Also lending their support are both the Christian Institute and the National Secular Society.
Confusion also seems evident in the debate about the concept of the secular Society.
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The National Secular Society, meanwhile, urged the prime minister to "ignore Lord Carey's theocratic and anti-democratic blustering".
The move has been welcomed by the National Secular Society which said the current system was discriminatory.
The European Court of Human Rights has left a milestone on the road to a secular society.
What we may term valuephobia is manifested in some of the debate around issues of tolerance, diversity and the secular Society.
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An elite in the media, bureaucracy and judiciary were trying to turn the US in to a secular society and impose alien values.
The National Secular Society said Bishop Pritchard's comments were a "step in the right direction" but expressed doubt about whether changes would be made.
Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, says the fall in the number of Christians showed a "huge upheaval" in attitudes towards religion.
"The reason these books are proving popular is that religion is becoming center stage, " said Keith Porteous Wood, director of the National Secular Society.
"France is a secular society, so it's very different from other countries where religion plays a large part in the question of marriage, " he said.
The National Secular Society, which campaigns for the separation of religion from education, is critical of the need for parental consent for pupils to withdraw from the worship.
Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said the future of equality legislation in Britain - and even Europe - could depend on the ruling.
"I saw an interview recently with the singer, Neil Diamond, who isn't actually Christian, he's Jewish, " says Alistair McBay, who is spokesman for the National Secular Society in Scotland.
While Pope Francis is viewed as liberal on social justice, he is considered conservative on sexual matters and Neil Barber, from Edinburgh Secular Society, did not think much would change.
The National Secular Society (NSS) said it would mount a protest campaign made up of gay groups, victims of clerical abuse, feminists, family planning organisations and pro-abortion groups, among others.
He said the concept of religious observance in a multi-cultural, multi-religious and largely secular society could be controversial and it was important that the head teacher "retained an aspect of control".
But critics such as the National Secular Society say the attorney-general's role may be one of most dangerous things of all, because it ensures the decision to prosecute will be political.
The National Secular Society welcomed the charity regulator's ruling.
In March, the National Secular Society, which aims to restrict the role of religion in public life, wrote to Chief Scout Bear Grylls, complaining that atheist children were being excluded or having to lie to join the movement.
The BBC's religious affairs correspondent, Robert Pigott, says the new archbishop is inheriting a Church which has seen congregation numbers decline dramatically in recent decades, and which is struggling to promote a Christian message to an increasingly sceptical and secular society.
And he will use his visit to Britain to further pursue this theme, questioning whether a secular society brings real freedom, or merely a free-for-all in which the strong are able to dictate the rules by which the weak will live.
But Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, accused Mr Pickles - who cited recent action to allow councils to hold prayers at the start of meetings in the wake of a High Court ruling - of trying to restore "sectarianism".
Secular in this conservative and religious society isn't quite secular, even in Cairo's trendy salons and nightclubs.
It is impossible to live in a society where secular and religious rules can live side by side.
The secular National Democratic Action Society is Bahrain's main leftist political society, is running after boycotting the previous elections.
To protect its monopolistic power the military has had to do two things - suppress secular politics and civil society and portray itself as the indispensible guardian of the nation by conjuring up existential threats by aggressive enemies such as India and the West.
Authorities said the arrest of Mr. Rahman was meant to stop the worsening of tensions in a society divided between secular and religious communities.
In the long-term, the rebuilding of Pakistani civil society and restoring secular government and the rule of law is the only promising way to deal successfully with the Islamist threat.
As a result, the Romney-Ryan ticket, which itself is neither purely pro-capitalist nor wholly secular, but at least leans toward a semi-capitalist society and freedom of religion, is finding it hard to gain much traction.
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