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Brighton Humanists February 2019 Volume 1, Issue 4
The Epistle
TV Scientist Alice Roberts is the New President of Humanists UK
The scientist and television presenter Alice Roberts is the new president of Humanists UK, championing campaigns against state funding of faith schools and
in favour of removing bishops from the House of Lords and the legalisation of assisted dying. She is the author of nine popular science books and the host of TV programmes such as The Incredible Human Journey and Digging for Britain. She said she was honoured to be at the helm of “a community of like-minded, thoughtful and compassionate people”, and described Humanism as “the most rational and positive philosophy for life”. Roberts added: “As an anthropologist, I believe
strongly in our common humanity. We can rise above the tribal divisions that have caused so much anguish and real damage in the past. “The real hallmarks of humanity are: curiosity and an amazing ability to cooperate. If we can use science widely and work together, I believe we can overcome the huge challenges facing us this century.” Roberts will serve a three-year term, taking over from Shappi Khorsandi. She is the fifth female president of the organisation.
Tetchy Technology!
Oh dear! I’m afraid we’ve had
a few problems with our
website and email accounts
recently. Some of the people
on our contact list may have
received communications
from us more than once and
others possibly not at all. We
have been working to try to
fix this and hope that by now
everyone who should be
hearing from us is doing so. It
would be a very great help
indeed if everyone on our
membership and contact list
could please ensure that
is entered into your email
contacts and your “safe
senders” lists.
Yes, some of our members will be running an information table at the market in the Meridian Centre on Saturday 2nd March from 12:00 until 3:30. We will have lots of leaflets and infor-mation about Humanism.
We’re hoping to repeat this ac-tivity at other local markets, fairs, etc. and to develop it into a kind of “Brighton Humanists Road Show”. The purpose is to pro-mote Humanism, Brighton Hu-manists, Brighton Young Human-ists and Humanists UK in the community. We want to gain more members, more contacts and opportunities for community involvement. We also hope to find opportunities to raise funds. We already have a folding table and some folding chairs but we will also need the following:
Equipment (Priority): Gazebo (2),
leaflet stand (1), folding notice
board (1), TV (3) video player (3),
generator (4) . An ambitious list,
we know, but if anyone has any-
thing on that list that they can
donate it would be greatly appre-
ciated.
Fundraising: Attractive Ideas
needed (tombolas and raffles al-
ready abound at these fairs, bric
a brac and books are heavy to
cart around)
Volunteers: As many as possible!
If you think you can help with
any of the above please contact
us at
We’re concerned about the seri-
ous homelessness problem in
our area and think that, as Hu-
manists, we should try to help in
some way but are not quite sure
how to tackle it. Does anyone
have any links with organisations
that are working in this area and
might have initiatives that would
be suitable ones for us to sup-
port in some way? If you have
any thoughts on this please con-
tact us at
Who’s Who on the Com-
mittee?
Being aware that we have quite a few
new members and everyone might not
know who we are, we thought we’d
introduce ourselves.
Maggie Hall (Chair)
Maggie has been
a member of
Brighton Human-
ists since 2008, on
the Committee
since 2012 and
Chair since 2015.
She is a retired
Teacher of Speech
and Drama, living with her partner, Mal-
colm Love, in the village of Upper Beed-
ing in wildest West Sussex. She has two
sons, one of whom resides in Tokyo
with his Japanese wife; a daughter, two
grandchildren aged 7 and 11, a one
eyed cat called Eddie and his brother
Freddie. In her teens and twenties she
was a “born again” Christian, but even-
tually came to atheism and then Hu-
manism via Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins
and Sam Harris, among others. She is
still very interested in what people be-
lieve and why they believe it and is fas-
cinated by the history of religions, their
ancient holy texts and how they all syn-
cretise with each other.
Maggie is particularly keen on finding
ways to spread awareness about Hu-
manism locally. She is a Volunteer
School Speaker for Humanists UK, has
given talks and taken part in a training
video for Brighton and Sussex Medical
School and taken part in panel discus-
sions for two “interfaith” groups. Her
We’re at Peacehaven
Market on 2nd
March!
Brighton Humanists Helping Hands
Do you know any of our members
who don’t manage to get to our
events but might appreciate a home
visit , a helping hand with the shop-
ping or a lift to one of our events? If
so let us know by contacting
we’ll try to help if we can.
Homelessness in Brighton and Hove
ambition is to see Brighton Humanists
raising its profile and having a visible
effect in the community.
John Challoner (Secretary)
John is 65, a re-
tired professional
Civil Engineer and
lives in Saltdean,
Brighton.
He is a member of
a very close, inter-
national family, is
married to Indy from Guyana, has two
sons with wives from Mexico and Chi-
na and two lovely grand-daughters. He
is interested in philosophy, psychology,
sociology, science and mathematics
and is currently involved in a major
project to advance mathematical logic.
He was never religious but is tolerant
of the beliefs of others providing they
cause no harm. He only discovered the
Humanist movement relatively recent-
ly after reading Dawkin's The God De-
lusion but has held Humanist views all
of his life. He is highly committed to
our organisation and wishes to see it
flourish, spreading a positive Humanist
outlook in the local community.
Bob Charlwood (Treasurer)
Born early in
1946, Bob is one
of the earliest
baby boomers.
He was comforta-
ble with post-war
existentialist atti-
tudes and the
“Make Love - Not War” atmosphere of
the 60s. From an early age Bob trav-
elled extensively and has subsequently
spent time living and working over-
seas. Contact with a variety of cultures
has undoubtedly influenced his world-
view. Inasmuch as labels are appropri-
ate, Bob self identifies with a mixture
of Liberal Humanism, and Freethink-
ing.
Robert Stovold (Technical Officer)
Robert cur-
rently works as
an administra-
tor for Bright-
on and Hove
City Council. A
childhood in-
terest in the
natural world lead to him to gain a
B.Sc. in Zoology - the first of his three
degrees in the biological sciences. A
chance encounter with some Jehovah's
Witnesses shortly afterwards served to
highlight the conflict between science
and religion, and prompted Robert to
learn more about both. He began to
campaign for a more rational outlook;
nationally, he served on the committee
of the National Secular Society, and he
also joined the British Humanist Asso-
ciation (now Humanists UK). Locally,
he serves as the Technical Officer to
Brighton Humanists, and also helps to
run Sunday Assembly Brighton. He
enjoys taking part in scientific and phil-
osophical discussions and debates, and
is currently writing a book that de-
bunks key arguments for God's exist-
ence (for example, the Argument from
Design) in a concise yet accessible way.
Kat Reynolds (Brighton Young Human-
ists Co-ordinator)
Kat is 31 and lives
in Hassocks with
her husband and
three year old
daughter. She
discovered Hu-
manism just over
a year ago after
accidentally coming across a series of
lectures from the World Humanist
Congress and soon realised she had
“found her people”! Kat has a degree
in Psychology and a Masters in Psycho-
analytic Developmental Psychology.
She is interested in child development,
evolutionary psychology, and theories
of learning and education to inform
educational reform. Kat believes that
Humanism is the key to supporting our
overwhelmingly non-religious younger
generations in developing a well
rounded, rational and ethical world-
view that will in turn be passed on to
future generations, paving the way to
a fair, sustainable and vibrant future.
With this in mind she is excited to be
working as Young Members Repre-
sentative to the Brighton Humanists
Committee and as an ambassador for
Humanists UK, hoping to spread the
word and engage young people in the
aims and activities of Humanism.
Roz Mercer (Education Officer)
Roz was born
in South Lon-
don and then
emigrated to
Bedford in
1983. Alt-
hough very
much from a
traditional Christian background and
educated at a grammar school that
pumped Scripture, she queried and
argued about all sorts of religious stuff
that made no sense to her at the time,
which got her into a lot of trouble with
teachers and other adults, usually fam-
ily members.
Her final tipping point was 9/11. She
was done with it all. She learned that
most definitely one does not need a
god to be good. She embraced Human-
ism almost by default and has since read
many books and met some interesting,
erudite people of like mind. She enjoys
anything about the cosmos and has
watched Neil de Grasse Tyson and oth-
ers many times.
On a more personal level she has a pas-
sion for all animals especially horses and
dogs and has a GSD bitch called Regan
who is her best pal. Other topics she is
trenchant about are population, which
she believes is the ‘elephant in the
room’ where climate change is con-
cerned, FGM and the rights of women,
particularly where religion is the reason
for their inequality. She has been a re-
publican and a secularist all her adult
life, but doubts whether church and
state will ever separate.
She has lived in Peacehaven for just six
months as she decided she needed to
live by the sea. She has no family other
than one son who lives with her and
fortunately shares her views.
Ed Drew, Publicity/Campaigns Officer
Ed came across Humanism in 2018 after
reading a BBC news article about the
UK’s first humanist hospital chaplain.
Upon learning more about Humanism
he attended ‘An Introduction to Human-
ism’ talk held by Brighton Humanists
and had his ‘Eureka!’
moment. He’s thrown
himself into learning
more and more about
Humanism ever since.
Ed studies Interna-
tional Relations and Development at the
University of Sussex, lives in Burgess Hill
with his boyfriend, Campbell, and works
as an optical assistant and charity work-
er. Despite what his photo may suggest,
he is not the proud owner of a vegan
coffee shop.
Founded 1958
http://www.brightonhumanists.org
www.facebook.com/
BrightonHumanists
https://twitter.com/BHumanists
Email: [email protected]
VENUE: The King & Queen pub 13-17 Marlborough Place Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1UB
B r i g h t o n
H u m a n i s t s
Next Brighton Humanist Event
Wednesday 6th March. Doors open 7:30, talk begins 8PM
“Towards a secular education system”
Speaker: Alastair Lichten , National Secular Society
From faith schools to coercive worship and from confessional RE to faith based sex education, our school system is full of inap-
propriate religious influence, privilege and discrimination. But it doesn’t need to be this way. Our many fantastic community
schools show how we can move towards a secular, inclusive education system.
The National Secular Society’s Head of Education, Alastair Lichten, will talk about the range of the Society’s campaigning, poli-
cy and advice work on education, including their No More Faith Schools campaign.
The NSS is a non-profit organisation which campaigns for the separation of religion and state and equal respect for everyone's
human rights, so no one is either advantaged or disadvantaged because of their beliefs.
Alastair Lichten is the Society’s Head of Education, and joined the NSS in 2014 to work on a variety of their campaigns, before
focussing on education.
Brighton Humanists is pleased to be affiliated with the National Secular Society.
