I delivered this talk today at the seventh Congress of the International Association of Freethought in Paris, France.
I am particularly pleased to speak here in Paris about the right to die. I first got involved with the Right to Die movement eight years ago, when my late wife Anne Holliday was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
Anne and I regularly visited Paris during our twenty five years together. We were in the Stade de France in 1998, when France beat Brazil to win the World Cup. When we got married, after Anne was diagnosed with cancer, we came here to Paris on our honeymoon.
Having lived through Anne’s dying, I understand at first hand why the Right to Die is one of the most important rights in an ethical society. But in Ireland, as in most countries, love and empathy and compassion and justice are frustrated by the law.
Every year, many good people face an ethical dilemma between lawful suffering and unlawful compassion. And they face it at a time when they are at their most vulnerable and need the most support.
Ultimately, this is an issue where the Courts and the law have to catch up with reality. The Courts are not in control of what terminally ill people will choose to do, because terminally ill people have their own ethical priorities and their own autonomy.
I delivered this talk today at the seventh Congress of the International Association of Freethought in Paris, France.
Atheist Ireland has two aspects to our work. The first part of our work is that we promote atheism and reason over supernaturalism and superstition. When doing this, we engage with the general public, and we disagree with and debate people of various religions. We argue strongly that faith is an unreliable way of understanding reality and morality.
The second part of our work is that we promote ethical secularism, by seeking separation of church and state, in our constitution, parliament, laws, schools and hospitals. When doing this, we work alongside Irish religious minorities who also face discrimination, such as Evangelical Christians and Ahmadi Muslims.
I am going to talk today about the second part of our work: promoting separation of church and state, and using human rights principles as the basis for this campaign.
This week I debated Father Tony Flannery at the NUI Galway Literary and Debating Society. Tony is a priest who has been silenced by the Vatican for speaking out on theological matters. Here is video of my opening contribution.
Here is video of all of my and Tony’s speeches. I will add video of the audience contributions when they are online.
Atheist Ireland has prepared a comprehensive report on how Tipperary Education and Training Board (ETB), through its Central Technical Institute (CTI) in Clonmel, is failing in its statutory obligation to promote and protect the rights of minorities in their schools, based on the details of a recent case at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
On Newstalk this morning, I and former Senator Joe O’Toole discussed Joe’s recent article in the Irish Times, which claimed that Ireland has swapped authoritarian Catholicism for totalitarian atheism.
The Childcraft How and Why Library, the 1972 FA Cup Final Programme, Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins, and Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King – my interview today on BBC Radio Ulster Sunday Sequence about books that speak to my soul.
Atheist Ireland has joined the International Humanist and Ethical Union. IHEU is a global representative body uniting a diversity of non-religious organisations and individuals. We also remain members of Atheist Alliance International, a global network that was restructured and relaunched at an Atheist Ireland convention in Dublin five years ago. Our membership of both organisations will […]
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has today told Pakistan to respect human rights, including freedom of religion and belief, under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Atheist Ireland, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland, and the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, briefed the UN Committee in Geneva, before it questioned Pakistan in order to […]
I delivered this talk today at the seventh Congress of the International Association of Freethought in Paris, France.
