https://www.worldreligionnews.com/religi...s-outbreak
INTRO: A significant number of New York State lawmakers want to end all religious exemptions given for vaccinations. Such an action has come to the fore due to Brooklyn and Queens reporting measles outbreaks. Rockland County has also reported several measles patients. About 181 New Yorkers, as of March 27, have fallen ill due to the disease. Another 153 cases have been detected in Rockland. Health officials were quick to take note, with a state of emergency being announced in on March 26. The declaration carried the unusual provision of forbidding unvaccinated children below 18 years of age to visit public places like places of worship, schools, and malls for 30 days. (MORE)
Number of non-religious people in Britain jumps by 46%, new figures show
https://humanism.org.uk/2019/04/09/numbe...ures-show/
EXCERPT: The number of people in Britain who say they have no religion has increased by a staggering 46% over the past seven years, making non-religious people the fastest growing group in the country, according to new figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The data [...] shows the number of non-religious people has almost doubled since 2011, with nearly 8 million more people now saying they have no religion.
Humanists UK, the national charity working on behalf of non-religious people, welcomed the new findings and called on the Government to take heed of the latest figures by better representing non-religious people in government policies. [...] But Humanists UK also raised concerns about the leading question used in the survey which asked ‘What is your religion?’ It has been advocating for the Census question and other survey questions on religion and belief to change to ‘What is your religion, if any?’, as the existing question tends to overestimate religious belief, acting as a measure of weak cultural ties rather than religious belief. (MORE)