Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill call for views
The Scottish Government are consulting on proposals to remove the gender qualification for civil partnerships, i.e. that they would be available to couples not of the same sex. The consultation can be found here and anyone is welcome to respond, although the deadline is this Friday. The consultation also deals with some of the consequential matters that would arise from the proposed change in the law. The Society has responded to the consultation as follows: Introduction The Scottish Secular Society seeks to work towards a Scotland in which no person is disadvantaged by their adherence (or...
Read MoreAGM 2019
Dram! 7pm, 13th June 2019 The summer is back and it is time for our AGM, the main event of the year where the whole of the Scottish Secular Society can look to the year ahead, make alterations to the constitition and shape the voice of Scottish secularism. All members are invited to propose changes to the constitution and influence our focus. Send your suggestions to secretary@secularsociety.scot or raise them on the night. Find us at Dram! 232 Woodlands Road, G3 6ND to start at around 7pm.
Read MoreRoss Greer with the Scottish Secular Society
We are happy to announce that Ross Greer has confirmed to be our guest and speaker for our August 2nd meeting. Sworn in as an MSP for the West of Scotland in 2016, Ross has been a tenacious activist since joining the Green Party at 15 years old. He has continuing deep roots with the youth wing of his party and was pivotal in getting young people politically aware and engaged and, of particular self-proclaimed interest: how to organise. Ross also bucks the trend of youth engagement with Christianity and is open about how his faith informs his politics and inspires his activism to...
Read MoreSecularists Must Challenge Racist Discourse Not Enable It
Secularism, like any other social concept, carries different connotations to different people in different parts of the world. To consolidate a purely definitional view of secularism as proposed by French academic Jean Bauberot: secularism is the formal separation of the state and religious institutions, freedom of thought, conscience and religion and no state discrimination against anyone on the grounds of their belief. No state in the world adheres to this definition entirely and because of the complexities of concepts such as discrimination it arguably never will be fulfilled for everyone...
Read MorePress Release – Dismay at the Scottish Government’s plans to increase funding for Catholic education.
On June 2nd Nicola Sturgeon revealed plans to multiply by a factor of almost 5 the amount of public money being spent on preparing trainee teachers for the Catholic Teaching Certificate (CTC), a requirement for teaching in Catholic schools but for no other purpose. Although the absolute sums involved are not large, this is public money, raised through taxation levied on a population of which now only one in eight is Catholic, while the majority has no religious affiliation whatsoever. This investment is particularly troubling in the context of the recent report published by the Accounts...
Read MoreCongratulations on the Repeal of the 8th
Photo: Mark Condren In the celebration of today’s results, the Scottish Secular Society congratulates Ireland on today’s result after an incredible campaign for repeal, and hope it heralds a more compassionate healthcare system for Irish women. As the bishops and other reactionaries repeated apocalyptic ramblings of “murdered babies” and social collapse, the Irish people have turned their sympathies towards those who should not have needed to have fought for such a choice. Since the 40s the Catholic Church in Ireland has used women’s bodies and a denial of their autonomy as...
Read MoreWelcoming our new 2018 Board
To the new and continuing members of the board: a big welcome and congratulations.
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Our response to the survey indicating that 70% of young people in the UK do not consider themselves religious
This week saw the publication of figures concerning the religiosity of Europe’s young people. These figures published in a report prepared by Stephen Bullivant for the European Council of [Catholic] Bishops are based on data from the European Social Survey 2014-16 and show that in the UK a majority of the adult population, and 70% of young people (16-29), identify as having no religion. These figures show the privileged place of religion in our system of government to be grossly out of step with the views of the governed. Currently the UK still has 26 bishops sitting and voting in the...
Read More7 June | Charlie Lynch – Adam Smith: Representing the Kirk on Screen in the early 1970s
Our Secretary Charlie Lynch will be joining us to discuss his paper on the 1970s Television series, Adam Smith. Adam Smith was co-written by the left-wing playwright Trevor Griffiths and starred Scottish character actor, Andrew Keir, and was produced with the assistance of the Church of Scotland. It depicted the life and struggles of a parish minister in a fictional village in the Scottish Borders. Charlie will discuss how the series can be analysed as a depiction of the Kirk and Scottish society in an age of rapid social and cultural changes. Charlie will pay particular attention to the...
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