Representatives of religious institutions are becoming increasingly frustrated at the restrictions placed on them by the government during lockdown. Amid the chaos that the coronavirus pandemic is already wreaking, there are various forms of dissent bubbling away, organised by aggrieved pastors, priests and imams, who feel that exceptions to the restrictions ought to be made […]
The winter 2020 issue of New Humanist is on sale now! Subscribe here for as little as £10 a year. Age of Anger Save the children The far-right conspiracy QAnon is threatening vital child protection work, as Richard Scorer reports. In July 2020, KidSafe felt compelled to issue a public statement. Headed “Not in Our […]
The hunt for life elsewhere in our solar system has long been focused on Mars. Our other near neighbour, Venus, is generally viewed as an unlikely cradle of life. There is plenty of water in its atmosphere, but 200km/h winds rage around the plant and with a 96 per cent carbon dioxide content, the planet […]
By 2050 there could be more plastic in the ocean than fish by weight. Plastics are complex polymers made up of long repeating chains of molecules that don’t dissolve in water, meaning plastic waste takes hundreds of years to decompose. Around one sixth of annual plastic production is from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the plastic used […]
Since the Unregistered Schools Team was established in 2016, over a hundred suspected illegal faith schools have been inspected in England. In April of last year, Ofsted estimated that up to 6,000 children were being taught at the unregistered establishments it had inspected, but that this was likely “the tip of the iceberg”. Many schools […]
Carlo Acutis’ tomb was opened for public veneration in Assisi, Italy A computer whizz may become the first saint of his generation, after being beatified by Pope Francis. Before his death of leukemia in 2006, at the age of 15, Carlo Acutis ran websites for Catholic organisations and catalogued purported miracles online – using the […]
A collection of 0.02, 0.03 and 0.04 carat solitaire diamonds A British environmentalist has announced plans to create thousands of carats of diamonds “made entirely from the sky”. Dale Vince, the founder of green energy supplier Ecotricity, has set up a “sky mining facility” in Gloucestershire to grow the “world’s first zero-impact diamonds”. Synthetic diamonds […]
Dr Vivian Asimov is an anthropologist and an expert in online mythology. She is a co-founder of alt-ac.uk and hosts the podcast ‘God Mode’. Her new book Digital Monsters is published by Clink Street Publishing. Your book explores the origins and nature of digital monsters: creatures created online and disseminated through various forms of technology. […]
Alice Roberts is an evolutionary biologist, osteoarchaeologist, author, broadcaster and President of Humanists UK. Andrew Copson is the Chief Executive of Humanists UK, President of Humanists International and a trustee of the Religious Education Council. “The Little Book of Humanism: Universal lessons on finding purpose, meaning and joy” was published by Piatkus in August 2020. […]
Babri Masjid demolition, 1992. Image: Ayman Aumi A special court in India has acquitted all senior figures in the ruling party of their role in the Babri mosque demolition. While the world’s attention was fixated on the Trump / Biden debate, the judgment confirmed fears that Indian democracy is but a shell of its former […]