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Manchester's new debating series Discuss has covered the role of the media, our place in Europe and our relationship with the 'beautiful game' of football. Now it's next event, to be held on 11 June 2014 will be on religion.

The venue will be the magnificent Memorial Hall at the Albert Square Chop House, Albert Square, Manchester M2 5PF.

Staged as calls for Britain to embrace its secular core continue to grow, the debate will interrogate the drive behind more and more people declaring themselves to be atheists: in the 2011 census, the number of people who declared themselves to be ‘of no religion’ had doubled over the preceding decade.

Other themes to be covered in the debate will be the impact of religious fractures over gay marriage, and the possible risks of what some see as a 'drift towards secularism' if, to quote the event blurb, 'both the Christian traditions and the faith of immigrant communities are the glue that hold society together'.

Confirmed speakers:

Philip Blond, political thinker and Anglican theologian
Right Revd David Walker, the Bishop of Manchester
Polly Toynbee, The Guardian
Ian Abbott, Lancashire Secular Humanists

To find out more and to book tickets, visit the Discuss website.