WEBSITES OF INTEREST FOR HUMANISTS

Concordatwatch - www.concordatwatch.eu. A Concordat is a political agreement between the Vatican and a national government, which binds the government to a Papal judgement, even where it contravenes the usual law of that country - for example on human rights. 'Concordatwatch' explains this little known concept and puts it in historical perspective, plus monitoring the renewed spread of a disturbing phenomena.

National Secular Society - www.secularism.org.uk/nsshome.htm. Oldest UK organisation campaigning to cut links between church and state. Very good links to other sites, constant updates. Also has an excellent free weekly e-mail news service.

International Humanist & Ethical Union - www.rationalist.org.uk International association of major national humanist societies, with reports and contributions from numerous countries.

British Humanist Association - www.humanism.org.uk. Main humanist group – less aggressive than NSS, more emphasis on neutral information. Again good links to other sites. Also has numerous sub-groups, such as the BHA SACRE subcommittee for teachers and concerned parents.

Humanist Association of Ireland - www.irish-humanists.org

Humani (Humanist Association of Northern Ireland) - www.nireland.humanists.net

Humanist Society of Scotland - www.humanism-scotland.org.uk

Belfast Humanist Group - www.belfast.humanists.net/preface.htm

Liverpool Humanist Group - http://www.liverpoolhumanists.co.uk/

Lancashire Humanist Group - http://www.lancashiresecularhumanists.co.uk

Rationalist Press Association - www.rationalist.org.uk. Publisher of books and pamphlets, also New Humanist magazine (cms.newhumanist.org.uk.) – glossy upmarket monthly with numerous well known contributors. Publications range from contemporary through to ‘classic’ reprints (Russell, Shelley, etc.)

The Freethinker - www.freethinker.co.uk. Website for a monthly secular campaigning magazine of quality - even Manx Freethinkers have appeared!

The British Humanist Association has created a new site for local groups. Click on www.humgroups.org.uk and follow the links for more information.

Fish/Evolve Fish - evolvefish.com/index.html. A website offering much witty and provocative atheist merchandise, from T shirts and badges through to serious publications.

Cult Information Centre - www.cultinformation.org.uk/home.html. Not quite what it seems, as the main sponsors include C of E, Baptist Union and Evangelical Alliance, but some useful information for young people on the stranger religious cults.

The American Atheist - www.americanatheist.org. The larger of the two atheist organisations. Also try the ‘What’s New’ link for more information and resources.

Council for Secular Humanism - www.secularhumanism.org/fi. Publishers of ‘Free Inquiry’ – US magazine of some repute. CSH now have an online newsletter , while for students, the linked organisation ‘Centre for Inquiry – On Campus’ produces ‘Campus Inquirer’, an online newsletter for US students who want to promote ‘reason, science, free inquiry and church-state separation in education’. You can subscribe to both newsletters, as well as 2 others of particular interest to scientists and those in the health professions, at either http://ga1.org/secular_humanism/join.html?r=hdwTxhK1Suv2E or http://ga1.org/cfi_oncampus/join.html

Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association - http://www.galha.org/ . GALHA offer a variety of resources, which includes a magazine with articles centred on homophobia, religion and sexuality by well respected writers – probably one of the best sources of such material available to serious students of such issues. See also the Pink Triangle Trust blog (http://ptt-blog.blogspot.com/), which is updated daily with topical items of interest. Some of the best, most pertinent news and analysis you'll read anywhere in the British humanist community.'

Theocracywatch – http://www.theocracywatch.org/ . An academic study project run by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy (CRESP) at Cornell University in the USA. As well as online information and news, there are seminar announcements, CDs and a range of other academic materials. The emphasis is on the erosion of US democracy by the religious right, researched and presented in a thoroughly objective manner by leading academics.

Mediawatchwatch - http://www.mediawatchwatch.org.uk/ . This site sprang up in reaction to the increasingly intimidatory tactics of UK religious extremists. The name is a pun of Mary Whitehouse’s old TV activist group, and reflects the site’s general policy of turning the tables on her markedly more belligerent heirs.

Rationalist International - http://www.rationalistinternational.net/ . The best source of writing by secular, humanist and atheist thinkers from the Indian subcontinent. Sometimes a healthy corrective to the US or ‘Eurocentrist’ nature of other secular thinking, and always a firm answer to those who claim that ‘Secularism = Westernism’.

Maryam Namazie is an Iranian-born humanist writer and campaigner against Islamic extremism currently living in London. For some of the best informed coverage of such issues on the internet, try her website at www.maryamnamazie.com. For updates on current campaigns in which you can help stop such abuse, visit her blog at http://maryamnamazie.blogspot.com/ 

Skeptics Annotated Bible - http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/ . A thoroughly researched and amusing guide to the contradictory and sometimes alarming ‘lessons’ of the Bible. Not only lists sources of familiar ‘Biblical evidence’ wrenched out of context to ‘prove’ bizarre arguments, but shows how a diametrically opposed view will inevitably be found within the same pages!