In an email newsletter last night, the Humanist Association of Ireland has announced that the first legal Humanist marriage ceremony will take place today, Saturday 6 April, performed by a HAI celebrant, with Government Minister Joan Burton attending. But the confusing announcement raises the significant legal question as to whether the HAI has legally denied […]
Here’s a fascinating exchange on Ray Comfort’s Facebook page, in which Ray threatens to ban Atheist Ireland activist Leonie Hilliard for calling him a bibliophile, and later apologizes to Leonie, after Leonie apologizes to him for casting the aspersion that he loves books.
The structured dialogue process to move beyond the recent rifts in the atheist and skeptic communities has now started at http://atheistskepticdialogue.com Thank you to everyone who has helped to bring the process this far. Based on the opening statements, I am optimistic that we can have a constructive dialogue. It is a dialogue between individuals, […]
I discussed belief in life after death, and religion generally, on Newstalk Radio this morning, with Jesuit priest Father Peter McVerry and psychiatrist Patricia Casey who is a patron of the Iona Institute. The show, Talking Point, is presented by Sarah Carey.
We hope to start the structured dialogue some time this week, on a new website dedicated to this project: http://atheistskepticdialogue.com The process will be moderated by a team that includes people from both perceived ‘sides’ to keep the dialogue constructive and on-topic. For each agenda item, we will start with two opening statements, that will […]
These are the speeches from my debate on end of life care with Professor David Smith, lecturer in ethics at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. This is an important issue for me. My late wife Anne Holliday got great peace of mind, when she was dying, from the option to control her death, […]
All speeches and some extracts from my recent debate with Irish Times journalist John Waters in NUI Galway on the topic: Does society need religious faith? Michael Nugent opening speech John Waters opening speech How do you get from the idea of a god to Jesus? On the nature of religion Michael Nugent closing speech […]
Earlier in these posts, Justicar asked me some questions about what I meant by saying that certain comments were hurtful. It is a very helpful question, which I said I would reply to. Please place an unwritten ‘in my opinion’ before anything that sounds like I am asserting a fact. Justicar wrote: “This sounds to me as […]
There has been a great deal of rational, constructive dialogue in the comments on recent posts here about moving beyond the rifts in the atheist and skeptic communities. Some people from both perceived ‘sides’ of the rifts have been actively engaged in this constructive dialogue. Also, some comments have used language that is both unfair […]
This discussion arose in the comments on the post about the dialogue agenda, and I have moved it here to allow it to continue without disrupting the discussion of the agenda. Here are the comments that were posted so far on the other post: Metalogic42 I also agree with Renee #8. Once again, in your […]