jel, according to a friend of mine who organises Think Week, they wanted to play a part in the event, but the Theology department hogged it.

Did the title need to be capitalised?

man's greatest question [is] The nature of human beings and the question of their ultimate origin

That’s a matter of opinion. Personally, I would think a great question would not to be one not yet adequately scientifically answered.

God is the power or the intelligence that shapes the whole of that process

This guy has clearly never studied the mathematical, statistical basis of population genetics.

God's act is the beginning of all creation

Does this guy even know that evolution began billions of years after “creation”?

UK Christian leaders warn religion is being pushed out of public life

Doesn’t a warning have to be of a bad thing?

Christian leaders fear prayers could be driven from public life after a court ruled that a council had acted unlawfully by allowing them at meetings

How can enforcing an existing law be a big change?

It is the latest legal defeat for Christians in the High Court, and came on the same day a religious couple lost their appeal against turning away a gay couple from their Bed and Breakfast guesthouse.

If Christianity has to be homophobic – if – then it deserves to lose. If not, even a concern for the needs of Christianity shouldn’t make us sympathetic to the couple.

If they get their way it will have enormous implications for things such as prayers in parliament, the Remembrance Day, the Jubilee celebrations (marking the 60-year reign of Queen Elizabeth) and even the singing of the national anthem

Putting aside how plausible that claim is (the Jubilee in particular leaves little time for legal changes, and David Cameron will never let it through away), we shouldn’t only be worried about these enormous implications if they’re bad, and no reason to think that has yet been presented.

The right to worship

differs from government enforcement of worship.

Prayers could be said as long as councillors were not formally summoned to attend though, the judge ruled.

Then what are all the Christians moaning about?

The NSS and Clive Bone also argued that atheist council members were being “indirectly discriminated against”, in breach of human rights laws, a line rejected by the court

I’d love to hear each side’s case for whether or not it was happening. Does anyone know more about this than me?

Every time there is a survey of religious beliefs in this country, around 70 percent of the population profess religious faith

It depends on the wording. If people are asked if they are religious, only about half say so; if they are asked what religion they are, you can get the larger figure he quotes. This shows it is unreal. People identify in a group fashion based on their childhood rather than thinking about what they actually believe.

We are actually talking about something that still accords with the mood and the outlook of the majority

Even if most people pray, that’s very different from most people thinking governmental forces should be encouraging or even requiring prayer. There are religious secularists.

Thanks, Alan4discussion; that was my guess.

Whoops! I just spent ages typing a lengthy response to a post, but upon submission I find the original is now gone, so my points replying to it could only benefit anyone who had already read that post within the first few minutes, i.e. few if any. Just out of curiosity, moderators, why was it deleted? I didn't spot how it violated the Terms of Use, but then again it's not like I know them off by heart.