A very interesting day of media interviews today on the census results but I’m struck by how truly strange some of the questions seemed. The first was this idea that even though most people say they’re not Christians, don’t share those beliefs & values, and don’t practice, somehow they’re Christian really by virtue of ethnicity.

Here is the snap reaction from @Humanists_UK on today's astonishing census results for England and Wales. The top headlines... 🧵 1/4

humanists.uk/2022/11/29/non… The number of people identifying with ‘No religion’ jumped by over 8 million, from 25% to 37% between 2011 and 2021... 2/4

Top line figures of 2021 Census results on religion 👇

Those ticking:

🟡‘No religion’ – Increase of 12 percentage points from 2011 (25% – 37%)

🟢‘Christian’ – Decrease of 13 percentage points from 2011 (59% – 46%)

Hugely significant!
ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulati… These results confirm that the biggest demographic change in England and Wales of the last ten years has been the dramatic growth of the non-religious. They mean the UK is almost certainly one of the least religious countries on Earth.

Excellent news! The Health and Social Care Committee looks set to launch an inquiry into assisted dying in the new year – the first since 2004. humanists.uk/2022/11/28/ass… Over 370 million people now have the right to an assisted death globally – with our neighbours Scotland and France looking increasingly likely to join them.

No doubt more & more horrific stories like this will emerge as we get closer to the #WorldCup. And sadly, that’s just the beginning: #Qatar’s entire human rights climate is extremely concerning.🧵
inews.co.uk/news/qatar-off… 🔴#Qatar is one of 13 countries around the world where you can be sentenced to death for expressing an opinion deemed blasphemous or for apostasy.
🔴Very few religious groups are currently officially registered in Qatar:...
fot.humanists.international/countries/asia…

His attacker wanted to silence him so let's spend a bit of time reminded ourselves of some of Salman's greatest words... 'I can walk into a bookshop and point out a number of books that I find very unattractive in what they say. But it doesn't occur to me to burn the bookshop down. If you don't like a book, read another book.'

Many thanks to the brave men and women of Hinckley and Bosworth @LFRSFireControl who got this under control after it had come into our garden but before it reached our gas tanks!

https://twitter.com/LFRSFireControl/status/1557712856568791040

Well, at least it’s cleared the decks for the raised beds for vegetables we’d been planning!

Tomorrow on #HMD2021 we remember victims of the genocidal Nazi regime and of the many acts of other governments in the years since and in today. As it’s @Humanists_UK 125th anniversary and a year for humanist history, I also want to think about the Nazis' humanist victims. 1/9 In 1933 the Nazi government banned humanist and other freethinking and secular groups. Hitler boasted he'd won his ‘fight against the atheist movement’ and ‘stamped it out’. That year Hitler made many speeches saying that only Christian organisations could be permitted 2/9

To coincide with #HolocaustMemorialDay, last night I offered humanist reflections on why we must speak up for Uyghurs in China. The atrocities of the mid-20th century have given us a permanent & horrifying example of what can happen when human solidarity falters. @Rene_Cassin In Nazi Germany, even though most people knew what was happening was wrong, they looked the other way. They did not speak up for the Jews, the Roma, lesbians and gay men, and all those that faced persecution or death, which included humanists.

It's @DyingMatters #DyingMattersAwarenessWeek and the theme is #DyingToBeHeard - we need to talk more about death.

I have a personal reason to feel strongly about this.

In 2018 my younger (and only) brother had a sudden and catastrophic heart attack at the age of 35. He was living and working outside the UK so my mum and I had to rush to be with him. He was unconscious with no hope of meaningful recovery but because he was on life support, we were the ones who had to make the decisions about what should happen next.

Last month I did videos on humanism and one of the messages I got was from someone wanting to know more about the 'pre-modern' humanists. So each day this week I'm going to tell you about one of them, from ancient China, India, Greece, and Rome. Of course, these are humanists from before the word 'humanism' was invented. But they are people who had humanist beliefs or values in large part and expressed them.

Had a difficult week?

Five positive things to do this weekend online

👇 1. Share something uplifting!

Listening to the news and trawling through social media can be quite overwhelming at the moment. If you come across a positive news story – whether it’s about an act of kindness or human progress – share it!

https://twitter.com/Humanists_UK/status/1243141967900545024?s=20

This judgement by @UKSupremeCourt is a sad blow against free speech, that puts the supposed "rights" of a commercial business above the rights of an individual human being, which we continue to believe should be the only bearer of human rights. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northe… Ashers, which has a chain of outlets, did not try to accommodate the customer's order by having it fulfilled by an employee who has no personal conscientious objection to the message. It just simply refused.