I don’t believe it: Update on religion and belief discrimination

I think this article, whilst generally clear and helpful, is misleading in one important aspect. The Equality Bill (and hence now also the Employment Regulations) definition of 'religion or belief' includes 'lack of religion' and 'lack of belief'. Beliefs like Humanism that have 'sufficient cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance' will certainly be covered, but individuals may also be discriminated against simply for not having a religion or a particular religion, or a partiucular non-religious belief, regardless of how serious, cogent, etc, their own beliefs are. An individual claiming discrimination on grounds of their philosophical beliefs about climate change will no doubt have to demonstrate the seriousness and cogency of their beliefs, but an individual refused employment by an organisation with a religious ethos for example, or discriminated against as a service user, will only have to demonstrate that the discrimination was on grounds of not sharing the relevant beliefs.