Welcome to this week’s Secular Sunday. We have some real changes this week.
Most significantly we have a new contributor. Barbara Monea is a 30-year-old Italian who has recently joined Atheist Ireland. She is a long-time member of UAAR (Union of Atheists and Agnostics in Italy) and was a regular contributor to the news section of their website. She has kindly offered to take on a similar role here, providing a weekly digest of relevant news for this newsletter.
The email version of the newsletter is now powered by MailChimp, which allows more automation and flexibility. There will likely be some abrupt and unpopular changes in layout before I settle on a suitable format. Please be patient. Honest feedback is always appreciated.
Religions and religiously-inspired laws discriminate against women. Secular activism can help to empower women. And, whether you are a woman or a man, you can help to shape the future of secular activism and women’s rights around the world by coming to Dublin this June.
Following our successful sell-out World Atheist Convention in the same venue in June 2011, you can register now for Atheist Ireland’s international Conference on Empowering Women Through Secularism, in the O’Callaghan Alexander Hotel in Dublin, Ireland, on the weekend of 29-30 June 2013.
Atheist Ireland will be meeting with the Irish Government this year for a bilateral meeting under the process of structured dialogue between the State and churches, faith communities and philosophical and other non-confessional bodies.
We first requested this meeting last year, and we requested it again last month after the Irish Government met with the Roman Catholic Church under this process.
The Taoiseach has replied saying that he was not in a position to hold bilateral meetings last year due to pressure of other business, but that he hopes to make progress in this regard this year, notwithstanding continuing business pressures and Ireland’s Presidency of the European Union in the first six months of the year.
We don’t yet have a date for our meeting, but the Taoiseach will be asking officials to arrange a preliminary meeting with us to clarify an agenda.
The items that we wish to raise are:
Our policy document, Five Steps to Civil Rights in a Secular Ireland, which covers the need for a secular Constitution, Parliament, Government, Education System and Health Care System.
Some international cases relevant to our agenda on which we would like the Government to take action.
The various submissions that we have made since our last meeting to Government and international monitoring bodies.
How we should best discuss these issues with the Government on an ongoing basis in the context of policy formulation.
We’ll publish further details of the meeting as we get them.
It’s time for this week’s Secular Sunday. There are a few, largely cosmetic, changes to the format, most noticeable in the e-mail edition. As promised, more substantial improvements are coming but it’s an evolving process. (As an atheist I don’t believe in Intelligent Design!) Feedback is welcome.
Why should a respected Indian author be facing jail for exposing a crying Catholic statue as being caused by faulty plumbing? This week you can hear from the victim of this unjust law, as Sanal Edamaruku visits Ireland for a speaking tour.
Atheist Ireland is hosting four public meetings, in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Belfast, to promote separation of church and state in Ireland and internationally.
We will also be holding a briefing session for TDs and Senators in Leinster House.
Indian author Sanal Edamaruku is facing blasphemy charges in India, instigated by the Catholic Church, for exposing a crying Catholic statue as being caused by faulty plumbing and capillary action.
Sanal is President of the Indian Rationalist Association and Rationalist International, and he has written 25 books. A tantrik guru once tried and failed to kill Sanal, using only magic, on a live television show, after Sanal challenged his supposed powers.
Michael Nugent and Jane Donnelly of Atheist Ireland will speak on the need for a secular constitution, laws, government, courts, education system and healthcare system, both in Ireland and internationally.
In Ireland an atheist cannot be President or a judge, the Catholic church runs 90% of our primary schools, hospitals make life and death healthcare decisions based on religious ethics, churches are formally exempted from complying with tax and equality laws, and we have recently passed an internationally controversial blasphemy law.
At the United Nations, Islamic states have cited Ireland’s blasphemy law to support their own blasphemy laws. Victims include Christians like Asia Bibi in Pakistan, Muslims like Hamza Kashgari in Saudi Arabia, and atheists like Alexander Aan in Indonesia. Victims have been attacked, jailed and sentenced to execution.
Ireland must act now to separate church and state. At home, we must provide an ethical, secular country based on democracy, human rights, freedom of belief and conscience, and civil liberty. And internationally, we must promote the same values, backed up by acting consistently in our own country.
Please attend these meetings, and let your voice be heard. Please also publicize the meetings as widely as you can.
Secular Sunday #61 – News Addition
Welcome to this week’s Secular Sunday. We have some real changes this week.
Most significantly we have a new contributor. Barbara Monea is a 30-year-old Italian who has recently joined Atheist Ireland. She is a long-time member of UAAR (Union of Atheists and Agnostics in Italy) and was a regular contributor to the news section of their website. She has kindly offered to take on a similar role here, providing a weekly digest of relevant news for this newsletter.
The email version of the newsletter is now powered by MailChimp, which allows more automation and flexibility. There will likely be some abrupt and unpopular changes in layout before I settle on a suitable format. Please be patient. Honest feedback is always appreciated.
- Derek Walsh, Editor Read More »