Sir – Assuming that the majority of letters you publish do indeed reflect the day-to-day situation, there would appear to be a certain animus between the local citizen and the students of the city’s two universities.
I am, therefore, delighted to report that, as far as local atheists/humanists/secularists are concerned, there is not just harmony but active collaboration: this will be the third year that, for the last full week in February (20-26), students and townies will be warmly welcomed, by the co-ordinating committee, to join some of Think-Week 2012’s lunchtime and evening meetings — and to consider ‘life, the universe and everything’ from a fact-based, rather than faith-based, viewpoint.
The brainchild of an atheist OU undergraduate — as an antidote to the decades old “student prayer weeks” — the nation’s more sceptical students have, for the past four years, been organising their own “reason weeks”.
And last year, our local students (in close co-operation with us townies) were awarded a nationwide Certificate of Recognition — for putting on the “Best Reason Week” in the UK. 2012 details are available via: www.thinkweek.co.uk but we’ve again been able to attract speakers of the calibre of Richard Dawkins, Brian Paddick, Susan Blackmore, Keith Porteous Wood, Peter Atkins, etc — and all our events are free.
As current chair of the townies (and a London University alumnus), I and several of my colleagues have, once again, been delighted to work with the Oxford students.
Together, we’re clearly working a lot more harmoniously than those in the UK’s largest Christian grouping.
John D White, Chairman, Oxford [town] Humanists
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