Marie Fleming is this week asking the Irish Supreme Court to allow her to be assisted in dying peacefully, instead of being forced to live through the final stages of multiple sclerosis. She is appealing against a High Court decision that upheld the current ban on assisted suicide, because the legal right to assisted dying […]
I’d like to thank Jeremy Stangroom for his gracious apology for accidentally misrepresenting my article about a sexist photograph on Facebook. It’s a welcome example of how to stop misunderstandings perpetuating or escalating online. I would also like to reciprocate the apology for phrasing my article in a way that contributed to the misunderstanding arising. […]
A joke was shared yesterday on a Facebook Page that I help to moderate, about a drunk woman coming home after a night out with her friends, and trying to imitate a cuckoo clock to avoid waking her husband. It’s an old joke that I first heard decades ago, although then it was about a […]
This is my speech at yesterday’s debate in University College Cork, on the topic ‘That you can believe in both science and religion.’ The question is can we believe in both science and religion, and I suggest that if you do believe in both science and religion, you are not doing either properly. They are […]
I will be taking part in two debates this week, on Science and Religion in University College Cork on Monday evening, and on Religion and State in Trinity College Dublin on Wednesday afternoon. Monday 18 February, 7.30 pm Debate on the motion “Science and Religion: we can believe in both” Room G19, Kane Building, University […]
This is the first in a series of posts introducing the speakers at the Empowering Women Through Secularism International Conference in Dublin on the weekend of 29-30 June 2013. The conference will discuss how religion and religiously-influenced laws discriminate against women in areas from healthcare, sexuality and reproductive rights to education, careers and social policy, […]
Religions and religiously-inspired laws discriminate against women. Secular activism can help to empower women. And, whether you are a woman or a man, you can help to shape the future of secular activism and women’s rights around the world by coming to Dublin this June. Following our successful sell-out World Atheist Convention in the same […]
Last week I published links to 75 songs relevant to atheism, gods or religions that should make you think or laugh or both. Thanks to your suggestions it is now up to 90+, and I’ve divided them into the following sections to make the pages quicker to load.
Here are ten reasons to be pleased that Pope Benedict is resigning. He has international political influence through the Vatican His Vatican works with Islamic States to oppose gay rights He blames atheism for Nazi Germany and lack of virtue His Catholic Church claims that atheists are not fully human He protects the Vatican ahead […]
At a debate last week about abortion, I challenged Youth Defence about the substantial financial support that they get from Joseph Scheidler, an American pro-life activist who promotes the disruption of the work of abortion clinics. Youth Defence declined to give us permission to publish video of their contribution to the debate, so here is […]