Tag Archives: christianity

WATCH: 3 Reasons To Avoid The Christmas Shoebox Appeal

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I decided to make a video detailing the reasons why you shouldn’t support the Christmas Shoebox Appeal organised by The Samaritan’s Purse. Please share it and send it the way of those who may not be aware of this information.

Relevant Links and Resources:

Article ‘The Christmas Shoebox Appeal Is A Manipulative Indoctrination Campaign’

Article ‘Why Parents Shouldn’t Support ‘Operation Christmas Child’

Secular Alternatives To The Shoebox Appeal

Download – Letter Template To Send To Schools To Request The Cease Support Of ‘Operation Christmas Child’

Stephen Knight is host of The #GSPodcast. You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast here, and support it by becoming a patron here.

Report From The #Secularism2016 Conference

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The annual National Secular Society conference took place in Central London on Saturday 3rd September. As always, it was a fantastic occasion featuring some excellent guest speakers talking on important topics. It was nice to see some familiar faces and make the acquaintance of some new ones too.

I’d also like to thank those of you who approached me to say hello throughout the day – it was a pleasure meeting you all.

I’ll share some thoughts, observations and media from the conference with you. You can read about the guests in full here, but I will note a few highlights below. Read more

Ep#82 – Tom Holland – Islam and History

The excellent author and Historian Tom Holland (@holland_tom) will be joining me on this week’€™s #GSPodcast. We talk about the Islamic texts, the example of Muhammad and look at religion through a historical lens. Tom also opens up about his pogonophobia.

Also available on iTunes and Stitcher.

Support the podcast at www.patreon.com/gspellchecker

Listeners get a free audiobook and trial with Audible at http://www.audibletrial.com/gs

#GSPodcast Theme by Dorian Silk & The MCH



Direct Mp3 Download

‘Come Home (Cardinal Pell)’ by Tim Minchin

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I love Tim Minchin. I doubt I could ever get tired of the beautiful way he infuses comedy, scepticism and music. His sceptical beat poem ‘Storm’ is one of the closest things to perfection I think I’ve ever heard.

Tim’s latest ditty sets its sights firmly on Cardinal Pell. As you can read, Pell is due his day in Australia to answer questions over child sex abuse allegations, but is refusing to travel due to health reasons. See Minchin’s call for him to ‘face the music’ below. Money raised from the sale of this song will go to the survivors of sexual abuse:

Stephen Knight is host of The #GSPodcast. You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast here, and support it by becoming a patron here.

An Open Letter To St Andrew’s Primary School

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Earlier this week, I blogged about some concerning public comments made by the Head Teacher of St. Andrew’s Primary School in Accrington, UK regarding evolution and the Bible. I also proposed an offer to crowd source funds for a School trip to The Natural History Museum. I have followed up on that offer with the below email to the school. Please feel free to share and repost it.


From: Stephen Knight
Date: Thursday 28 January 2016
To: St Andrew’s Primary School
Subject: National History Museum Trip

Good Morning,

My name is Stephen Knight. I am a podcaster, blogger and occasional fundraiser. I read with surprise and concern the public comments made by Head Teacher Christina Wilkinson on Twitter regarding evolution and the Bible.

“Evolution is not a fact. That’s why it’s called a theory! There’s more evidence that the Bible is true”. (25 Jan 2016)

I’ve published my thoughts on these comments here.

I’m a staunch supporter of free expression and freedom of religion, however given that these comments were made in an official capacity as Head Teacher, I feel that they must be addressed by the school. Especially since Mrs Wilkinson’s views do not appear to be representative of the curriculum. There is a fundamental misunderstanding of what evolution is, what scientific ‘theory’ means and what constitutes ‘evidence’ which I find worrying.

Although I do not currently possess information to claim that the pupils of St. Andrew’s are being disadvantaged by Mrs Wilkinson’s failings in this area, given her senior role, her views do not fill me with confidence either.

With this in mind, I’d like to propose an offer. I would be pleased to launch a crowd sourcing campaign to fund a field trip to the Natural History Museum for some of the pupils of St. Andrew’s. It would be a truly enlightening and exciting experience for the young, inquisitive minds at your school. They will have the opportunity to learn about the wonders of evolution and see the abundance of evidence with their own eyes.

I hope we can work through the details of this together. It would be a fantastic opportunity and experience.

I will be also be publishing this as an open letter. I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards

Stephen


I will update this blog with any responses.

Stephen Knight is host of The #GSPodcast. You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast here, and support it by becoming a patron here.

The Pope Thanks Kim Davis For Her ‘Courage’

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I’ve never quite understood why many of my fellow secularists fawn over Pope Francis. There seems to be an unexplainable consensus that this Pope is some sort of uber-liberal who’ll spearhead an era of progressiveness within the Catholic Church.

He is no such thing. His public rhetoric may be more palatable, but the edicts and dogma remain the same. This is simply a new era of savvy public relations, rather than anything of actual substance.

This is evidenced in the Pope’s reported sit-down time with Kim Davis recently.

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