Vern Bullogh

The Delphi Conference

The first International Multidisciplinary Conference on Human Behaviour and the Meaning of Modern Humanism, co-sponsored by IHEU, was held at Delphi, Greece, June 1995.

THIS unusual conference was organised by a g

Werner Schultz

Cross with the Church

THE federal region of Bavaria has always had a special position in Germany. In general people there are Catholic and 'firm in belief' to the tip of their toes. By law there was a crucifix hanging on the wall of every classroom in all schools. Now the Federal Constitutional Court has finally prohibited this practice - and caused an outcry among Catholic fundamentalists.

The Christians, however, must be prepared to answer the question as to whether they are applying double standards, as has so often happened before.

In the USA there have been three setbacks to the idea of separation of church and state.

i) The Supreme Court ordered a Virginia University to fund a student run religious magazine. This is the first time the court has approved state funding for proselytising literature.

ii) The Supreme Court, by a 7-2 margin, ordered Ohio to let the Ku Klux Klan erect a cross on a public square, saying that government agencies must allow privately-sponsored displays that include religious symbols to be erected on public property.

iii) President Clinton has made a surprise call for more religious expression in public schools.

PIET THOENES:

in memoriam

Pier Thoenes, who has died recently, was a popular and important co.chairman of the IHEU 1975-1978}. He had a distinguished academic career as a social scientist, writing over 40 books and articles.

ROBBI ROBSON

Looking at the World through Women's Eyes

Robbi Robson represented the IHEU at the United Nations' Fourth World Conference in Beijing in September.

THE governments of the world met in Beijing to agree a Global Platform for Action on women's rights and gender equality.

The Nettie Column

THINGS are not going well with women all over the world and in many places things go very badly. If the world were a village with one thousand inhabitants, 501 would be women, and 499 men. Of those 140 women and 50 men would be illiterate, 156 women and 78 men would live in dire poverty. In that village women account for two thirds of all working hours and they receive ten per cent of the revenues.

HUMANISTS DOWN UNDER

RAY DAHLITZ

EARLIER this year, the life of Australian Humanists gravitated to Melbourne. Victorian Humanists were the hosts for the 30th Convention of the Council of Australian Humanist Societies (CAHS).

Gunn Vayrynen

The humanist movement in Finland

One could of course maintain that merely the Welfare State and the ideology behind it is a manifestation of a humanist way of thinking.

FRANK NEVILLE

A Civilian Peace Service

Frank Neville, International Officer of the Humanist Society of Scotland, reports on the case for peace maintenance by conscientious objectors to military conscription being trained for non-violent conciliation work.

SIR Hermann Bondi has pointed out that Christianity has been influenced for the better by the existence of humanism.

A pertinent case -- it would seem likely - is the proposal for a Civilian Peace Service worked out between 1992 and 1994 by the Protestant Church in Berlin-Brandenburg.

ETHICAL HUMANIST CONFERENCE IN COSTA RICA

by Warren Allen Smith

The first major humanist conference in Latin America took place in Costa Pica in July 1995. Warren Allen smith, an editorial associate of Free Inquiry in the USA, reports:

THE Ibero-American Ethical Humanist Association (Associacion Iberoamericana Ptico Humanista -- ASIBEHU) met in San Jose, Costa Rica, 20-22 July 1995.