Author Archives: Michael Nugent

Atheist Ireland is pleased that the Seanad did not pass a Bill yesterday that would have enabled people and groups other than politicians to raise money for political purposes without the safeguards in the SIPO laws. Several Senators quoted concerns raised by Atheist Ireland.

The Seanad is debating a Bill today that would enable people and groups other than politicians to raise money for political purposes without the safeguards in the SIPO laws. Atheist Ireland has sent the following submission to all Senators, asking them to oppose this Bill in order to protect our democracy from the undue influence […]

Right to Die Ireland is pleased that the Dying with Dignity Bill has passed to the next stage in the Dail. We have campaigned on this issue for the past eight years, since the deaths of Marie Fleming and Anne Holliday who we remember today.

The Historical Society at Trinity College Dublin has disinvited Richard Dawkins from addressing the Society. I have written the following letter to them asking them to reconsider.

The role of money in soccer today has become completely detached from the reality of the sport. My local club Bohs will come into a windfall if Matt Doherty’s transfer from Wolves to Spurs is completed. Bohs sold teenaged Doherty to Wolves for €40,000 a decade ago, and part of the contract gives Bohs 10% […]

Phil Hogan’s resignation statement and RTE interview show that he has not learned the most important lesson of Golfgate. The former European Commissioner repeatedly said that he broke no laws or regulations, when it is perfectly clear that he did both.

To summarise my 45 short posts so far: do gods exist? We can’t know for certain. But we can form reliable beliefs, to the same degree of confidence that we routinely do with other extraordinary claims.

Here’s an overview of the Biblical stories of Jesus and the independent records of Jesus by Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny, Suetonius, and Thallus.

A fourth independent record of the possible existence of Jesus was written in about 120 AD by Gaius Suetonius, a Roman historian who worked for Pliny and various Emperors.

A third independent record of Jesus was written in about 110 ad. Pliny the Younger was a Roman politician who published ten books of his Letters.