A society for atheists, rationalists, secularists and humanists
As part of our role as the secular society on campus and representating atheist students, we are involved in a number of campaigns that our members have indicated are important to them and that are important secular issues.
The University of Leeds spends large amounts of money providing a Chaplaincy for Christian students and recently completed a £250,000 refit of the Islamic Green Room. Yet despite the majority of students on campus being atheist or Humanist, the same level of spending is not given to them.
We believe the best way to provide this is for their to be a Humanist in the Chaplaincy and as such we are campaigning initially for an official Humanist contact that students who want non-religious advice can go to the Chaplaincy and be put in contact with someone.
Currently religious students are subject to a number of privileges on campus. For example, they are able to nominate a day of the week they do not wish to take exams on. Secular students are entitled to no such rights and we believe this is unfair and discriminatory.
Currently in the United Kingdom any animal slaughtered for food must be pre-stunned so that it is unconscious when it is killed for ethical reasons. However Halal and Kosher slaughter houses are currently exempt from this on religious grounds.
In 2004 the Farm Animal Welfair Council, the government's independent advisory board, published a report which had looked into Halal and Kosher slaughter concluding their were unethical and should be stopped immediately. This has not yet happened and so in 2008 LAS introduced a motion to the union referendum to remove Halal and Kosher meat from the union for ethical reasons in line with existing bans on Nestle and non-degradable carrier bags.
Some of our members that abortion is always a womans choice. Some of our members believe the rights of the baby are more important. But all our members agree on sensible, rational decision making. The idea of pro choice does not mean you are anti life. Choicing to keep your baby is a pro choice attitude.
Pro Life Through Pro Choice, a campaign started by the Chris Worfolk Foundation aims to take back the term pro life and promote the idea that a sensible logical decision is always a better choice than working from absolutes.
Homeopathy. It's only water. Seriously. We're not kidding you. It has been scientifically proven not to work (don't take our word for it, take a look at the research). Yet your tax money is being spent on it in the NHS. Therefore the campaign It's Only Water was launched.