A Twitter user today accused Atheist Ireland of being neoconservative, which is entertaining because we have also been criticised for being reliably leftist. Actually, our policies are based on respecting and promoting human rights, then building an ethical secular society on that foundation. Here are the two Twitter conversations. The ‘reliably leftist’ argument was made […]
Atheist Ireland today sent this submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which will be examining Ireland in June about its human rights obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Atheist Ireland has already sent a submission to this Committee while the Committee was preparing a List of Issues […]
I debated the Catholic Church and same sex marriage, with theologian John Murray of the Iona Institute, this afternoon on Today FM with Matt Cooper. The context was the threat by the Irish Catholic Bishops that the Church may no longer perform the civil aspects of weddings, if marriage is extended to same-sex couples.
Atheist Ireland welcomes the threat by the Irish Catholic Bishops that the church may no longer perform the civil aspects of weddings, if marriage is extended to same-sex couples. We believe a formal separation of the religious elements of a church marriage, and the civil elements of a state marriage, would be a good thing […]
I had a constructive Twitter conversation with Ashley Miller yesterday, which we hope to continue soon, about Atheist Ireland’s dissociation from the harmful and hateful rhetoric of PZ Myers. Parts of it are storified here. I appreciate Ashley’s commitment to researching the evidence, and her willingness to engage in reasoned dialogue. It is a hopeful […]
The Irish Times has today published this tribute that I wrote to Anne last Thursday, the fourth anniversary of her death from lung cancer. How my wife’s death has helped Ireland become more inclusive
The Secular Policy Institute has responded to Atheist Ireland’s public dissociation from the harmful and hateful rhetoric of the atheist blogger PZ Myers. The Institute says that the secular movement should stop rewarding those who cause discord, and it asks why are “shock jock” bloggers invited to lecture at major secular conferences? It says that […]
Atheist Ireland today joined the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, to enable the Irish Government to legislate for abortion consistently with the human rights of pregnant women. Other members of the Coalition are: Abortion Rights Campaign; Action for Choice; AIMS; Akidwa; Anti-Racism Network; Atheist Ireland, Choice Ireland; Cork Women’s Right to Choose; Doctors for […]
Hemant Mehta, The Friendly Atheist, has said that it is no wonder that Atheist Ireland wants nothing to do with PZ Myers, that he gets why people would rather avoid him, and that after once writing a blurb endorsing PZ’s book, Hemant has wanted less and less to do with PZ and his brand of […]
My smart, sexy, funny and courageous wife Anne Holliday died of lung cancer four years ago today. We loved each other very much for all of the twenty five years that we lived together with our tribe of rescue cats. We loved every moment together, from waking up with our manoeuvrability restricted by cats snuggled […]