Do you think that without religion far fewer people would do caring work/charity work? I have worried in the past, that without religion, all we'd have is horrible capitalist greed and self interest ( Read more... )

1)I've had a few people say to me recently that there is no point in feminism in this country - that women are basically equal. I'm just wondering how common this view is. I think it's entirely wrong, given that women still earn less, are still victims of domestic violence/rape to a greater degree than men, etc ( Read more... )

God, Andrew Brown's column in the Guardian is annoying.

He argues here that children need God.

And here he argues that the environment can only be saved by religion.

Women and religion.

I'm getting past the point now of believing that it's simply men's interpretation of their holy books that's the issue, and not the foundational texts of their faiths that are also at fault. To paraphrase the US-based Freedom from Religion Foundation: the Bible itself is a handbook for the subjugation of women. But then the ( Read more... )

Article on benefits and unemployment. This is basically what I think.

Oh, and this is worrying:

The British Chamber of Commerce predicts that things will only get worse, with unemployment rising to 3.2 million by the end of 2010.

Poll

1) Gordon Brown - Laissez-faire is over.

Why on earth is he still part privatising the post-office, and the benefits system in that case?

2)The Barclay's tax avoidence whistleblower writes very eloquently about it all IMO.

Poverty in the UK.

By midday on Wednesday, Louise Spencer has £6.80 left in her purse to last until Monday, which works out at £1.36 a day to pay for anything she and her two small children might need.

I've been thinking about embryo screening for various genetic conditions a fair bit, for a while. I'm still slightly uncomfortable with it, because I think it might lead to a situation where people are entirely judged by their value to society (if people could screen out mental health conditions and low intelligence, for instance), and I wouldn't ( Read more... )

Really really irritating Guardian article about atheism. And a follow up.

ARGH COLUMNISTS.

But there's a pretty good explanation of atheism written by Jonathan West as a response.