Polly Toynbee, Guardian columnist and President of the BHA, wrote a fantastic article in this week’s Guardian declaring that the Atheist Bus Campaign slogan was her Christmas message. You can read her article here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/23/atheism-disestablishentment-rowan-williams-humanism

EVEN MORE CHEERING NEWS

If you visit this Wikipedia page, it gives you a breakdown of adherents to all the world’s religions and beliefs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Worldwide_percentage_of_Adherents_by_Religion.png

Atheists comprise 2.35%, but when combined with the category “non-religious” we’re up to an impressive 14.27% – making us the world’s third-largest belief category! That’s 924,311,385 of us and counting – and we’re also the UK’s second largest belief category, with 23% either stating “no religion” or refusing to state one on the 2001 Census form.

WE’VE REACHED INDIA!

Okay, so there’s no Indian Atheist Bus Campaign. But the Economic Times, affiliated to the India Times, have run an upbeat (if inaccurate) story on us:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Athiests_on_move_God_on_backseat/articleshow/3883051.cms

… even if, like many people, they haven’t spelt “atheists” correctly. The old adage “i before e except after c” has a lot to answer for!