over family matters including divorce.

SPI Fellow Elham Manea has been active as the spokesperson for jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi. And she’s written on behalf of gay men killed in Yemen on the Huffington Post, saying it shows alarmingly how powerful Al Qaeda and Islamic State in that country. She is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Political Science, University of Zurich, Switzerland and a dual-citizen of Yemen and Switzerland. She recently contributed recommendations for how Western governments should handle proponents of Sharia Law in the legal systems for the SPI World Future Guide 2016, the Secular Policy Institute’s original policy recommendations for decision-makers around the globe.

Another contributor to the SPI World Future Guide was SPI Fellow Greg Neimeyer. He directs the Office of Continuing Education in Psychology at the American Psychological Association, meaning that he teaches the therapists. Now his popular classroom lectures are available online at dsm5-training.net for psychologists looking to keep up with their certifications and at psychgradprep.net for undergraduates wishing to maximize their chances of getting into a psychology graduate school.

Congratulations to SPI Fellow Marty Klein for being the keynote speaker at the National Sex Education Conference this month in New Jersey. He has many speeches coming up in 2016, including in California, Texas, and Illinois. He’ll talk about pornography, cybersex, and how therapists can talk sex to their patients. He encourages you to give sex for the holidays by purchasing one of his books, CDs, or downloads on modern sexuality from a secular perspective. Through December 31 you can use code V20 for a 20% discount on his website store.

SPI Fellow Christopher DiCarlo is a past Visiting Research Scholar at Harvard University in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences: Department of Anthropology and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. He runs the Onion Skin Theory of Knowledge (OSTOK) Project, which analyzes the interplay between nature and human culture. Recently he debated the meaning of life in Ontario, Canada and you can find an older video debate from 2008, Atheism vs. Christianity.

He is a fellow of the Society of Ontario Freethinkers, a board advisor to Freethought TV, and an advisory fellow for Center for Inquiry Canada. He is currently working on his latest book tentatively entitled Flying Without a Pilot: A Determined Look at the Future of Ethics, Law, and the Value of Human Behavior.

The weekly report on secular demographic research
by Jordan Auburn

The Data

The Freedom of Thought Report 2015, published by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), is a detailed analysis of the ÔÇ£rights, legal status and discrimination against humanists, atheists and the non-religiousÔÇØ. Despite those self-identifying as religious dropping 9% between 2005-2012, while self-identifying atheists rose by 3% in the same period, we still live in a world where expressing atheism is effectively punishable by death in thirteen countries. Of the eight countries with the best possible rating (Free and Equal), all are secular. Of the next 18 best rated countries, 16 are officially secular, or show much secularity.

So what are the factors that make a country more or less free with regard to religion? LetÔÇÖs look at some of the other important results in more detail.

China’s “Atheist State”

Despite record (and slowing) rates of economic growth, China, which holds a seat on the UN Security Council, has the worst possible rating: Grave Violations. An officially ÔÇÿatheistÔÇÖ state, the Chinese constitution ensures ÔÇÿfreedom of religious beliefÔÇÖ. However, this is severely restricted. Did you know, for example, that a religious citizen is permitted to only worship one of the five state-sanctioned religions: Protestantism, Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism? This is opposed to the basic tenets of a secular society, which uphold the neutrality of the state in matters of religious belief.

Canada: Worse than the US?

Surprisingly, freedom from discrimination is more restricted in Canada (Rating: Systematic Discrimination) than in the USA (Rating: Mostly Satisfactory). In Canada, 50% of provinces provide ÔÇ£partial or full funding to religious schoolsÔÇØ. These schools can discriminate on religion grounds when considering positions for staff or students, with a constitutional footing to boot. By comparison, ÔÇ£no formal discrimination in educationÔÇØ was found to exist in the USA. Though the controversial teaching of pseudo-science and the composition of prayers for school students persists, the Establishment Clause continues to largely prohibit the stateÔÇÖs promotion of religion in state-funded schools, a secular position which very much promotes freedom of expression and investigative methods of thought.

Unexpected Findings 

So what are the trends? By correlating this report with economic data, I observed that:

• 31 countries had┬áÔÇÿGrave ViolationsÔÇÖ. Interestingly, these were all from Africa and Asia.
• We think of Europe as being progressive, but 12 of the 44 European nations had┬áÔÇÿSevere ViolationsÔÇÖ (27%).
• However, 18% of European countries were┬áÔÇÿMostly SatisfactoryÔÇÖ or ÔÇÿFree and EqualÔÇÖ ratings ÔÇô the best of all the continents.
• Economic prosperity is not seen to guarantee freedom. Of the top ten economies by GDP, 50% returned ÔÇÿSevereÔÇÖ or ÔÇÿGraveÔÇÖ Violations. Just 30% were ÔÇÿMostly SatisfactoryÔÇÖ ÔÇô Japan, USA, and France. Interestingly, these three countries are the only secular states in the top ten list by GDP.
• Of the top five economies by GDP per capita (Monaco, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Qatar), none returned ÔÇÿMostly SatisfactoryÔÇÖ ratings. Perhaps┬áall these rich people think they are blessed by God?

Takeaways

What can we conclude from this? Investing in┬ácountries like China and Russia in the hopes that improving their economy may lead to reform may simply not work — at least in the short term. Secular people may find many allies among religions that feel muscled out in governments that have bias. And governments tend to follow regional trends and should be encouraged to look globally for examples of how to define freedom.

What are your policy recommendations? What’s your explanation for the handful of countries in North and South America that still don’t have religious freedom? Post your comments to the SPI Facebook and Twitter.

Kevin Perrott is our newest Secular Policy Institute fellow, a leader in the movement to advance healthier and longer life. He is the founder and CEO of the Aging Research Network (AgeNet), and co-founder of SENS Research Foundation and LifeStar Institute, organizations whose mission is to extend the healthy human lifespan by studying age-related degeneration and the aging process.

In addition, he is a researcher at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and Executive Director of the Methuselah Foundation Mprize, which funds research in regenerative medicine, to shed light on the processes of aging and finds ways to extend healthy life. Johnny Monsarrat interviewed him for this article.

SPI: You started what became the largest motorcycle dealership in Canada. Do you still ride?

Kevin Perrott: Not anymore! I don’t heal up as fast as I used to, so I’m a little more skeptical as to the value versus the consequence of falling over.

SPI: How did you get from there to surviving cancer and playing a key role in aging research?

Kevin Perrott:

The weekly secular report on government and policy
by Edwina Rogers

IHEU Freedom of Thought Report Added to SPI’s Giant Collection of Demographic Studies

The International Humanist and Ethical Union’s Freedom of Thought Report is wonderfully comprehensive, covering the freedom of atheists to live and speak around the world. While severe discrimination has been eliminated from countries in North and South America, with four┬áexceptions (can you guess?), even some Western European countries, and democratic friends like India and formerly atheist-socialist Russia get the worst rating.

It’s the most recent listing in┬áthe Secular for Policy Institute’s own comprehensive resource, an exhaustive list of links to┬áthe world’s demographic studies and trends relating to secularism. Do you want data? Find a small mountain there, both SPI original studies and those of every 3rd party with hard data we could find.

Then click to see our other resources, including large lists of academic papers, books, and non-academic website articles relating to secularism, and our giant worldwide secular calendar and directory of secular groups. It’s all under the the Resource menu at the top of our website.

SPI Commemorates the Tenth Anniversary of the Decision in

As the tenth anniversary of the decision in Kitzmiller v. Dover just passed let us pause to celebrate the ruling, which established the unconstitutionality┬áof teaching “intelligent design” creationism in the public schools.

But satisfying as the victory was, the Kitzmiller┬ácase did not end the dispute over evolution in public┬áschools. ┬áAll over the US there are episodes similar to Glendive, Montana, where there┬áwere plans to take a group of third graders on a field trip to a local┬ácreationist “museum.” We must vow to make┬ásure that our children in public schools are taught modern science┬áuntainted by dogma. There must be no more Dovers.

Contraception Religious Exemption

The “religious exemption” in the contraception mandate of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act is actually pretty popular, writes Patricia Miller in Religion Dispatches on a new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis:┬á10 percent of nonprofits with more than 1,000 employees have requested exemption from the mandate, along with five percent of nonprofits with 200-999 employees.

Final Stretch For Paris Talks

Climate talks entered their final week in Paris, with roadblocks still in the way of an over-arching deal, as France 24ÔÇÖs┬áJoseph Bamat reports.

To get caught up on the talks so far, the New York Times has a round-up of what was achieved today and what remains.

Highly Recommended

Incredible immersive journalism,ÔÇ£The Marshall Islands are Disappearing,ÔÇØ┬áreported by the┬áNew York TimesÔÇÖ Coral Davenport, photos and video by Josh Haner.

Perhaps the most striking infographic IÔÇÖve seen,┬áÔÇ£Gauging a warming world,ÔÇØ┬áfrom the┬áWashington Post.

Critical Quotes

ÔÇ£This is a ÔÇÿ65-country coalitionÔÇÖ of which only about nine are doing something.ÔÇØ
On allies in the counter-Islamic State coalition.  Source: Washington Times.

ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs like people woke up one day and realized ISIS had 20,000 Twitter accounts.ÔÇØ
Source: LA Times.

The weekly report on studies and demographics relating to religion and secularism

by Johnny Monsarrat

A banking executive who raced cars as a hobby once told me that sliding is the key. You’re almost never fully in control of a car as you push it to its limits on a racetrack. But just because you’re skidding doesn’t mean you don’t have traction. There’s plenty of control in the grey zone.

Perhaps there’s an analogy to be made with scientists who are religious. Do we have some traction with them?

There are more of them than you might think. Researchers at the Religion among Scientists in International Contexts (RASIC) at Rice University have published the first worldwide survey of how scientists view religion. As masters of critical thinking and the scientific method, do they personally find that to be compatible with spirituality or organized religion? In India, Italy, Taiwan, and Turkey more than half of scientists claim a religion, and few scientists in some countries believe that science and religion can co-exist (25% in Hong Kong, 27% in India, and 23% in Taiwan).

Some scientists rationalized having disparate beliefs by saying that there are many different paths to spirituality.

Also, some countries surprisingly had scientists who were more religious than the general purpose, the reverse of expectations. For example, 39% of Hong Kong scientists but only 20% of Hong Kong residents are religions, and 54% of Taiwanese scientists but only 44% of Taiwanese are religion.

The secular community tends to take a one-size-fits-all approach to reaching out to nonbelievers and secular people who may be spiritual but strongly support separation of church and state. These kinds of studies, which have also been done with religious minorities, including Muslims, help us to tailor our messages to specific markets. It also suggests the way to additional research. Of the scientists who do have a religion, do they tend to support separation of church and state? Presumably at least they support critical thinking, evidence-based decision-making, and accepting the worldwide scientific consensus as definitive rather than “just opinions”. Perhaps scientists with religion could be a connecting force helping us to find allies in religious communities.

Scientists may also make good studies in the political realities of reaching across the aisle to the other side. Really the secular movement does not need to convert anyone to atheism nor is that our goal. Our political goals are all tied up in showing respect to and ending discrimination against nonbelievers, giving critical thinking and evidence a seat at the table, and keeping church and state separate. Scientists who can hold in their minds a religious conviction but yet agree with us on some of our secular points will give us a fantastic study of what types of religious people may ally with us and what their mindset either will be when we meet them, or towards which we are trying to bring them.

A similar study in 2007 by the same team, Religion among Academic Scientists: Distinctions, Disciplines, and Demographics

What’s your opinion? In your profession, do your colleagues tend to be religious, and how does that effect their willingness to put science foremost in personal, community, corporate, and government decisions? We’d love to hear your thoughts on the SPI Facebook and Twitter pages.

Read more at phys.org.

The weekly report on the SPI Coalition

by Johnny Monsarrat

Are you looking to perform a secular wedding as the master of ceremonies, the officiant? Many secular organizations in the SPI Coalition allow you to become certified to perform marriages.

For example, coalition member First Church of Atheism you can become ordained immediately for no cost. Are you the one getting married? Visit the website to browse almost 5,000 active ministers, where you can search by keyword including city.

Or try the Universal Church Triumphant of the Apathetic Agnostic (UCTAA), which has been conducting marriages for more than 20 years. They believe that if there is a Supreme Being, then that being appears to act as if apathetic to events in our universe, and they return the favor by being apathetic towards a possible God.

At a more professional level,┬áSociety of Celebrations┬ávets all their officiants and getting a certificate is far less easy but worth the effort. Celebrants must go through a training program to be ordained and an extensive applications process.┬áThey say, “Our pride is in quality.”

The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, who I mentioned last week, can also connect you with a Humanist officiant.

Also, Belgian Flemish Humanist Association met with the Flemish Interfaith Dialogue to issue a joint statement with local Islamic religious leaders about the terrorist attacks in Paris. They have also formed a program to take over the growing number of vacant churches and repurpose them to secular uses.

Atheist Ireland is met with officials from the Irish Department of Education and the Chair of the Oireachtas Education Committee on the Schools Equality PACT to oppose state funding of religious schools that teach religion and discriminate based on religion. They also published a video for their recent big debate titled, Is Christianity holding us back? with Michael Nugent of Atheist Ireland and David Robertson, a Reverend, debating.

A week after ISIS pulled off a bloody terrorist attack in Paris, a group affiliated with al-Qaeda kills 20 people in Mali

One was an American public health expert working on womenÔÇÖs health and HIV. Six were employees of a Russian airline. Three were Chinese railway executives. Another was an official with the Belgian parliament. One was an Israeli educational worker. Six were Malians.

The 20 victims of the armed assault on the Radisson Blu hotel in MaliÔÇÖs capital Bamako on Nov. 20 included a cross-section of international visitors to this West African country. According to multiple reports, the gunmen separated Muslims from non-Muslims by demanding they recite verses from the Quran.

Read more at Time Magazine.

In our new and original report, the SPI World Future Guide 2016, SPI Fellow Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi scooped the world with the revelation of how Islamic State is funded and run.

According to exceptionally rare and unseen documents obtained and translated by Dr. Jawad Al-Tamimi, less than half (44.7%) of Islamic State’s budget comes from criminally confiscating the wealth of others. The remainder come from their operations as a pseudo-government, with 23.7% from taxes, 27.7% from providing oil and gas, and 3.9% from providing electricity. And its militants are not so ideologically committed that they will fight for free. Some 63.4% of IS’s income goes to military operations (salaries 43.6% and bases 19.8%), with a surprising amount (33.8%) going to governmental services including police and financial aid.

Previous estimates said that Islamic State raised $3 million in US dollars per day from oil and gas revenues, but the real average turns out to be $66,433 USD, far lower than believed, even when including the damage to IS operations done by coalition bombing.

See the report in the SPI World Future Guide 2016 and the original documents at www.aymennjawad.org.

The weekly report on the SPI Fellows
by Johnny Monsarrat

Already the world’s largest secular think tank, the Secular Policy Institute welcomes three new members this week!

Advisory Board Member Douglas Kinney is a lifetime member of several secular organizations, and was married at the Center for Inquiry in New York. A retired US Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander and US Army Major, KinneyÔÇÖs long military experience includes being a document courier with top secret clearance, air traffic controller, pilot. As a dentist he has worked for the military, a state prison, and in private practice for 30 years until retiring in 2007. He lives now in Belgium.

SPI Fellow Kevin Perrott is a cancer survivor who is now one of the leading figures in the life extension movement. His organizations work to cure disease, disseminate treatments, and extend the healthy human lifespan. He is founder and CEO of the Aging Research Network (AgeNet), Executive Director of the Methuselah Foundation Mprize, co-founder of SENS Research Foundation and LifeStar Institute, and a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.

In other news, check out the TED Talk by SPI Fellow John Allen Paulos, an American professor of mathematics at Temple University, who speaks on Stories vs. Statistics and notices that 2015 is a palindromic year, because it can be written as 11111011111 in binary notation.

And SPI Fellow Michael Semple, Visiting Research Professor in the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice at QueenÔÇÖs University Belfast, has written an article for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Making Peace with the Taliban, in which he says, once we acknowledge that in Afghanistan, neither side can win, this can open doors to better peace talks with religious fanatics.

The weekly report on the SPI Coalition
by Johnny Monsarrat

What are┬á┬áSPI┬áCoalition members doing during the holidays? It’s a time when┬áChristmas dominates our culture so heavily that non-believers and spiritual people who are not Christian can feel crowded out of the good cheer.

In the United States, the Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers sends care packages monthly to members of the military around the world, and in December care package meetings in Los Angeles and Alabama send good tiding to those who may feel overwhelmed with Christian celebration around them.

In Canada,┬áSecular Connexion S├®culaire (SCS) has written a version of the national anthem, O Canada, that does not refer to God. And they lobby politicians against┬áCanadaÔÇÖs anti-blasphemy law and its legal permission for religious people to make hateful statements.

The National Secular Society in the United Kingdom notes that national ceremonies┬ádo not need to be dominated by religion, as demonstrated recently by France’s somber memorial for the victims of the recent Paris attacks. They also lobby for removal of the┬á26 unelected Church of England bishops who sit in the UK House of Lords.

The Polish Humanist Association is standing against Hungary’s antidemocratic and xenophobic way that it’s treated refugees at its border. They’re collecting signatures for a citizens’ initiative.

And the Peruvian Rationalist Humanists┬árecently held a debate on the existence of God and are planning another event to debunk UFOs. They commonly educate the public about superstition and hold secular humanist ceremonies for those who don’t belong to a religion. Anyone up for a Secular Non-Denominational Gift-Giving Fir Tree Winter Solstice Celebration?