Welcome to Secular Sunday.
We have a packed issue this week so clear some space in your schedule and settle down with the beverage of your choice.
In this issue:
On 19 April 2012 in London, Atheist Ireland chairperson Michael Nugent debated Sami Zaatari of the Muslim Debate Initiative. The topic was: Is religion less relevant to modern society?
Here are Sami and Michael’s opening contributions to the debate.
And here is the rest of the debate, including three rounds of rebuttals by each speaker, questions from the audience, and summaries from both speakers.
Welcome to the latest Secular Sunday, the weekly newsletter of Atheist Ireland.
In this issue:
Last Tuesday 10th April the Minister for Education & Skills released the Report from the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism.
The Minister for Education & Skills has asked that the interested parties examine the report and take time to reflect on and digest the recommendations. The Minister will outline his official response in May. In the next few weeks Atheist Ireland will be examining the Report in detail and seeking clarification on various Recommendations.
This Report could be a significant contribution to the future of Irish schools, and we want to ensure that we have considered it fully before we respond formally to it. In the meantime, here are some initial observations on some of the contents.
It’s time for Secular Sunday!
In this issue:
Along with other civil society groups, Atheist Ireland is concerned that the format and agenda for the Government’s proposed Constitutional Convention are too restrictive to bring about comprehensive change. As the Government seems likely to make a decision in the very near future, we have written the following letter to the Taoiseach and Tanaiste.
Welcome to this week’s Secular Sunday.
This week, we’re focusing on the results of Census 2011 that were released on Thursday. We also have the usual round-up of the week’s other news and a list of upcoming events.
We are pleased to announce that the respected Irish writer John Waters will be contributing an occasional column for Secular Sunday. In this introductory column about Religion without God, Mr Waters explains how he has reverted to the intellectual atheism of his teenage years, while still retaining the religion of his adulthood, after studying the philosophical works of Alain de Botton.
My metaphysical pilgrimage has been a long and circuitous one, and the infamous cultural crossroads, at which I once watched the allegorical jiving that brought the esteemed Sean Doherty back to the faith of his fathers, has now been transformed into a theological roundabout on which I have not changed philosophical direction but have simply returned full circle to the intellectual atheism of my teens while not abandoning the profundity of the practice of my religion without the need for God. It is a capricious paradox, certainly, but such is the nature of always seeking yet never quite attaining subjective objectivity.
Atheist Ireland has made the following written submission to the the Council of Europe’s Advisory Committee for the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM). This is a follow-up to our meeting with this group in February when they were in Dublin monitoring Ireland’s record in protecting human rights.
Submission by Atheist Ireland to FCNM, March 2012
1. Introduction
2. Article 4 – Discrimination
3. Articles 7, 9, 4 – Blasphemy
4. Articles 15, 4 – Religious Oaths
5. Articles 12, 4 – Education
6. Constitutional Convention
7. Conclusion
Secular Sunday #18 – Miscellanea
It’s time for another Secular Sunday!
In this issue:
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