With Michael Gove and the coalition approving new Steiner Schools to open under the Free School Programme, it is timely to look closely at the origins and beliefs of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the occult movement of Anthroposophy. Steiner was a mystic who believed he had direct clairvoyant access to cosmic knowledge. As such he developed an esoteric belief system based on karma, reincarnation, astrology, homeopathy and gnomes. His visions gave insights into architecture, art, dance, agriculture, medicine, education, science and diet. His racial hierarchy of spiritual developmental resonated in Germany in the early 20th Century turning a personal belief into a worldwide movement. Today we find hundreds of anthroposphically inspired organisations in the UK alone: everything from Steiner Schools, Biodynamic farms to banks, pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies, charities and cheese makers.

Andy Lewis has been trying to lift the veil on the inner secrets of the movement and will discuss how this secretive movement has direct impact on public life.

Come and join us for the traditional monthly social. Whether you want to have a natter or stare pensively into the void contemplating the meaningless of it all, you are welcome to join us :-)

The Ancestor’s Trail is an annual walking event inspired by Richard Dawkins' book 'the Ancestor's Tale'. It drapes the Tree of Life over the Quantock Hills in Somerset so that its various branches line up with the hills' many footpaths. This year it is currently planned for the 24th-26th August.

Chris Jenord is the organiser of this event, and will be talking to us about what inspired him to start this trail and what he hopes people can get out of the event, as well as inviting you to join him on this year's trail.

Here is a short summary of this year's event:

The 3 day event will sandwich the Trail between two days of science speakers and musical celebrations. On the Trail day, certain branches of the tree will be populated by groups of walkers who, with a little pre-planned choreography, will walk evolution in reverse - following the theme of Dawkins' book. As they symbolically walk back in time, the walkers progressively re-unite with their increasingly distant ancestors. Eventually the ever increasing band of pilgrims arrive together at a rocky beach on the Severn Estuary representing our shared origins ~3.8 billion years ago. Last year 130 people took part and along the way were treated to words of wisdom, poetry and music.

The event is supported by the British Humanist Association and last year we welcomed Richard Dawkins as our keynote speaker and raised money for the RSPB and World Land Trust. This year most proceeds will go towards the Wallace 100 project whose ambition is to commission a statue of Alfred Russel Wallace to sit near to Darwin's at the Natural History Museum in London. Speakers/acts already booked include Professor Mark Thomas, Dr George Beccaloni, a Wallace inspired theatre group, the wonderful Jonny Berliner and his brilliant science songs (with a song about Wallace), a body painter called Victoria Gugenheim and even a marching band.

Take a look at http://ancestorstrail.net/ for more details and to see how to get involved.

Come and join us for what is now the traditional monthly social event. Come and meet old and new people alike. We welcome everybody and we will have a sign!

Come and join us for what is now the traditional monthly social event. Come and meet old and new people alike. We welcome everybody and we will have a sign!

Our first social event of the new year. Come and celebrate, or moan about arbitrary temporal landmarks with some like minded people. We welcome one and all, and we will have a sign!!

Neil Denny is the producer and presenter of the Little Atoms Radio Show and podcast. Neil was the recipient of a Travelling Fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and in May 2012 he embarked upon a month long, 6614 mile road trip across America. The aim of the trip was to produce a series of podcasts which present a wide-ranging overview of science and skepticism from an American perspective. Driving from San Francisco to Boston and calling in at Phoenix, Santa Fe, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York along the way, Neil recorded 39 interviews with scientists and science writers including Ann Druyan, Leonard Susskind, Kip Thorne, Priya Natarajan, Paul Davies, George Church, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Mary Roach, Edward Stone and Sara Seager. He recorded interviews at some major sites of scientific interest, including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, The Los Alamos National Laboratory, and The American Museum of Natural History. He also spent a less scientific day visiting Kentucky’s Creation Museum. The podcasts from Neil’s trip can be found at the following website: http://feeds.feedburner.com/littleatomsroadtrip. Find out more about Little Atoms here: www.littleatoms.com, and follow Neil on Twitter @littleatoms.

Come and join us for what is now the traditional monthly social event. Come and meet old and new people alike. We welcome everybody in as restrained a way as possible, and we will have a sign!

A social event to which you are all invited. Whether you are on your own or bringing your entire family, we will welcome you all! And, of course, we will have a sign!

A purely social event for everybody. We are very welcoming to new people and old people alike. And, of course, we will have a sign - so don't be shy!

Jonny Scaramanga was raised as a Christian fundamentalist and attended a strict evangelical school in Bath in the 1990s. He appeared on BBC2's As Seen on TV and Video Nation multiple times in this time to discuss his faith. He has since discovered that everything he thought was true was wrong. He writes about his experiences at the popular leavingfundamentalism.wordpress.com blog.

In his talk, Jonny will give an insight to what life is like in an Accelerated Christian Education school. There are sixty of these fundamentalist institutions in the UK, which teach Young Earth Creationism as fact. The Bible is taught as an infallible authority, and alternative viewpoints are not discussed or even considered.