You are in the company of 
Roger Warren Evans
    
  Part of   www.LivePolitics.net                                 < Back to Home Page  
 
New
Living Diary
Index

New  participatory democracy

Taming the Corporations

My Welsh socialism

My New Socialist Settlement

Globalise the left!

Bevan  re-visited

RWE Biography

 

   

item0066B   962, 963

962   25 March 2004  

  • Many good letters-to-Editors never receive the oxygen of publicity, spiked unceremoniously every day.  My daughter Katharine wrote to The Guardian in February, but the letter has only just come to my attention - I think it deserves better - Ed.

Dear Guardian Editor

Mary Kenny is right to question what the content of an RE course on atheism could contain (Would you Adam and Eve it? February 17).  As an atheist, I have been asking myself similar questions.  But she unfortunately falls into the trap (understandable but demeaning) of portraying beliefs that have no deity and no folklore as boring and "dull".

My belief is that we are here on earth, in the form we take, as a result of physical, biological and chemical chance.  That, to me, is a source of daily inspiration. Churches and cathedrals are sites of spiritual wonder to me, in which I feel the hands and the minds of each and every unique human being who crafted them, and their longevity in the form of their lasting, beautiful buildings.

Every inequality between us, every wrong committed by one against another, individual or nation, is the responsibility of one or more human beings, and can be changed by our choices.

I believe there is no divine plan in which injustice makes some perverse sense, no afterlife in which to settle the score for ones wrongdoings. My atheism creates a strong basis for personal and collective morality, and a bottomless source of joy, wonder and magic about the world.  I also know that my beliefs are just that - beliefs.  They are no more matters of fact than any other person's beliefs.  The joy I derive from my beliefs corresponds as closely as you can imagine to the joy and enthusiasm of a person of religious faith.

Religious education at school for me was no more than five years of
sustained attempts to convert me to Christianity, so I am interested to see the RE Curriculum being opened to scrutiny.  If revised courses could do something to change the drab, inaccurate assumptions about atheist beliefs that Mary Kenny has regurgitated, then I would be happier about the prospect of  my children attending RE classes in the future.

Atheism is simply each person's own belief - it has no doctrine, no theology, no folklore and no source of authority on its interpretation.  "Atheism" is not an 'ism' - in the manner of Judaism or Buddhism.  It is after all only the name used by religious people to describe anyone whose understanding of the world contains no "God".

Kathy Evans

Drop Kathy a line direct

Or to further the on-line debate, drop me a line

 < Back to Home Page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

963  25 March 2004  

Dear Roger

LIBERTY Elections
In the next few days you will be receiving ballot papers for the election to the Council of Liberty.  There are 25 candidates for 15 places, including a number of women.  It is only the second time there has been a contest in the last few years.

 The overall situation at LIBERTY is a lot better than for some considerable time, thanks in large part to the efforts of our new Director, Shami Chakrabarti, to restore campaigning to the heart of LIBERTY's work. The Katherine Gun issue and the ongoing campaign work around the detainees in Belmarsh (as part of Liberty's wider opposition to the anti-terrorist legislation in general) have raised the organisation's profile dramatically.  

 

We are currently faced with a Government - and in particular a Home Secretary - disturbingly indifferent to the protection of our human rights and civil liberties - and all-too-eager to adopt the restrictive measures of their counterparts in the US.   It is therefore vital that LIBERTY shakes off the somewhat restrictive and at times over-legalistic approach of recent years (perhaps not surprising, given the preponderance of London lawyers both on the Council and on the Board).  We must seek to broaden both the scope and the appeal of its work, reaching out in particular to those communities who are most threatened by the ever-increasing attacks on fundamental rights.

Bearing this in mind, and as you may not know some of the candidates, I thought I would take the liberty of suggesting the following names (mostly not lawyers!), who I believe can be relied on to take an independent line –

Elizabeth Atherton
Gargi Battacharyya
Bill Bowring
Robin Cherney
Barbara Cohen
Madeleine Colvin
Michael Ellman
Melinda Janki
Doreen Lawrence
Maleiha Malik
Sally Temple
Glenroy Watson

Best regards (and please pass this to your daughter, to Welsh Fabians and as many other friends as you can!)
Michael

Michael Ellman

What do you think?  Drop me a line

 < Back to Home Page

 

  
 
 		  
   

Created by GMID Design & Communication

COPYRIGHT NOTICE
The originating content of this website is my own work, and subject to my copyright. But on one condition only, I hereby give my consent to its unrestricted reproduction for any purpose: the condition is that its source is subject to proper acknowledgment, giving my name, my assertion of copyright, and the name of this website as its source, namely: www.warrenevans.net - is that a deal?  Roger WE