Wednesday 17 September 2008

No Longer The Conservative Party At Prayer

One of the changes in the Conservative party of the last few years if the increasing personal liberalism that has occured. No-one gives a monkies anymore (well almost no-one - there probably are a few old guard around but not many) about an adults sexuality - see Iain Dale and Alan Duncan - but there is a strange antipathy towards atheists and humanists (for example this comment on ConHome :"The Conservative Party could only become anti-religious if it were to cease to be conservative."). Now the days of the Conservatives being the political wing of the C Of E are long gone but comments like that illustrate my point.

However - and if you pardon my comparison - the Conservative party is a broad church and I was glad to see that there a new society - The Conservative Humanist Association - which is for those right-leaning atheists like myself.

They have invited Richard Dawkins to speak at a fringe meeting at the Tory party conference (something I can't get to because it is inside the security cordon) but there will be another time.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Antipathy is certainly the word.

The Conservative Humanists bode well for the future though - a secular presence will surely make the party more electable to swaths of people.