Welcome

This site features a growing collection of papers written over a period of years by David Pollock, for many years until recently a trustee of Humanists UK (formerly the British Humanist Association) and sometime president of the European Humanist Federation.

Given the passage of time, they may not exactly represent my current views but in general I have chosen not to edit them other than trivially.  However, I do give their dates of composition.

Apart from the key section on Humanism, and the related section on Secularism, another group of papers deals with the place of religion in society.  This includes two relatively recent additions – a paper on whether there is a right to freedom from religion and another questioning whether the advancement of religion (and likewise of non-religious beliefs) merits charitable status.

There is then a group of papers about religion in schools, in particular my submission to the Religious Education Council’s  enquiry into the future of religious education.  There is also a paper on the law about religious education and one on the unjustified exemptions from employment discrimination law given to religious schools. 

I have also uploaded a revised version of a paper from four years ago on the coming Coronation of King Charles III.

Although almost all the papers are related to Humanism, secularism and religion, there are also a few papers on other topics – for example, my response to the Government’s proposals to amend the Human Rights Act, some thoughts on the Brexit referendum and a note on a recent book answering the perpetual attacks on the BBC.

[ I have published a selection of pieces from this website, marginally revised and  updated, in a book: “Thinking about Humanism” (October 2021). ]