ATTORNEY: What Gear Were You in at the Moment of the Impact?

Welcome Welcome to September! In addition to our usual Central Manchester Meeting programme of monthly meetings, we are offering those that wish to explore the fundamentals of Humanist thought Please note that there has been a change to the in a fun, social setting, a place on the introductory course meeting schedule for September. Dr Joanna which starts on 19 September! I’d also like to bring to your Bryson is now unable to attend at the meting on 13 attention that the Humanists UK Holyoake lecture which September 2017 to talk about the subject of will be delivered by author and commentator, Douglas Artificial Intelligence. This meeting will be re- Murray, will take place in Manchester on 3 October. This scheduled and the details will be notified annual lecture explores current political and social thought accordingly. from a Humanist perspective and continuing with last years theme the topic is “Towards a Humanist Politics”. It is expected that the event will be well attended so it may be Wednesday 13 September at 7.30pm advisable to book your ticket now to avoid disappointment. TED Film and Discussion We're going to show a TED film lasting approximately 25 minutes and then have a general LOL! discussion about it. All of the below are taken from a book We've had a break in August, so please use this as called "Disorder in Court" and are an opportunity to get back into the swing of our things people actually said, word for monthly meetings, and maybe use this as a word, taken down and published by possibility for inviting along a friend or colleague court reporters. and introducing them to Humanism?

The meeting will take place at Friends Meeting ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at House, 6 Mount Street, Manchester, M2 5NS. the moment of the impact? Meetings formally end around 9pm but a number WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks. of us go on to The Waterhouse, 67-71 Street,

Manchester for further discussion and liquid ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth? refreshment! WITNESS: July 18th. ATTORNEY: What year? Contributions: We ask for the following WITNESS: Every year. contributions towards the cost of room hire: members £2.50; non-members £3.50 (students £1). ATTORNEY: How old is your son, the one living with However, there is no charge for those attending you? their first meeting. In addition, there is a charge of WITNESS: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember £1.50 for tea or coffee and a biscuit. which. ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual? ATTORNEY: How long has he lived with you? WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a WITNESS: Forty-five years. beard. ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female? ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going memory at all? with male. WITNESS: Yes. ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning memory? pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your WITNESS: I forget. attorney? ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work. something you forgot?

ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was you performed on dead people? taken? WITNESS: Are you shitting me? September 2017 Newsletter 1 WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight. Stockport Humanists The next meeting will take place at 7.30pm on ATTORNEY: She had three children, right? Wednesday 20 September. Resident historian Robin WITNESS: Yes. Grinter will talk to the group about "The Utilitarians". ATTORNEY: How many were boys? He will introduce the philosophy as one of the most WITNESS: None. important moral traditions, and show how Jeremy ATTORNEY: Were there any girls? Bentham and John Stuart Mill established its core WITNESS: Your Honor, I need a different attorney. Can principles. The second part will involve group I get a new attorney? discussions on scenarios relating to a number of issues raised by the philosophy, with a plenary in ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated? which Robin explain the Utilitarian position on each. WITNESS: By death. Robin will wrap up the session by considering whether ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated? Utilitarianism is universally applicable. The meeting WITNESS: Take a guess. will take place in the back room at the Boars Head, 2 Vernon Street, SK1 1TY (near the Market Place). There is a £2 charge (free for first timers). National Secular Society – The group’s next afternoon social will take place on Bradlaugh Lecture Wednesday 27 September at 2.30pm at the Rhode Island Coffee Bar, 2 Little Underbank, Stockport, SK1 The National Secular Society (NSS) held their inaugural 1JT. Bradlaugh Lecture at the Manchester Art Gallery on Saturday 9 September, to mark the end of their The group will be holding an Anniversary Meal on 150th anniversary celebrations. Bryan Niblet, who Wednesday 4 October to celebrate 7 years of published a biography on Bradlaugh, the founding Stockport Humanists. The venue and details for president of the NSS, delivered a talk entitled ‘Dare To bookings will be notified in due course! Stand Alone’. NSS historian Bob Forder also delivered a talk. During the course of the days’ discussions it Humanist Discussion Group became clear that there is a surge of interest in re- Do you enjoy exploring contemporary social, political starting a Secular Society in Manchester. For more and philosophical themes? If so, why not join GMH at information contact Guy Otten at [email protected] their monthly discussion forum in Central Manchester! The next meeting of the group will be held on Tuesday, 19 September and will discuss 'Do Upcoming Meetings we have a moral duty to criticise religion?' Notes for GMH and Sunday Assembly Book Club the meeting will be posted on The next club meeting will take place on Thursday 5 http://gmh.humanist.org.uk/record-2017-18/ The October at 7.30pm at The Wonder Inn, 29 Shudehill, meeting takes place at The Waterhouse, 67-71 M4 2AF. The details of the book will be posted on Princess Street, Manchester, M2 4EG at 8.15pm in one http://www.meetup.com/Greater-Manchester- of the quieter spaces in the pub. The event is free but Humanists The meeting is free but attendees are attendees are expected to buy a drink. expected to buy a drink. For more information contact [email protected] or [email protected] Exploring Humanism: An

Oldham Introductory Course The next meeting will take place at 2.00pm on Seven Tuesday evenings, 19 September to 31 Saturday 16 September. The group will have an October 2017, 7.00pm to 9.15pm informal discussion on the basic ideas of Humanism. The course has run for the last 8 years, and this year The meeting will take place at the Rhode Island Cafe will be its thirteenth presentation! Spindles Shopping Centre, Oldham OL1 1HD. There is It’s for anyone who is interested in finding out what no charge to attend but attendees are expected to Humanism has to offer as a non-religious way of buy a drink. All are welcome! answering the ‘big questions’ of life, and developing September 2017 Newsletter 2 values that help us live enjoyable and worthwhile Has being connected to Humanism assisted you in lives. Humanism provides the ideal value system for a your life, and if yes, in what way? secular society. It's made a marked difference. Because humanists The course will take place at Friends Meeting House, 6 have no rituals, books, sacred spaces, etc., it has Mount Street, Manchester, M2 5NS. directed my attention more to action here and now, The course is interactive and enjoyable, with video instead of the old behaviour pattern of mollifying an clips, an input on Humanist ceremonies, and group invisible, score-keeping sky-god in order to get a discussions of interesting and challenging issues with promise fulfilled when I die. Speaking of which, the like-minded people. The course fee is £20. For further concept of death is a whole lot easier as well! We details and application form please contact Robin know we simply go back to where we came from: geo- Grinter on [email protected] and solar-powered molecular collections (ourselves) become disassembled, and eventually return to the universe. Clarity of thought regarding these truths is GMH Involvement at Pride the greatest personal benefit. We are delighted to report that four members of GMH What book(s) are you reading at the moment and joined the Amnesty singing group at the Pride Festive how are you finding it? in Manchester over the August Bank Holiday Weekend Richard Dawkins' "Science in the Soul" and David and together they sang ‘Imagine’ to a group of Sedaris' "Me Talk Pretty One Day". The Dawkins reads protesting evangelical Christians. like silk; he is such a clear writer, always outward- facing, never show-off. The Sedaris collection of short biographical stories is full of barbs, twists and GMH Member Profiles blunders, and I occasionally guffaw out loud. Name: What are your hobbies? Kevin Malone. Watching films. I don't like television too much Do you consider yourself to be a Humanist? (programme series never end), but a film is a singular I always have been, except I didn't realise it for many thing, a contained art-work. I'm a composer and years. music lecturer, so I'm always thinking of music: string Were you a member of another belief system quartets, operas, songs. Being inside the creation of a before? new composition is my idea of heaven. I was a Lutheran for about 10 years, until my late If you could have one person (alive or dead) to teenage years. dinner, who would you have and why? What made you leave that belief system and The answer to that changes ever week. It's impossible associate yourself with Humanism? to say since I'm fascinated by psychology, and so it While I valued the Lutheran tenet that a person could be any of so many from a wide range of should work - we should be productive - as a means of accomplishments, good or bad. It's just knowing salvation, I came to realise that, like all Abrahamic more how people tick and (attempt to) reason that I belief systems, Christianity created the illness (sin) in would find fascinating...not to dine in awe of order to provide the cure (salvation). A good somebody. upbringing and sense of empathy were stripped of all Can you provide one interesting fact about yourself? the religious dogma, and life has been so much better I can make a mean batch of American-Style pancakes as a free-thinking humanist! with real maple syrup... How long have you been a member of Greater Manchester Humanists? Adventures in Anonymous Two years. In a series running over a number of months, Stefan What Greater Manchester Cooper, GMH member, will outline his experiences Humanist activities do you and observations of anonymous organisations, enjoy doing and why? Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous School visits, guest lectures (NA) as pseudo religious organisations with cultish (both giving and listening) and tendencies. Up to now Stefan has described how he tactical discussions about making our society fairer. became immersed in the anonymous’ world, how he September 2017 Newsletter 3 took up a paid role with the organisation and the In AA the God stuff was more prevalent, and God in point at which he first started questioning the the original sense. There was much less half-baked anonymous’ culture. higher power stuff. The shares about a personal God stuff relationship with God were common. The Big Book of AA was read aloud in most meetings, which is the Despite my best efforts to try and believe in prayer, work of Bill Wilson the founder of AA. Like any pseudo God, spirituality and the steps, I just couldn’t force religious text written by somebody convinced they myself into it. I repeatedly heard in Anonymous know the answer (and the answer is God) it’s meetings that I simply had to have a God in my life. I incomprehensible to non-believers. I would suggest can clearly remember the first few times I had that trying to read a few pages of it if you can. God is said to me. I’m still surprised by how hurtful that was. mentioned specifically 277 times, and indirectly by By that point, I was doing quite well again without a words such as creator, father, spirit, or maker another belief in anything at all. I knew that I could pretend to 400 times. believe something I didn’t, but that seemed so at odds with the policy of honesty that you have to adopt in Clients at the rehab had to go to these AA meetings, early recovery. and they despised having to do so. Sending drug addicts in their 20s who couldn’t sit still or behave for I’d been told that if I couldn’t go for the full-on God 5 minutes, meant they were even more rude and concept, a Higher Power would do. I heard different disruptive than usual. Several times AA members ideas on what this could be. A deceased loved one, came in to the rehab to beg us to stop sending the nature, the universe, or Anonymous itself would clients to their meetings. No matter what, the rehab apparently all suffice. God could even be an acronym management (anonymous members) resolutely – Group Of Drunks. It didn’t seem to matter how demanded that clients attend AA meetings every vague your definition of God was, just as long as you week. The hypocrisy of having to drag clients into had one. However, the steps require a very specific meetings that I wouldn’t go to myself began to wear interventionist, caring, responsive type of God. on my conscience. Watering that God down to a higher power concept like nature just didn’t fit around the steps. You either The beginning of the end believe in the supernatural or you don’t, and I didn’t. I I worked longer and harder than I have ever done in could recognise desperate thinking when I saw it, and my life, as did all the more junior staff. I was always similarly I could see when somebody was trying to tell worried that I wasn’t doing enough both at work and themselves something until it became true. at anonymous, which created a feeling of gnawing I tried to get a sponsor a few times, but my heart guilt. As with any job dealing with chaotic people, wasn’t in it. Barring some great revelation I knew I there was always something more to be done. I couldn’t go through the God steps in good conscience. pushed myself hard to be the person that did the Some parts of the steps seemed like a good idea, like most, and I was scared to say no to anything. I didn’t making amends. So I made an amends list and went want to be the person that relapsed through through it. No God asked for or needed there, I just complacency. I know now that guilt, total immersion, tried to right as many of the wrongs I had done as and total work overload are all cult like techniques. possible and still do. I remember being warned by the I was exploited for every last drop of energy I had for counsellors at work that skipping to steps 8 and 9 was years, and so were many of my colleagues. For the last dangerous. They were genuinely concerned, in the couple of years, all I could do when I got home was way you would be if a learner driver went down a sleep. A work/life balance in the anonymous world motorway in rush hour. The idea of bypassing the God means driving to another town to go to different steps was not something they were used to hearing. meetings. People went on holidays, but it was to a 12 AA step convention. Some staff lived in the rehabs houses, earned less than minimum wage, worked 7 I went to AA when I couldn’t get to an NA meeting. AA days a week, and there was simply nothing else in meetings tend to be quieter and more stable than NA. their lives than anonymous. These poor souls had it The members are a lot older than other anonymous worse than I did. Many relapsed, and I’m certain the groups and have been attending a lot longer. The relentless pressure to always do more contributed to atmosphere is a lot more solemn and serious. it. When you are in the business of saving lives, then September 2017 Newsletter 4 everything else in life seems a bit tame by who has not had a relationship with an anonymous comparison. Why go and play golf or play guitar when pick-up artist is an extremely rare creature. 13th you could take a new client to an anonymous meeting steppers and their behaviour became a running joke, a that could save their life? sort of side effect of taking the anonymous pills so to However, unlike some I had lived, travelled, and speak. worked in the real world before I got clean. I knew The worst case of this was a counsellor in the rehab that nobody can dedicate themselves so entirely to who left his family for a (much younger of course) one thing for very long without a price being paid. The female who had been his client. This counsellor had fact that hardly anybody was staying clean, including worked at the rehab for years, lecturing clients about the staff, didn’t seem to make the slightest dent in the dangers of relationships as part of his job. That anyone’s confidence in anonymous. In fact, it was relationship inevitably ended, and he now openly quite the opposite. The more people relapsed, the trawls meetings in the area for female newcomers. He more the increasingly rare success stories received an not only kept his job, but supervises other counsellors even louder fanfare. There would be graduation days and new staff. He declared that he has a sex addiction where a handful of clients who had completed the and started going to Sex Anonymous. This kind of program were held up as success stories, which story is not unusual and would be comical if it weren’t looked thoroughly convincing. Of course the drop so damaging. outs, by their very nature of being drop outs, weren’t 13th stepping isn’t always men, I saw female members there. of staff have relationships with clients / ex clients too. The total lack of anonymity and privacy became Addicts are needy, highly manipulative, and delusional something that was harmful. Clients, staff, volunteers people and when you put them all in the same place and relapsed ex-clients all attended the same then they will act like randy teenagers. Which is not meetings. Supposedly you aren’t supposed to talk the fault of anonymous itself, but it’s deplorable when about who you saw or what you heard at a meetings, you consider the 13th stepper claims to have had a but nobody stuck to that. Work and anonymous spiritual awakening. They are supposed to live became a blur of the same thing, and the gossip according to the will of their higher power and around who said what to whom and where, was part busying themselves with prayer and meditation. of the routine. When I started speaking to other ex-anonymous 13th stepping members the stories of 13th stepping were the same all over the world. 13th stepping is a euphemism for newcomers being sexually preyed upon by more experienced members. The end It’s hard to exaggerate just how vulnerable the As with any large corrupt organisation, the rehab I females who arrive at anonymous are. This applies to worked for eventually collapsed. Management in- males too, but the damage done in addiction is far fighting, huge overspending, and staff worse for females for hopefully obvious reasons. If disillusionment/relapse all played a part. I tried you’re an unscrupulous male looking for an endless working for another 12 step rehab for a few months. It pool of bewildered females looking for attention, was heralded as something different to get funding, anonymous meetings are the place to go. but everyone involved was in anonymous so it was Some 13th stepping men are genuinely clueless and more of the same, and worse. Clients still had to rationalise their “relationships” on the basis that attend compulsory anonymous meetings above these involve two consenting adults, so they don’t see everything else. It was the same group “counselling” the problem. That’s much like the teacher running off and the same process of trying to force clients into with the schoolgirl who is just over 16 years old. getting clean through anonymous. Again, the However, most 13th steppers are fully aware of what assumption is that the 12 steps would take care of all they are doing and the damage it does. the problems in your life. The well-known predators shamelessly travel from The Director of the company and the one other meeting to meeting, and are quite open about their member of staff I worked with both relapsed in intentions. Nobody can be barred from meetings no spectacular fashion. Both were long standing matter how badly they behave. The female member anonymous members, and both continued to attend meetings and take vulnerable clients to meetings, all September 2017 Newsletter 5 the time secretly using themselves. Both borrowed New research survey condemns Government money from me, needless to say I’ve not had a penny proposals for an end to limits on back over a year later. faith school selection It’s hard to believe how strange things got at the end. Last autumn the government proposed an end to the The other member of staff who relapsed had already 50% cap on religious selection, which currently been through a 12 step rehab years ago. He relapsed requires all new and existing religious free schools to whilst working at the new 12 step rehab, and that leave at least half of their places equally open to local rehab paid for him to go to yet another 12 step rehab children, irrespective of religion or belief. A major new to get clean again. He got out of his latest stint in survey of recent research relating to the use of rehab, and casually told me he had sex with 3 women religious selection in faith school admissions has failed in 4 days upon his release. He then went straight back to identify any evidence supporting the Government’s to work at a 12 step rehab telling people how to live proposed move to end limits on religious selection by their lives the anonymous way. free schools. At the end I was beginning to doubt my own sanity. I The resultant report, published by the Fair Admissions was spending my time admitting clients who had little Campaign, and linked here to no interest in getting clean, just to fill beds and http://fairadmissions.org.uk/ sets out the full range of make money. I was also trying to enforce client’s evidence, information, and research on religious attendance at anonymous meetings that I had long selection in schools admissions. Drawing on data and ago lost any faith in. I ended up picking up clients and analysis from the last 15 years, the study explores the driving them to meetings that didn’t finish till 9.30pm impact that religious discrimination in school at night, then having to drive them home again, admissions has had and continues to have on key otherwise they wouldn’t go. The clients and the staff issues such as social integration, community cohesion, were relapsing at such a rate it was bewildering, but pupil attainment, parental choice, and equality. no matter what, everyone just to keep slavishly Supporters are urged to oppose the Government’s attending anonymous meetings. I quit the whole plans for a surge of religiously segregated schools by world of anonymous a year ago, and now just feel writing to the Education Secretary today. The following happy to have made it out alive and sane. link https://humanism.org.uk/what-you-can-do-to- help/fight-for-inclusive-education-and-integrated- schools/ provides a template email to do so. Holyoake Lecture 2017 The Holyoake Lecture is a prestigious annual lecture, Overwhelming majority of schools in held in Manchester, which explores Humanism or a Northern Ireland are failing LGBT related topic in relation to contemporary or historical pupils, survey reveals political ideas. Douglas Murray will deliver the lecture Humanists UK report that only one in five schools in for 2017 on Tuesday 3 October from 7.30pm to 9pm Northern Ireland are providing information relevant to on the title “Towards a Humanist Politics”. He will set lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) pupils within out how a rational, empathetic, and forward-thinking Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) and/or approach to ethical issues and human problems can other parts of the curriculum, and just one in eight intersect fruitfully with politics. The meeting will be schools cover transgender issues in their teaching, a held at Friends Meeting House, Mount Street, Department of Education survey has revealed. Manchester, M2 5NS. The tickets for this event The survey details the responses of 420 schools in usually sell out quickly so early booking is advisable Northern Ireland on a range of questions relating to via https://humanism.org.uk/events/holyoake2017/ the experience of LGBT pupils at school. RSE is currently a statutory part of the school curriculum in Northern Ireland, and current guidance states that From Humanists UK RSE ‘can help provide a positive view of sexual orientation and gender identity which, in turn, can help raise the self esteem of young people who may feel different.’ Northern Ireland Humanists’ Boyd Sleator commented, ‘The results of this survey make September 2017 Newsletter 6 for depressing reading. Teaching about LGBT issues (plus any additional donation). The date of the first isn’t just about ensuring that schools are equally payment under your standing order should be 18 inclusive of LGBT pupils as they are of other pupils, it’s months after the date on which you complete the about promoting understanding and fostering respect membership application form. between all pupils. But you can’t do either of those things if you simply ignore that LGBT pupils exist, which is evidently what the majority of schools in Keep In Touch Northern Ireland are doing. The Northern Ireland For more about what’s going on at GMH check out Government must make clear that this approach is some of the links below. entirely unacceptable and move immediately to provide the training that schools and teachers need to http://www.meetup.com/Greater-Manchester- Humanists fulfil their duty of care.’ https://www.facebook.com/GreaterManchesterH 24 British politicians write to Pakistan umanists demanding repeal of laws against https://www.facebook.com/groups/5231173231/ blasphemy gmhumanists.blogspot.co.uk As Pakistan celebrated its 70th anniversary as an @gmhumanists independent state, 24 British politicians, led by Labour http://gmh.humanist.org.uk/ MP Siobhan McDonagh, wrote to the Pakistani government urging it to repeal its divisive and Feedback devastating blasphemy laws, which have been used If you would like to comment on this newsletter or widely to persecute humanists and religious send in suggestions for future content (jokes, articles, minorities. Humanists UK, which is part of the End links, book reviews or whatever) please email the Blasphemy Laws coalition, has welcomed the letter. editor at: [email protected] Recent years have seen many humanists and others Cathryn McGarvey – Newsletter Editor persecuted under the laws. Taimoor Raza was handed a death sentence in June for a blasphemous Facebook post. In April, humanist Mashal Khan was murdered by a mob of fellow University students for alleged blasphemy. And in January, five bloggers were abducted by security services, only to reappear weeks later following accusations of torture. Membership We now have:  91 paid up members  814 on our email list  345 Meet-up Group members  557 Facebook Group members Annual subscriptions are £15 for waged and £10 unwaged. If you’d like to become a member of GMH you can download our brochure, which includes a membership application form, from http://gmh.humanist.org.uk/home/contact-us/. We offer 18 months membership for your initial subscription if you take out a standing order. To take up this offer, please complete the membership application and the standing order form which can be downloaded from the same link, and return them both to us with your cheque for your first subscription September 2017 Newsletter 7