26 Facts About Humanists UK

1.

Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association, is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs" in the United Kingdom by campaigning on issues relating to humanism, secularism, and human rights.

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2.

The current President of Humanists UK is Adam Rutherford and the Chief Executive is Andrew Copson.

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3.

Humanists UK has sections which run as staffed national humanist organisations in both Wales and Northern Ireland.

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4.

Humanists UK was a co-founder in 1969 of the Social Morality Council, which brought together believers and unbelievers concerned with moral education and with finding agreed solutions to moral problems in society.

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5.

Humanists UK was active in arguing for voluntary euthanasia and the right to obtain an abortion.

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6.

Humanists UK claimed that the rules on religious programming within the BBC constitute a "religious privilege" and reserve particular criticism for the Thought for the Day slot on Radio 4's Today programme.

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7.

Humanists UK represents not just a new logo, but a totally new, friendly look that captures the essence of humanism: open, inclusive, energetic, and modern, with people and their stories placed first and foremost.

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8.

In September 2011, Humanists UK launched their "Teach evolution, not creationism" campaign, which aimed to establish statutory opposition to creationism in the UK education system.

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9.

Humanists UK has long campaigned in opposition to collective worship laws in the UK which require all schools to hold school assemblies "of a broadly Christian character".

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10.

Humanists UK has supported the rights for those who need assistance in ending their own lives, and lobbied parliament for a change in the law, on behalf of Tony Nicklinson and Paul Lamb, in their 'Right to Die' legal cases.

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11.

Humanists UK had been providing same-sex wedding ceremonies for decades, and had strongly supported legalising same-sex marriage years in advance of eventual UK and Scottish legislation.

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12.

On 21 October 2008, Humanists UK lent its official support to Guardian journalist Ariane Sherine as she launched a fundraising drive to raise money for the UK's first atheist advertising campaign, the Atheist Bus Campaign.

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13.

In total the ASA received 326 complaints about the campaign, with many claiming that the wording was offensive to the religious, however Humanists UK contested the complaint and commented on the plausibility of the ASA making a claim as to the "probability of God's existence".

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14.

In 2011, Humanists UK campaigned to get atheists, agnostics and other non-believers to tick the "no religion" box in response to the optional religion question in the 2011 census.

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15.

Humanists UK believed the question was worded in such a way as to increase the number of currently non-religious or nominally religious people who list the religion they grew up in rather than their current religious views, and thus the results would have been skewed to make the country seem more religious than it actually is.

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16.

Humanists UK believes that this supposed overstatement of religious belief creates a situation where "public policy in matters of religion and belief will unduly favour religious lobbies and discriminate against people who do not live their lives under religion".

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17.

Humanists UK presided over the founding Congress of the Union in 1896.

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18.

Since 2018, Humanists UK celebrants have been able to conduct legally recognised marriages in Northern Ireland.

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19.

Humanists UK maintains a network of roughly 150 trained and accredited volunteers in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland who go into hospitals, hospices, prisons, universities, and other settings to provide like-minded comfort and support to non-religious people during times of distress, much like a traditional religious chaplain.

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20.

Young Humanists UK is the organisation's youth wing, which launched early in 2015 with a number of events in cities across the UK.

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21.

Humanists UK is a founding member of Humanists International, and the European Humanist Federation.

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22.

In September 2008, Humanists UK joined with religious organisations, teachers' unions, and other human rights campaigns groups to found the Accord Coalition, a diverse coalition made up of groups that oppose religious segregation in education.

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23.

Humanists UK was a founding member of the BPAS "We Trust Women" coalition, which campaigns for the full decriminalisation of abortion throughout the UK.

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24.

Some groups are formally partnered with Humanists UK, which entitles them to added staff and promotional support, while others maintain a looser affiliate agreement.

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25.

From 2011 Humanists UK presented an annual award for special contributions to Humanism.

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26.

Humanists UK responded that this was the very point of the campaign: that she, like many other parents, had little choice over where to send her child and that she would have preferred a non-faith school option local to her.

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