After the Richard Dawkins Foundation and the Center For Inquiry announced their merger, PZ Myers published Rebecca Watson’s claim that atheist organisations “will continue polishing Richard Dawkins’ knob until he dies.” PZ also claimed that Christopher Hitchens “had no problem with killing Muslims and American Indians,” and he misrepresented Godless Spellchecker Stephen Knight’s exposure of […]
Is theism a reasonable philosophical position? I debated this yesterday in Trinity College Dublin Metaphysical Society with Peter Hitchens, Ivana Bacik and Patrick Masterson. Part 1 – Patrick Masterson and Ivana Bacik Part 2 – Peter Hitchens and Michael Nugent
I will be speaking at the next World Conference of Rationalist International, on 23-24 April, in the Baltic city of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, a secular EU country. I hope to see you there if you attend, and I look forward to a fascinating and productive conference. I will be speaking about lessons from […]
Do atheists need the Catholic Church? I debated Joe Humphreys of the Irish Times, with host Roisin McAuley, on BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence today.
The Irish State twice misled the UN yesterday in Geneva about religious discrimination in access to schools. In both cases, Atheist Ireland was there to explain the true position to the UN Committee, to enable them to question Ireland more accurately. Firstly, when answering questions about religious discrimination in access to schools, the Irish State […]
Following the UN Children’s Rights Committee questioning of Ireland today in Geneva, Atheist Ireland is confident that the UN will yet again tell Ireland to stop breaching the human rights of atheist and minority faith families in Irish schools. Atheist Ireland had very positive interactions with the Committee here, during our formal and informal briefings. […]
This Thursday, in Geneva, Atheist Ireland will be advocating for children in Irish schools, as the UN questions Ireland about its human rights record under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This is our sixth year raising religious discrimination in Ireland with the UN, Council of Europe and OSCE. We will be raising four […]
One of the earliest major documents to popularise the word ‘Islamophobia’ was the Report ‘Islamophobia: A Challenge For Us All’, published in 1997 by the Runnymede Trust in England. But that Report itself acknowledged the problems associated with the word, and its analysis of the underlying issues was also flawed. I suggest, partly on the […]
RENUA, one of Ireland’s new political parties, has launched its general election manifesto. It does not respect the human rights of atheist and secularists. RENUA not only fails to prioritise education reform, but it does not even understand the problem of religious discrimination in Irish schools, never mind know how to tackle it. RENUA’s manifesto does […]
These are my five challenges for atheists and secularists in 2016. 1. Oppose the silencing word ‘Islamophobia’ 2. Promote robust civil dialogue not Internet rage 3. Normalise the use of the word atheism 4. Promote fundamental human rights 5. Promote ethical secular democracy It is a follow-up to my review of 2015 for atheists and […]