Secular Sunday #52 – Post-Apocalypse Edition

It’s time for this week’s Secular Sunday.

In this issue:

• News
• Upcoming Events
• Bloggery

News

• Last Thursday, Dáil Éireann passed the Civil Registration (Amendment) Bill, despite several TDs highlighting concerns raised by Atheist Ireland in our briefing document ‘Legislating for Equality In Marriage Registration.’ Read more We have now written to the President pointing out the ways this Bill discriminates against non-religious people and asking him to send the bill to the Council of State. Read more
• The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has been responding to concerns about unconscious bias in its anti-discrimination law project, by repeatedly telling members of the public that the ICCL has sent a detailed 5-page letter to Atheist Ireland about the issue. The ICCL letter, which we received on 13 December, together with comments by Atheist Ireland can be found here.
• The AAI’s Atheist Census has had more than 100,000 participants, including over 850 from Ireland. It only takes a minute to complete. If you like taking surveys (and who doesn’t?!) there’s a more detailed survey on atheist beliefs and demographics here. It should take about 30 minutes to complete.

Upcoming Events

• Sunday 30 December, 12:00 noon, Galway Lawn Tennis Club, Galway (map)
  Humanists West, Galway are having their last monthly meeting of the year, a shortened meeting (1 hour) followed by a ‘holiday season’ lunch in a nearby venue to be confirmed. All welcome – especially party animals! Facebook event page
• Monday 14 January, 8:30 pm, McSwiggans Bar and Restaurant, Woodquay, Galway (map)
  Galway Skeptics in the Pub – “5 Months of Fire and Brimstone”. Science and skepticism with a focus on climate change. Facebook event page

Bloggery

• I greeted news that Youth Defence is now open about their US-based financing with mixed delight. True, the myth that they are the voice of the silent Irish majority can only be damaged by this approach. But I worry that their true colours may show more clearly when they drop the pretense of being strangers to the worst excesses of anti abortion activism in the USA. – Geoff investigates Youth Defence and their American friends. And more.
• It seems that the Mayans tracked cycles of time within greater cycles of time, based on their observations of the heavens over a prolonged period. The 21st December 2012 was significant in that it marked the end of one of these cycles with the intersecting of the central point of the milky way and the plane of the ecliptic creating a “sacred tree”. – Dave Powell of Belfast Skeptics reflects on “the end of the world”.

That’s it for this week. Have a happy Solstice/ Saturnalia/ Festivus/ Hanukkah/ Newtonmas/ Yule/ Kwanzaa/ Night of the Radishes/ Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous Fourteenth Baktun.

Derek Walsh
Editor, Secular Sunday
Atheist Ireland.