Beyond Belief Extra – Fiat Novitas!

Next month will see the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne in Australia, where several thousand of the faithful faithless will gather to hear the like of Dawkins, PZ Myers and AC Grayling hold forth on enlightenment, reason, truth and science. Oh and they may mention God and religion once or twice. But isn’t it a little weird for a bunch of atheists to start acting like a religion? Maybe a bit, according to the head of the Atheist Foundation of Australia, David Nicholls. “[Atheists] do not believe in shoving views down thoats. They mistrust group-think and are suspicious of institutions. […] Atheists are, by definition, not joiners.” Individualists or not, over 2500 will congregate this March to swap thoughts and ideas, as a group (Sydney Morning Herald).

And if you can have an atheist congregation, how long will it be before there’s an atheist preacher? Well this is exactly the situation the Dutch Protestant Church found themselves in recently after one of their number, Klass Hendrikse, published a book called Believing in a God who does not exist. Surprisingly, they have decided to do nothing, concluding that Hendrikse’s beliefs, which include that God is not a real being but just a word for people’s shared feelings, are not so different from many other liberal theologies (RNW).

Slightly less tolerance was shown to Mark Edward Tynan of the Christian faith group “Servants of Jesus” this week when the Australian health watchdog banned him from practising any form of mental health medicine. The Psychologists Tribunal sadly took a dim view of Tynan’s opinion that dissociative identity disorder was caused by demons, and that one child’s mental health problems were due to her parents having dedicated her life to Satan. His innovative treatment plans of prayer and exorcisms were also roundly disapproved of (Telegraph(AU)).

Someone else to lose their job over a wacky belief this week is Baroness Jenny Tonge, shadow health spokesperson for the UK’s Liberal Democrat Party. Her problems started when an American blogger called Stephen Lendman resurrected the old “organ harvesting” myth in an article that accused Israeli medical teams sent to Haiti of doing just that. The allegations appeared in the Palestine Telegraph ,of which Tonge is patron, but it was for her suggestion to the Jewish Chronicle that an inquiry should be held to “dispel any rumours” that she got into trouble. Unfortunately for her, Liberal Party leader Nick Clegg did not feel the Israeli doctors should have to prove themselves innocent of any and all nonsense flung their way, and promptly removed her from her post (Spiked).

But that’s not to say that religion and politics can’t get along just fine. Or at least that’s the view of Indian-born Sikh Rajinder Singh, who aims to become the first, and probably only, non-white member of the ultra-far-right British Nationalist Party after a UK court ruled that their colour-bar on membership was illegal discrimination (ya think?). What attracted the retired teacher to join a party that does not consider any non-white person to be British, regardless of place of birth or naturalisation? Easy, the BNP are the only party that openly shares his opinion of Muslims (AFP).

Another odd match-up is religion and technology, but that hasn’t stopped a surprising growth in religiously themed apps for the latest generation of iPods and iPhones. Ranging from worthy efforts like apps that read biblical passages aloud (handy for the god-botherer on the go) to humorous efforts like the “Hallelujah” button which plays the refrain from Handel’s famous chorus when pressed (Telegraph).

But one thing that definitely doesn’t sit well with religion is fact. That at least is the opinion of Britain’s Office of National Statistics, who have become so fed up with trying to tease meaningful data out of people’s often tongue-in-cheek responses that they are considering scrapping a decadal census that stretches back over 200 years to 1801, and instead relying on existing government records. One example cited was from the last census, conducted in 2001, where nearly 400000 people registered their religion as “Jedi” and 7000 as “witch” (Times). Mind you, the lumping together of Jedis and Wiccans has already got one columnist hot under the collar (Guardian).

(Image: First Church of Atheism.)