As atheist activists, we rightly challenge religions when they behave unethically. We should also challenge unethical behaviour by people purporting to represent us as atheists. John Hamill has published a report in which the illegitimate ‘board’ of Atheist Alliance International knowingly misled the United Nations about AAI’s bylaws. This follows the Council of Europe removing […]
Listowel homily reflects Catholic Church teaching
Fr Seán Sheehy is correct to say that his homily in Listowel reflects Catholic Church teaching, and Bishop Ray Browne of Kerry is wrong to suggest otherwise. Father Sheehy said about abortion: “What is so sad today is you rarely hear about sin, but it is rampant. And we see it for example in the […]
Church moving sacraments out of schools?
Reports that the Catholic Church in Dublin is to start moving the preparation of children for sacraments out of the classroom are welcome, but they are exaggerated when compared to the full policy document published by the Archdiocese. The full policy document says that schools will continue to “educate children for the sacraments”, with “content […]
UN again tells Ireland to provide secular schools
Atheist Ireland has welcomed today’s concluding observations of the UN Human Rights Committee, which again tell Ireland to provide secular education by establishing non-denominational schools, and to further amend the Employment Equality Act to bar all forms of discrimination against teachers and medical workers. The UN Committee has also told Ireland to remove the religious […]
AAI and ‘the period of special measures’
A member of the board that unlawfully hijacked Atheist Alliance International has finally admitted that they knew they were acting undemocratically, but that they did so anyway. Up to now, others involved have implausibly claimed to have believed they were acting democratically, but say they made mistakes or overlooked the bylaws. But former unelected board […]
Pope confirms Catholic education is evangelisation
Pope Francis has confirmed that Catholic education is evangelisation, and has compared not speaking the truth about God in education to burning books, during a private reception in the Vatican on 22 April for educators including from Mary Immaculate College in Limerick. He also told a gathering of Christian Brothers to evangelise by educating, and […]
AAI finally admits its ‘board’ was not elected
The supposed Secretary of Atheist Alliance International has finally admitted that the people who removed democracy from the alliance were not even elected themselves when they did so. He describes their failure to put themselves forward for election as an ‘oversight’, then continues as if there are no consequences for acting as if you are […]
The betrayal of democratic atheist activism
Since 2018, some people have falsely claimed to be the board of Atheist Alliance International. This article explains why democratic atheist activists should care about this, and why it is such a betrayal of democratic atheist activism. The Freethought Prophet podcast has covered this scandal for years, more aggressively than I would do so, but […]
The 5-year drop in religious marriages
Yesterday I reported on what I described as the rise in nonreligious marriages in Ireland since 2016. That is a fair description when you look at the percentages, as religious marriages have dropped from 67.4% to 56.7%, and nonreligious marriages have risen from 32.6% to 43.3%. However, when you look at the actual figures rather […]
The 5-year rise in nonreligious marriages
In the five years since 2016, the percentage of religious marriages in Ireland has dropped from 67.4% to 56.7%, Roman Catholic marriages have dropped from 56.3% to 39%, and nonreligious marriages have risen from 32.6% to 43.3%. This shows the need for the State to remove the privilege it gives to the Catholic Church in […]