World Humanist Congress Meets to Halt the Growing "Threat" of Religions

On the 100th anniversary of French Law on the Separation of Religion and State, the World Humanist Congress kicked-off meetings to stop the "threat" of religion. According to Roy Brown, president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), "With U.S. society sliding toward theocracy, and religious belief -- even fundamentalism -- on the rise in every continent we have to take a stand."

Executive Director Babu Gogineni of India stated, "over the past decades we have seen the slow intrusion of religion into public life in dozens of countries, in India and Nigeria, in Russia and Slovakia, in Pakistan and Bangladesh, in Britain as well as in the United States."

Commenting on the "media madness" over the death of Pope John Paul II and inauguration of Pope Benedict, the media coverage "amounted to free advertising for Catholicism at the expense of rational thought."

Humanists seek platform to halt religious advance