'I can't be sure God DOES NOT exist': World's most notorious atheist Richard Dawkins admits he is in fact agnostic

Daily Mail, by Suzannah Hills, 24th February 2012

 

Professor Richard Dawkins today dismissed his hard-earned reputation as a militant atheist - admitting that he is actually agnostic as he can't prove God doesn't exist.

The country's foremost champion of the Darwinist evolution, who wrote The God Delusion, stunned audience members when he made the confession during a lively debate on the origins of the universe with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Professor Dawkins, the former Oxford Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, is a dedicated admirer of Charles Darwin, regarding the Victorian pioneer of evolution as the man who explained ‘everything we know about life’.

Professor Richard Dawkins, who vote a book entitled
The God Delusion, has previously been renowned as a
militant atheist

But when Archbishop Dr Rowan Williams suggested that Professor Darwin is often described as the world's most famous atheist, the geneticist responded: 'Not by me'.

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He said: 'On a scale of seven, where one means I know he exists, and seven I know he doesn't, I call myself a six.'

Professor Dawkins made the
 surprising comment during a debate
 with Archbishop of Canterbury
Dr Rowan Williams

Professor Dawkins went on to say he believed was a '6.9', stating: 'That doesn't mean I'm absolutely confident, that I absolutely know, because I don't.'

The two high-profile figures were debating whether Biblical writers 'got it wrong' by not saying that the universe is billions of years old.

The Archbishop said: 'The writers of the Bible, inspired as I believe they were, were not inspired to do 21st century physics, they were inspired to pass on to their readers what God wanted them to know.

'In the first book of the Bible is the basic information - the universe depends on God, humanity has a very distinctive role in that universe , and humanity has made rather a mess of it.'

But Professor Dawkins said he was 'baffled' by 'the way sophisticated theologians who know Adam and Eve never existed still keep talking about it'.

This latest admission by Professor Dawkins comes after he was left lost for words name the full title of his scientific hero’s most famous work during a radio discussion last week in which he accused Christians of being ignorant of the Bible.

In his frustration, he resorted to a helpless: ‘Oh God.’

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"Perceptions of God" – June 6, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Quantum Teaching, The Fear of God, Near-death Experience, God Becomes Mythology, Worship, Mastery, Intelligent Design, Benevolent Creator,Global Unity.... etc.) (Text version)

“.. For centuries you haven't been able to think past that box of what God must be like. So you create a Human-like God with wars in heaven, angel strife, things that would explain the devil, fallen angels, pearly gates, lists of dos and don'ts, and many rules still based on cultures that are centuries old. You create golden streets and even sexual pleasures as rewards for men (of course) - all Human perspective, pasted upon God. I want to tell you that it's a lot different than that. I want to remind you that there are those who have seen it! Why don't you ask somebody who has had what you would call a near-death experience? 


"The Humanization of God" – Jul 16, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Benevolent Design, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Guides and Angels, Communication with God, Wars in Heaven ?, The Love of God, (Old) Souls, Global Unity,....  etc.)

“… Do angels exist? Absolutely, but not as you think or have been taught. Are there helpers? Absolutely, but again, not like you think. When angels visited Humans in ancient days and the events were written about by those who were there to witness the experience, I can guarantee it was a lot different than they could express on paper. When an angel appears before a Human, it looks like a swirling ball of energy, sometimes even fire that is not hot and does not consume anything. Angels are not in Human form and never have been. They are multidimensional beings, not in 3D. Yet you want to put skin and wings on them and give them a name! Why? It makes you feel better about them. We understand that…”


“The 2012 Ostiary - Angels Among You” – Dec 30, 2011 (a message from Metatron channelled by Tyberonn)


"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

(Subjects:Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)

"If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening."

(Live Kryon Channelings was given 7 times within the United Nations building.)

Corporations evade taxes via the Netherlands

RNW, 23 February 2012

Sixty percent of the major corporations in Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy have formed holding companies in the Netherlands to reduce their tax burden.

According to research by Het Financiële Dagblad, large numbers of these countries' corporations with a turnover of two billion euros or more have been doing this since the early 1990s.

As of late, the above-mentioned nations are under substantial pressure from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to get their tax collection systems in order.

The Netherlands recently sent three officials to Greece to give workshops on the subject.

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Barack Obama's plan would mean 
corporations would have to give up
dozens of cherished loopholes and
 subsidies. Photograph: Andrew Harrer/EPA 

Web crash after Italian ministers list Vespa and Harley-Davidson as assets

Online register overwhelmed as Mario Monti's cabinet members detail their income and assets following transparency drive

guardian.co.uk, Tom Kington in Rome, Wednesday 22 February 2012

George W Bush, then the US president, climbs on a Harley-Davidson
 while touring company premises in Pennsylvania in 2006. One Italian
 cabinet member has listed such a bike in the register of assets.
Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Mario Monti's "grey" government of technocrats and professors in Italy may not be so dull after all. Thanks to a transparency drive which compelled ministers to list income and assets online, Italians have discovered to their surprise that the cabinet includes millionaires and fans of Harley-Davidson and Vespa.

After promising to cut tax evasion and endemic fraud, Monti set an honest example by going public with his cabinet's wealth. The results were so intriguing the government's website crashed due to intense traffic when they were published.

Top earner is justice minister Paola Severino, a lawyer, who pocketed €7m (£4.5m) last year.

"I am proud of making money legally and paying my taxes to the last euro," said the minister, who handed over €4m in tax in 2011. This year her ministerial salary stands at €195,000.

Second richest is Corrado Passera, minister for economic development and the former head of Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo, who earned €3.5m before joining the government.

Apart from the odd Jaguar, motor yacht and the Harley-Davidson owned by 65-year-old foreign minister Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata, ministers favour sensible Japanese and Italian cars.

But while one vice minister gets around on a Vespa and environment minister Corrado Clini nips around in a Fiat 500.

Ministers appear to have splashed instead on real estate, including properties in New York, Brussels, Paris and a ski resort in the Dolomites. Monti is the proud owner of 16 properties, although Piero Giarda, keen to show he is no tycoon, published photos of stone huts he owns in the Alps.

"I had a look at the sites of other G7 leaders and struggled to find anything comparable to our initiative," said Monti.

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Swiss take steps to clean up tax-haven image

Swiss take steps to clean up tax-haven image

Reuters, BERNE | Wed Feb 22, 2012 

(Reuters) - Switzerland announced plans on Wednesday to force banks to do more to make sure foreign clients' money is taxed in an attempt to shake off its past as a haven for untaxed funds as it seeks to put an end to a damaging U.S. tax probe.

"The focus is on enhanced due diligence requirements for banks when accepting assets as well as a requirement for foreign clients to make a declaration on the fulfillment of their tax obligations," the cabinet said in a statement.

The announcement comes on top of a raft of measures already announced in recent years, including a planned withholding tax on foreign assets held in Switzerland and better co-operation with foreign authorities pursuing alleged tax dodgers.

A global crackdown from cash-strapped governments in recent years has chipped away Switzerland's cherished tradition of banking secrecy, which helped it build up a $2 trillion offshore wealth management industry.

(Reporting by Caroline Copley)

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.

Germany sniffs out Luxembourg tax evaders

Anti-piracy ACTA treaty referred to EU high court

Deutsche Welle, 22 February 2012

The European Commission said Wednesday it would present the controversial ACTA treaty on copyright and counterfeiting law to the European Court of Justice, to rule whether it violates the fundamental rights of Europeans.

The EU Commission has asked the European Court of Justice to rule on the legality of the controversial ACTA treaty which regulates counterfeiting, copyright and Internet freedom and has been fiercly opposed around Europe.

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said the court could adjudge independently on whether the treaty was "incompatible one way or another with the fundamental rights and freedoms of the European Union."

"This debate must be based upon facts, and not upon the misinformation and rumour that has dominated social media sites and blogs in recent weeks," De Gucht told a news conference in announcing the decision.

He said the agreement "aims to raise global standards for intellectual property rights" and said ACTA "will help protect jobs currently lost because counterfeited, pirated good worth 200 billion euros ($264 billion) are currently floating around."

Critics of the ACTA treaty have argued that it restricts Internet freedom. Recent weeks have seen mass demonstrations around Europe against the treaty, which has already been agreed to at the EU level but must still be ratified by individual member states.

Germany has refused, for now, to sign the international online anti-piracy treaty. The German government had already agreed in principle, but appears to be wavering in the face of public protest. Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger has suggested that the government was not prepared to give the treaty the green light. The United States, Japan and Canada are also among signatories.

dfm/ai (AFP, Reuters)

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French police detain Strauss-Kahn in prostitution probe

Deutsche Welle, 21 February 2012

Former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been detained for questioning regarding his alleged involvement in a prostitution ring spanning several countries.

Former International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn was detained for questioning Tuesday over allegations he took part in orgies in Paris and Washington which were paid for by firms involved in public contracts. He also faces charges into his alleged involvement in a prostitution ring that investigators say supplied escorts to sex parties in several countries.

Strauss-Kahn, who until last year was pipped as a frontrunner to replace Nicolas Sarkozy as president of France, was due to face questioning as a witness, but investigators say he is now a suspect in the matter.

The 62-year-old former socialist minister has in the past admitted to having had an adventurous sex life, but denies any suggestion he knew the women at the parties were paid or that the companies had paid the bill.

Shortly after his arrival at Genarmerie barracks, prosecutors said Strauss-Kahn would not be free to leave and could see his time spent in custody raised to 96 hours.

Eight well-known local identities have been charged along with Strauss-Kahn for pimping and misuse of company funds - including three executives from a luxury hotel, a leading local lawyer and local deputy police chief, Jean-Christophe Lagarde.

Paying a prostitute is not illegal in France, but profiting from or embezzling company funds to pay for sex can lead to charges.

jw/dfm (AFP, AP)

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Gay black police officer wins discrimination case

Detective constable Kevin Maxwell had sued the Metropolitan police for race and sex discrimination

guardian.co.uk, Ben Quinn, Monday 20 February 2012

Kevin Maxwell has won his case of racial and sexual discrimination
against the Metropolitan police'. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP

A gay black police officer who accused Scotland Yard of racial and sexual discrimination has won his case at an employment tribunal, which also found that another officer deliberately leaked a "distorted account" of the details of the claim to the Sun newspaper.

Detective Constable Kevin Maxwell, 33, sued the Met for race and sex discrimination after he was abused by colleagues while working in the counter-terrorism unit at Heathrow airport's terminal five.

Folllowing a 36-day hearing in which Maxwell said he was used as a "buffer" when ethnic minority passengers were stopped at Heathrow, the Metropolitan police was heavily criticised by a judge at a Reading employment tribunal for failing to train officers to deal with ethnic minorities. The tribunal found that Maxwell was required to stop black and Asian people and then hand them over to white officers. It judged that his claim of direct racial discrimination was correct.

Maxwell said he had been subjected to harassment on the grounds of sexual orientation in March 2009 when a detective from Special Branch made comments in his presence about gay men.

A tribunal judge, Richard Byrne, said: "The tribunal makes the observation that it is very surprising given the resources of the respondent [Metropolitan police] and a well-drafted reporting wrongdoing policy that the respondent failed to train officers in the application of the policy and failed to comply with it on this occasion."

The panel was also told how Maxwell had been at a presentation at Paddington police station in London during which reference was made to a photograph of a man in a fairground surrounded by children and that he was "as gay as a gay in a gay tea shop."

Byrne said: "The comment having been made and other people in the room, including other supervisors, laughing and finding it amusing was inevitably conduct that a gay police officer would reasonably consider as having the effect of violating their dignity and creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them."

Following the incidents, Maxwell went on extended sick leave but was said to have been treated dismissively by senior officers during this period.

When raised his concerns by telling told a chief inspector it was "difficult being black and gay", the senior officer said: "That's life". Byrne ruled this was direct discrimination on the grounds of race and sexual orientation, along with harassment.

Ruling on the claim by Maxwell's partner, Alex Parr, that details had been leaked to the Sun newspaper about the claims, Byrne said, "The tribunal is entirely satisfied on the evidence heard that on the balance of probabilities the information about the claimant's case acquired by the Sun came from an officer working for the respondent."

On this matter, a spokesperson for the Independent Police Complaints Commission confirmed it was supervising an investigation by the Metropolitan police directorate of professional standards into a complaint.

France asks EU to suspend Monsanto GM corn approval

Reuters, Paris, Mon Feb 20, 2012

(Reuters) - France asked the European Commission on Monday to suspend authorization to plant Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) MON810 corn, the environment ministry said, as the country seeks to keep a ban on GM crops despite losing court rulings.

France banned in 2008 the growing of MON810 corn, the only GM crop approved for planting in the European Union, citing environmental risks.

Its highest court ruled against the ban in November, following a similar decision by the European Court of Justice last September, leading the government to say it would look at all ways to maintain the freeze on GM planting.

The French government's request to the EU executive was based on "significant risks for the environment" shown in recent scientific studies, the ministry said in a statement.

EU governments are divided over authorizing GM crop cultivation, with some countries like France reluctant to allow them in view of public hostility.

Denmark, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, is seeking to revive stalled talks on allowing individual countries to decide on whether to allow GM crops.

The stalemate over GM crops has frustrated crop farmers and biotech companies, most of which have scaled back research on such varieties in Europe.

(Reporting by Gus Trompiz; Editing by William Hardy)

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Lloyds bank claws back £1.5m bonuses from directors

Bailed-out bank partially reclaims bonuses that had been awarded before it lost £3.2bn to settling claims for missold PPI

guardian.co.uk, Jill Treanor, Monday 20 February 2012

Lloyds bank chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio has targeted reclaiming
 bonuses since he took over in March 2010. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

Lloyds Banking Group is to claw back at least £1.5m from five former and current executives and eight other senior managers, to penalise them for £3.2bn of losses the bailed-out bank incurred after the bonuses were awarded.

The move, which requires former chief executive Eric Daniels to hand back 40% – or £580,000– of his £1.45m bonus, puts pressure on rival banks to take similar action for bonuses they awarded before being forced to make provisions for payment protection insurance.

But there was also criticism over the size of the clawbacks – just 5% in some instances – and the number of former bankers involved in the clawback which was announced on Monday following protracted negotiations with those involved.

Richard Lloyd, executive director of the consumer body Which? which championed the cause of PPI, said: "Lloyds customers will think it's absolutely not enough and it raises the question of how many people should be held accountable for £3.2bn of PPI mis-selling losses."

Lloyd, who had already written to banks to urge them to claw back bonuses, said: "We expect and hope that the same action will be taken at the other banks involved."

Four members of Daniels' executive time at the time – Helen Weir, Truett Tate, Archie Kane and Tim Tookey – will each have to pay back 25%, which amounts to £900,000 in total.

The remaining eight are having 5% sliced off their undisclosed bonuses for 2010. They include members of the executive committee such as Carol Sergeant, who was chief risk officer, Mark Fisher, group operations director and Angie Risley, group HR director. The bonuses were paid in shares and have not yet been released.

A spokesman for shareholder body Pirc said: "We think it's a very good precedent. It's really good in terms of demonstrating that it can be done. It sets a precedent. What about other banks?"

Lloyds insisted that the bonus pool for 2011 will also be reduced because of the PPI provision. Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland – which took provisions of £1bn each – are also taking account of PPI in their 2011 bonus pools. HSBC took a £280m provision but has not indicated whether PPI will make a dent in its bonuses. Industry sources cautioned these banks might be unlikely to pursue clawback, however.

In becoming the first UK bank to reclaim executive bonuses – a new process implemented by the industry following the 2008 banking crisis – Lloyds insisted "its decision is based entirely on the principle of 'accountability' and in no way on culpability or wrong-doing by the individuals concerned".

António Horta-Osório, who took over as chief executive from Daniels on 1 March last year, ordered the provision immediately – sending a shockwave through the industry. Other banks were forced to follow suit when Lloyds stopped fighting the process of awarding compensation through the courts.

Yet just weeks before, Daniels had bowed out, heralding a return to profitability following the controversial takeover of HBOS during the banking crisis.

Weir, who used to run the retail bank and last week was appointed finance director of department store John Lewis, is to take a £218,000 reduction. Tate, head of the corporate bank who is leaving in the coming months, takes a £262,500 reduction, and Kane, the former head of the insurance arm, is now £191,000 worse off.

Tookey, who is to face the City on Friday when he announces the extent of Lloyds's losses for 2011, is having a £236,000 reduction. He is due to go at the end of the month, leaving the bank without a finance director, as a starting date has not be set for George Culmer, who is joining from insurer RSA.

The Financial Services Authority, which has been encouraging banks to look for ways to claw back bonuses following the PPI losses, has been "kept informed throughout the deliberations leading up to the decision".

Tackling the clawback had been top of Horta-Osório's agenda when he returned to work last month, following two months off after he failed to sleep for five consecutive days in October.

The £1.45m bonus for Daniels had been deferred into shares in two equal tranches, which he was to receive in March 2013 and March 2014.

Related Article:

Lloyds becomes the first bank to strip executives of bonuses as it takes back £2m from senior management

German parties agree on Gauck for president

Deutsche Welle, 19 February 2012

Germany's government and main opposition parties expressed their support for Lutheran pastor Joachim Gauck to become the country's next president. A majority of Germans have also expressed their support for him.

When called on to label his political tendencies, Joachim Gauck leans on the Polish philosopher and describes himself as either a leftist liberal conservative or a conservative liberal leftist and not a member of any German party but hardly apolitical.

The Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, would have liked to have made Gauck president back in 1999, but the former East German civil rights activist and lawyer declined to run.

Dedicated to freedom

Having lived under the dictatorship of East Germany and been forced to look on as his father was shipped to a Soviet gulag for four years, Gauck has dedicated his life to promoting freedom. Upon German reunification, he became the federal commissioner for the Stasi Archives and played a key role in investigating crimes committed by the East German communist regime. 

Wulff beat out Gauck, seated, for
the president's office in 2010

Born on January 24, 1940, in the middle of World War Two, in the northern city of Rostock, he said his father's deportation to Siberia in 1951 on charges of espionage played a key role in his decision to become involved in politics.

Due to his family background and because he was not a member of the official East German socialist youth association, Gauck was denied the opportunity to study German language and literature at university and took up theology in 1958. In 1965 he began work as a Lutheran pastor.

Though he would later say that at this point in his life he was critical of the East German government but not dissident, he would still have to become accustomed to being under constant observation by the secret police.

When the church took on a central role in promoting democracy in the former East Germany in 1989, it was Gauck who helped lead the popular movement New Forum in Rostock and who held the religious ceremonies that often preceded large-scale demonstrations on the streets of East German cities.

In March 1990, he was chosen as a New Forum representative in the East German legislature, where he served until reunification and the chamber's dissolution.

Short political career

Upon reunification he took on the role of investigating the crime of the East German secret police, the Stasi, for what would later become known as the Federal Commission for the Stasi Archives. 

Gauck took on responsibility
for the Stasi Archive

After two terms in office, Gauck handed over responsibility for the Stasi archive to Marianne Birthler in 2000. Since then he has not occupied public office, but has regularly been discussed as a presidential candidate each time one has been appointed since 1999.

Gauck's role investigating the Stasi has made him unpopular in some parts of the Left party, a successor the former East German communist party. When he ultimately lost out on being appointed president to Wulff in 2010, Left party leader Gesine Lötzsch called Gauck a "man of the past" who did not "set a path for the future."

Well respected

While the Left party has consistently refused to support Gauck's candidacy for the president's office, Germany's other parties have regularly expressed their backing for him. 

This man was not along in
supporting Gauck

In 2010, the opposition Social Democratic Party and the Greens pushed for hi to be appointed president rather than ultimate winner Christian Wulff, who won the position in the third round of voting.

During the two days of tense discussions following Wulff's resignation, Gauck was the only person to receive the support of the FDP, the junior partner in Merkel's governing coalition, as well as the SPD and Greens.

Gauck also enjoys the support of the German population. Two polls published Sunday showed voters would like to see Gauck move into Bellevue Palace, the president's official residence. Surveys conducted by Emnid and Infratest dimap both found public support to be highest for Gauck.

The Emnid poll also found that 79 percent of those surveyed said they wanted a president who is not currently politically active.

Author: Michael Gessat /sms

Editor: Andrew Bowen

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'Anti-gay' book puts Gove at centre of faith school teaching row

Education secretary says Equality Act does not extend to school curriculum – allowing faith schools to use homophobic material

guardian.co.uk, Jamie Doward, Saturday 18 February 2012

Michael Gove: 'Any materials used in sex and relationship education
 lessons... will not be subject to the discrimination provisions of the
act.' Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

Michael Gove, the education secretary, is at the centre of an escalating row over how faith schools discuss homosexuality in sex education classes.

The TUC has accused Gove of failing in his legal duties by insisting that equality laws, which prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, do not extend to the school curriculum.

The TUC complains that the current situation sends mixed signals to the playground, because schools are legally obliged to condemn discrimination on sexual-orientation grounds but free to use religious materials that equality campaigners claim is homophobic.

Brendan Barber, the TUC's general secretary, wrote to Gove in December expressing alarm that a booklet containing "homophobic material" had been distributed by a US preacher after talks to pupils at Roman Catholic schools across the Lancashire region in 2010.

The booklet, "Pure Manhood: How to become the man God wants you to be", discusses a boy dealing with "homosexual attractions" which it suggested may "stem from an unhealthy relationship with his father, an inability to relate to other guys, or even sexual abuse".

The booklet, which claims that "scientifically speaking, safe sex is a joke", explains that "the homosexual act is disordered, much like contraceptive sex between heterosexuals. Both acts are directed against God's natural purpose for sex – babies and bonding."

Referring to the Equality Act 2010, which prohibits discrimination against individuals, Barber said: "Schools now have a legal duty to challenge all forms of prejudice. Such literature undermines this completely."

But Gove insists: "The education provisions of the Equality Act 2010 which prohibit discrimination against individuals based on their protected characteristics (including their sexual orientation) do not extend to the content of the curriculum. Any materials used in sex and relationship education lessons, therefore, will not be subject to the discrimination provisions of the act."

Gove's response has triggered anger from the TUC. "Having written to the education secretary to express our worry about the distribution of homophobic literature in faith schools, his lack of concern is very alarming," Barber said.

A DfE spokesman insisted: "Any school engaging in the promotion of homophobic material would be acting unlawfully." But the row highlights a grey area over the teaching of sex education. A review intended to provide new guidelines on what was appropriate for schools to teach was kicked into the long grass when the last election was called.

"It would certainly be helpful if there was clarity as to what is appropriate for young people of all ages," said Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the gay rights group Stonewall. "The water could no longer be muddied by people pushing age-inappropriate sex material on the one hand and fundamentalist anti-gay religious materials on the other."

The row comes at the end of an extraordinary week in which the role of religion in society has come under acute scrutiny.

The chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips, said religious rules should be left "at the door of the temple" and give way to the "public law" laid down by parliament. Phillips said: "Once you start to provide public services that have to be run under public rules – for example, child protection – then it has to go with public law." Phillips spoke out after Baroness Warsi, the Tory minister, warned Britain was under threat from a rising tide of "militant secularisation".

Lord Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, warned that Christianity was being marginalised. Days earlier, the high court ruled that councils had no statutory power to hold prayers in meetings, while the Christian owners of a bed-and-breakfast lost an appeal against a ruling that their policy of restricting double rooms to married couples discriminated against a gay couple.

Concerns that faith matters are being marginalised at school has prompted the creation of a new coalition of faith groups and politicians. The Religious Education Council of England and Wales is to back the creation of an all-party parliamentary group that will focus on protecting religious education in schools and stressing its value to young people.

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About the Challenges of Being a Gay Man – Oct 23, 2010 (Saint Germain channelled by Alexandra Mahlimay and Dan Bennack)

“ ... You see, your Soul and Creator are not concerned with any perspective you have that contradicts the reality of your Divinity – whether this be your gender, your sexual preference, your nationality – or your race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or anything else.The only identity that has any fundamental or lasting relevance to your Soul is your Divinity. Any other way you may label or identify yourself is transitory. It changes from one incarnation to the next. ..."

"The Akashic System" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.)