It’s time for another Secular Sunday, the online weekly newsletter of Atheist Ireland.
In this issue:
- News
- Upcoming Events
- Young People These Days
Category Archives: News
Secular Sunday #4 – You Gotta Fight For Your Rights
Also posted in Meetings, Meetups, Secular Sunday 10 Comments
Secular Sunday #3 – Get involved
It’s time for what you’ve been waiting for all week: the latest issue of Secular Sunday!
In this issue:
- News
- Upcoming Events
- Homegrown Talent
Read More
Also posted in Meetups, Secular Sunday 1 Comment
Secular Sunday #2 – Get Your Diaries Ready
Hello and welcome to the second issue of Secular Sunday, the weekly newsletter of Atheist Ireland.
We’ve had a lot of positive feedback about our first issue. Thanks to all those who provided encouragement, suggestions and offers of help.
In this issue:
- Atheist Ireland News
- Upcoming Events
- Around the Web
Also posted in Secular Sunday 2 Comments
Secular Sunday #1 – Review of 2011 and Plans for 2012
Greetings, Fellow Atheists:
Happy New Year, and welcome to Secular Sunday, the new weekly newsletter of Atheist Ireland. It will include details of events, activities, news items and other relevant topics. This first issue is devoted to a review of our main activities during 2011 and our plans for 2012.
In this issue:
1. Secular constitution and laws
2. Secular education system
3. Other activities
4. Our plans for 2012
Read More
Also posted in Secular Sunday 2 Comments
80% support for total separation of church and state, says new report
Atheist Ireland welcomes the findings, from today’s report by We The Citizens, that more than eight in every ten Irish people want the church and state to be totally separate, and that 65% strongly agree that this should happen.
We also welcome that seven in every ten Irish people want religious education to focus on teaching students about different religions rather than promoting one set of religious beliefs, and that less than two in every ten disagree that this should happen.
It is a fundamental test of democracy that the Government stays strictly neutral on questions of religious and nonreligious philosophical beliefs, thus protecting equally the right of every citizen to freedom of conscience.
We The Citizens is calling for a national Citizens’ Assembly to give ordinary Irish people a structured direct say in our political decisions. You can read the full report on the We The Citizens website.
Also posted in Politics, Secularism 3 Comments
Setting Prometheus Free: a lecture by AC Grayling for Atheist Ireland
Atheist Ireland is hosting a series of occasional lectures by prominent atheists. Here is the first one, with Professor AC Grayling, speaking last month in Dublin.
Also posted in Atheism, Philosophy, Secularism, Video Leave a comment
Atheist Ireland response to Forum on Patronage and Pluralism
Ensuring Effective Remedies for an Objective, Critical and Pluralistic Secular Education
Atheist Ireland has responded to the interim report of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism. The Forum is to send its final report to the Minister for Education by the end of December.
We have four overriding recommendations for the final report.
* To comply with your terms of reference, your advice must be stronger and must be enforceable. You are mandated to advise on how best to “ensure” that certain outcomes can happen, not simply on how best to make those outcomes more likely.
* The final report must include effective remedies that enable parents and students to vindicate in practice and law their right to ensure that the education of their children is in conformity with their convictions, as enshrined in Human Rights treaties and based on rulings of the European Court of Human Rights.
* Whatever their model of patronage, the State must ensure that all schools convey all parts of the curriculum in an “objective, critical and pluralistic manner”, as recommended by the Irish Human Rights Commission, as enshrined in the Toledo Guiding Principles, and as ruled on by the ECHR.
* Ensuring “a sufficiently diverse number and range of primary schools catering for all religions and none” must in practice ensure that secular non-denominational schools are widely available in all regions of the State, as noted by the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
We also make other specific recommendations throughout the response, including on ERB, opting out, the right to private and family life and access to schools.
You can read our full response here.
It’s on our campaign website for a secular education, TeachDontPreach.ie.
Also posted in Education Leave a comment
Atheist Ireland submission to Department of Education on school enrolment
This is a link to Atheist Ireland’s submission to the Department of Education’s discussion paper on a regulatory framework for school enrolment, submitted to the Department today.
Atheist Ireland submission to Department of Education on school enrolment
Also posted in Education Leave a comment
Five questions on secular issues for the Irish Presidential candidates
Atheist Ireland has written to the seven Presidential candidates asking them five questions about secular issues that are relevant to the position of President, like we did with the political parties and candidates in the last General Election. We will publish the results when we receive them.
Mary Davis is the first candidate to respond. If you want to help us to establish the other six candidates’ positions on these issues, here are the questions that we have asked them and to the candidates’ postal addresses, email addresses and phone numbers.
Please contact them and remind them to respond to the questions as soon as possible, so that we can make an informed decision when we vote for our next President.
Also posted in Politics, Secularism 1 Comment
Secular Sunday #5 – Make Your Voice Heard
Wakey Wakey! It’s time for another Secular Sunday.
First things first:
TODAY at 2:00 pm, Atheist Ireland presents “Is Anything Sacred?”, a public discussion of Irish and international blasphemy laws. Our speakers are two world-class experts on blasphemy law: Austin Dacey, Ph.D. from New York, who represents the International Humanist and Ethical Union at the United Nations; and Professor David Nash of Oxford Brookes University in England, who is working with Atheist Ireland on our campaign to repeal the Irish blasphemy law. Join us in the O’Callaghan Alexander Hotel (map) from 2:00. Read More »