HUMANISTS LAUNCH ‘NO RELIGION’ CENSUS CAMPAIGN

BRITISH HUMANISTS LAUNCH “NO RELIGION”
CAMPAIGN TO BE COUNTED IN 2011 CENSUS

www.guardian.co.uk - The British Humanist Association has launched a campaign to encourage non-believers and the seriously lapsed to tick the “no religion” box on the 2011 census with the aim of challenging religious privilege in Britain. Under the banner, “If you’re not religious, for God’s sake say so!” the campaign has been launched exactly five months ahead of the next 2011 census in England and Wales. According to the organization, public figures have spent the last 10 years claiming that most people in this country are religious to justify the money or attention spent on these communities. The BHA states that the census underestimates the number of non-religious people and inflates the Christian population. In 2001 Census, 15.1% of respondents did not answer the religion question and 7.8% of the people who did said they had no religion. That equates to 22.9% of respondents - approximately 13 million people - who were either non-religious, did not want to answer the question or failed to spot it.

Since the last census was carried out, the BHA believes the numbers of the non-religious have increased. And there have been high-profile campaigns by atheists such as Richard Dawkins and the group behind the Atheist bus. The BHA says it is time for people who never go to church or who never think about religion to come out in the open: “ What people do not realize is that by ticking the Christian box rather than the no religion box - which would more accurately reflect their identity - they have contributed to data used to justify an increase in the number of ‘faith’ schools, the public funding of religious groups, keeping Bishops in the House of Lords as of right, and the continuation of compulsory worship in schools.”


Hinduism Today Magazine says, “It is important to point out that this campaign seems to oppose a disillusioned or careless form of nominal Christianity in the UK, not the committed faithful of any religion - Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim or even Christian. It will be informative to know how many UK citizens fall into that category.” Great thinkers have debated about theism and atheism, and it seems that there is sufficient logic in support of the spiritual reality, at least as much as there is in support of atheism. However, atheists do not know that beyond the Realm of Logic lies the Realm of Spiritual Experience.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

There is a wide gulf between mind and spirit that can only be bridged by spiritual cultivation. There are so-called great men or rational thinkers who deny the existence of spirit. ... When theism is forced to give way to pantheism, atheism, scepticism and agnosticism, then irreligion, unscrupulousness and duplicity bring about chaos on earth. Sin and its consequences surge around us, tumultuously clamouring to have their way against our wishes, and we find ourselves in the midst of a whirlpool. He comes to save us from their clutches and re-establish peace and order. He may remain here and at the same time remain everywhere, both inside and outside the universe. ... With all His paraphernalia, majesty, might, glory, beauty, wisdom and supremacy, He reigns eternally in the spiritual world and exists simultaneously in every created object and place in His complete fullness.

Śrīla Bhakti Saranga Mahārāja :
“God-realization”
“Omnipotent God Beyond Error”
http://bvml.org/SBSGM/gr.html