Atheist Ireland AGM launches new campaign for a secular state

Atheist Ireland launched a new campaign for a secular state on Saturday, July 17th, at our second AGM, held in the Davenport Hotel in Dublin. The meeting also announced a major international atheist conference to be held in Dublin next year, co-hosted by Atheist Ireland and Atheist Alliance International.

The aim of the new campaign is a Secular State for a Pluralist People.
The priorities of the new campaign are:

A secular Irish Constitution based on the Ireland of today not 1937
Repeal the Irish blasphemy law that Islamic states are using at the UN
A secular education system based on international human rights law
A secular health system where religions do not decide the ethos of hospitals
Encourage nonreligious people to state their lack of religion in the census
Replace religious oaths in courts with neutral ones that do not prejudice juries
Remove religious symbols from schools, hospitals and public buildings
Stop daily prayers in the Oireachtas and remove the Angelus from RTE

The AGM also adopted a Declaration on Religion in Public Life promoting personal freedoms, secular democracy, secular education and one law for all. This is based on a declaration passed in Copenhagen at last month’s European conference of Atheist Alliance International. Next year’s conference will be held in Dublin.

The AGM voted that, as well as promoting our aims in a positive way, Atheist Ireland should also highlight incidents where we believe religions or religious representatives are behaving unethically. On complex ethical issues such as euthenasia and abortion, our position is that society should address these issues based on human rights and compassion, and applying reason to empirical evidence, and not on religious doctrines.

Speakers at the AGM included Atheist Ireland chairperson Michael Nugent, Senator Ivana Bacik who is a member of Atheist Ireland, American psychologist Dr. Darrel Ray who wrote the bestselling book The God Virus, Maureen Meleady on secular education, Paul Gill on the Blasphemy walk, and Richard Green of the UK Atheism group.

The AGM also voted to set up local Atheist Ireland groups around the country, and elected Michael Nugent as chairperson, Grania Spingies as Secretary, Ciaran Mac Aoidh as Regional Officer and Steven Duggan as Finance Officer.

Posted in Meetings, Politics, Secularism | 1 Comment

Atheist Ireland AGM and public meeting, Davenport Hotel Dublin, Sat July 17

Atheist Ireland Public Meeting and AGM, Davenport Hotel Dublin, Sat July 17
Theme: A Secular State for a Pluralist People
Special Guest Speaker: Dr Darrel Ray, author of The God Virus

It’s now less than two weeks to our second AGM, which will be held in the Davenport Hotel in Dublin on Saturday July 17. The theme will be “A Secular State for a Pluralist People”. We hope that you can attend, and please bring along any friends who may be interested in joining us in our campaign for an ethical and secular Ireland.

Public Meeting 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm

We will have a special guest speaker, Darrel W Ray, Ed.D., the American author of The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture. His book asks why are people so clear about the faults and failures of other religions and so blind to those of their own? You can get more details, including links to YouTube conversations with Darrel Ray, at http://www.thegodvirus.net.

We will discuss our campaigns for a secular constitution and a secular education system. In less than a year of campaigning, we have succeeded in getting a commitment to a referendum to remove the blasphemy clause from the constitution. We need to plan our approach to ensuring this referendum is passed. We will also be discussing the need for a secular education system based on human rights law.

Senator Ivana Bacik will open the discussion and we will also have a guest speaker from the Humanist Association of Ireland.

AGM 11.30 am to 1 pm

The morning session will be for members only, though you can join on the day if you wish. We will decide on policy and organisational priorities for the coming year, and will elect officers. If you are a member, our constitution allows us to create committee positions to suit any area of interest or expertise that you would like to help with. We’re particularly looking for people to start local groups around the country.

Drinks Friday July 16

We’ll be meeting for drinks the evening before, Friday July 16, in MacTurcaills on Tara Street. Take it easy on the gargle, as we have a big day the next day!

Posted in Meetings | 4 Comments

The really, truly True Believer™ of the Month Award June 2010

We at Atheist Ireland thought the first True Believer competition would be wanting for nominations on such short notice, but we were not let down.

Among the forerunners for this month’s prize was Dr Vincent Twomey SVD, Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology in our country’s beloved Maynooth who wrote to the Irish Times this month to express his feeling that the civil rights bill “effectively deprives all citizens of their right of conscientious objection”

Vince feels that “People such as registrars, photographers” are forced to perform acts… such as Compulsory photography I guess… of the happy couple, that they may be morally objected to. Much like the judge in the Mildred Loving trial thought that the mixing of the races was an abomination.

That two hearts in this world could find love, only to have that love indicted because those hearts pump blood to the wrong skin type or sexual organs is only something those of True Believing can accomplish.

I wonder if the people who photographed the first inter racial couple felt they were denied “right of conscientious objection”??

But the prize this month goes to…. *drum roll*… the Islamic clerics in Iran who had enough faith in their own sexuality to honestly believe that the sexual attraction to manmade materials could become a pandemic in the population at large.

Normally we write about dummies, but this story defaults to dummies themselves.

Having realised how attracted they were to mannequins the clerics moved that such sexual deviancy needed to be stamped out immediately. Rather than recognise their own urges for decoration defloration as being the problem, they decided to protect the population at large by reducing the attractiveness of the plastic paradise with the hacking off of their breasts in their usual methodology of cutting off the sexual organs of anything that find themselves overly attracted to.

It takes belief of the strongest kind to think that sexual attraction of a man to a mannequin is a problem of god’s plan or the female form, and not the deviants who cannot control it.

However if we want to reduce the level of pain in the world, at least humping plastic is better than marrying the local 6 year old. It’s a step forward guys, well done… and I guess since boobquake did not happen, we owe you our lives.

Posted in Uncategorized | 15 Comments

Copenhagen Declaration on Religion in Public Life

The recent Gods and Politics conference in Copenhagen adopted the following Declaration on Religion in Public Life. The conference was the first European event of Atheist Alliance International, and was co-hosted by AAI and the Danish Atheist Society.

We, at the World Atheist Conference: “Gods and Politics”, held in Copenhagen from 18 to 20 June 2010, hereby declare as follows:

  • We recognize the unlimited right to freedom of conscience, religion and belief, and that freedom to practice one’s religion should be limited only by the need to respect the rights of others.
  • We submit that public policy should be informed by evidence and reason, not by dogma.
  • We assert the need for a society based on democracy, human rights and the rule of law. History has shown that the most successful societies are the most secular.
  • We assert that the only equitable system of government in a democratic society is based on secularism: state neutrality in matters of religion or belief, favoring none and discriminating against none.
  • We assert that private conduct, which respects the rights of others should not be the subject of legal sanction or government concern.
  • We affirm the right of believers and non-believers alike to participate in public life and their right to equality of treatment in the democratic process.
  • We affirm the right to freedom of expression for all, subject to limitations only as prescribed in international law – laws which all governments should respect and enforce. We reject all blasphemy laws and restrictions on the right to criticize religion or nonreligious life stances.
  • We assert the principle of one law for all, with no special treatment for minority communities, and no jurisdiction for religious courts for the settlement of civil matters or family disputes.
  • We reject all discrimination in employment (other than for religious leaders) and the provision of social services on the grounds of race, religion or belief, gender, class, caste or sexual orientation.
  • We reject any special consideration for religion in politics and public life, and oppose charitable, tax-free status and state grants for the promotion of any religion as inimical to the interests of non-believers and those of other faiths.  We oppose state funding for faith schools.
  • We support the right to secular education, and assert the need for education in critical thinking and the distinction between faith and reason as a guide to knowledge, and in the diversity of religious beliefs. We support the spirit of free inquiry and the teaching of science free from religious interference, and are opposed to indoctrination, religious or otherwise.

Adopted by the conference, Copenhagen, 20 June 2010.

Please circulate this as widely as you can among people and groups who advocate a secular society.

Posted in Politics | 36 Comments

DUP at it again

At the beginning of February 2009 DUP assemblyman Mervin Storey highlighted to us the decreasing quality of politicians in the island of Ireland when he whinged about a top Northern Irish museum failing to give equal time to creationism in it’s exhibitions.

Out of touch as these politicians are I guess Storey noticed a trend where what becomes popular in the US often becomes popular in the UK and Ireland and so he dropped his hand into the lucky-dip-bag of American Politics and pulled out this zinger to put his name to and have a tantrum about.
Read More »

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Peter O’Hara of Mid-west Humanists talks about the Blasphemy Law

You can find out more about Mid-west Humanists on their website here

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Paul Gill to finish 25-day blasphemy walk today

Today, Monday May 31st, Paul Gill of Atheist Ireland will finish his 25-day walk the length of Ireland to raise support for the promised blasphemy referendum. Please send him a text now to congratulate him at +35386 7325365.

Also, if you are in Ireland today, why not join Paul on the last leg of his epic walk? You can meet him at the Malin Hotel, Malin between 3:30-4:00pm on Monday 31st May. Malin to Malin Head is a 12km walk so should take about 2 & 1/2hrs to complete. If you can’t make it then he’ll see you at Sandino’s Bar, Derry at 8:30pm.

Throughout the length of Ireland from Cork to Donegal, Paul has failed to find a single person who supports the blasphemy law. On one occasion, he thought he had found one person who wanted blasphemy outlawed, but it turned out that person had got blasphemy mixed up with bigamy!

People all along the west coast have been incredibly supportive. Many people have refused to take payment for meals and staying at campsites, and comedian Tommy Tiernan met Paul to express his support. And you can give him a boost by joining him today, either on the final leg of the walk or later in Sandino’s bar, or else by texting him a message of congratulations to +35386 7325365.

The first few daily videos of his walk are online on the Atheist Ireland YouTube channel. Tom Kennedy,who travelled with paul to video the walk, will gradually put the rest of the daily videos online over the coming weeks.

Posted in Blasphemy | 3 Comments

Update from the Long and Winding Road

PGill

More pictures and contact details are on the walk’s Facebook page

Posted in Blasphemy, Politics, Uncategorized, Video | 1 Comment

25-day walk for Irish blasphemy referendum

NEW: You can send Paul a message of support on 086-732-5365

Starting today, Thursday May 6th, Atheist Ireland member Paul Gill will walk the length of Ireland, from Mizen Head in Cork to Malin Head in Donegal, to highlight the need to vote Yes in the coming Irish blasphemy referendum.

On January 1st, the day Ireland’s new blasphemy law became operational, Atheist Ireland published 25 blasphemous statements on our website. We continued lobbying at home and at European Parliament level. We also supported two blasphemy-themed art exhibitions in Dublin.

In March Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said he will propose a referendum later this year, along with other referendums, to remove the reference to blasphemy from the Constitution. Paul’s walk will encourage people to campaign for, and vote yes in, this referendum.

Appropriately, Paul’s walk started on May 6th, which is International Day of Reason. And to mark the start of Paul’s walk, we now publish 25 quotes on the Irish blasphemy referendum and the right to freedom of expression.

Read More »

Posted in Blasphemy, News, Politics | 3 Comments

Paul launches blasphemy protest

Paul sets off at 10am from Mizen Head on Thursday 6 May

From BBC News

Blasphemy man begins long protest

An atheist is to walk the length of Ireland to protest against the Republic’s new blasphemy law.
Paul Gill, a former social worker from Donegal will set off on his 625km trek on Wednesday.
He is protesting against a new clause in the Defamation Act 2009 that makes blasphemy a crime punishable by a fine of up to 25,000 euros. He said: “Theological thought crimes are draconian and dangerous, they belong in the past.”

Mr Gill told BBC News he wants to use the walk to create a platform for debate, and promote the idea of a secular constitution in Ireland.
He said: “In a historical context protest walks have been an effective way of demonstrating your beliefs, rights, concerns to the public at large in the hope of generating action.
“I believe a vigorous walk in the countryside beats any religion or superstition.”

More here

From The Derry Journal

A Buncrana man who is enraged that a blasphemy law has been introduced in Ireland says he’ll walk the length and breadth of the country in protest to it.

Paul Gill, originally from Manchester, but who has roots in Buncrana, plans on pounding the pavements from Mizen Head to Malin Head in a bid to generate awareness of the law he says ‘criminalises people’s freedom of speech’.

Posted in Blasphemy, News, Politics | 3 Comments