Secular Sunday #73 – It's A Cracker

Another late night edition. (It’s not rational not to take advantage of unexpectedly good weather.) We have some good news about our conference, a profile of one of its speakers, the welcome return of our news roundup (helpfully compiled by Barbara Monea), as well as listings of upcoming events and a couple of thought-provoking blog posts. Enjoy!

– Derek Walsh, Editor

Atheist Ireland News

• There are now student tickets available for the Empowering Women through Secularism conference at the dramatically reduced price of €50. Get tickets now. 
• Our Facebook page has just passed 5,000 likes. Additionally our Facebook grouphas more than 1,600 members, our Twitter account has more than 4,300 followers, and our YouTube channel has more than 2,000 subscribers and almost 200 videos. Our Kiva team has over 30 members who have raised more than $3,500 in loans.
  Many of the above are people who support our aims but are not members of Atheist Ireland. If you’d like to know more about becoming a member, here’s how and why to join.

Profile: PZ Myers

Every week until the Empowering Women through Secularism conference, we’ll be profiling one of the speakers.

Paul Zachary Myers is a professor of biology and a prolific science blogger. He has an inordinate fondness for cephalopods.
PZ (pronounced American-style “Pee Zee”) incurred the wrath of Catholics everywhere in 2008 when he “desecrated a host” (i.e. disrespected a cracker).
At the World Atheist Convention in Dublin 2011, he said something that upset David Quinn.
He claims to have written a book called The Happy Atheist  which will be published later this year.

• PZ’s blog, Pharyngula
• PZ on Twitter
• PZ discussing Islam and embryology with the IERA outside the World Atheist Convention, Dublin 2011

News Digest

compiled by Barbara Monea

IRELAND

• Battle against normalising suicide one of society’s great challenges
• Equality expert to examine if Croke Park proposals are “anti-women”
• Deputy Mulherin: Website’s advice on threesomes is ‘far from healthy’
• Ireland’s pro-choice activists risk prison with mass leafleting campaign
• Tone of bishops’ language on abortion an echo of other days

WORLD

• Francis still shuns papal quarters
• What the new Pope means for the Franks of this world
• The gay airman who took on the US military
• North Dakota outlaws most abortions
• We Were All Wrong; The True God is Polynesian
• Anglican in Angola
• Sylvia Browne: TV Psychic Under Fire For Telling Family Kidnapping Victim Was Dead
• Dalai Lama urges respect for non-religious
• Hong Kong transsexual wins fight to marry her boyfriend

SCIENCE

• Scientists want to bring 22 animals back from extinction

ANALYSIS

• Are we “getting” Islam?
• Lisa McInerney: Rape culture is a stupid, cruel response to a dark reality
• Efforts to reduce male suicide ‘mistaken’
• Archbishop Diarmuid Martin speaks of the ‘critical juncture’ of the Catholic Church
• What percentage of philosophers believe in God?

Calendar

• Monday 20 May, 8:30 pm, McSwiggans Bar and Restaurant, Woodquay, Galway (map)
  Galway Skeptics in the Pub #57.Facebook event page
• Sunday 26 May, 12:00 noon, Galway Lawn Tennis Club, Galway (map)
  Humanists West, Galway are having their monthly meeting. Open to all. Facebook event page
• Saturday 1 June, 12:00 noon – 2:00 pm, GPO, O’Connell St., Dublin 1 (map)
  Brendan Maher and co. will be outside the GPO with a stall promoting atheism, secularism and humanism. Email Brendan if you want to help or for further information.
• Sunday 2 June, 4:00 pm, Buswell’s Hotel, Molesworth St., Dublin 2 (map)
  Monthly meeting of the Humanist Association of Ireland. All are welcome. Facebook event page
• Sunday 2 June, Quay Co-op, Cork (map)
• “Confessions of an ex-Scientologist.” The Cork Humanists’ monthly meeting with guest speaker John Duignan. Facebook event page
• Saturday 29 & Sunday 30 June, O’Callaghan Alexander Hotel, Dubln 2 (map)
  “Empowering Women Through Secularism” An international two-day conference featuring some of the biggest names in atheism, skepticism, secularism and feminism. Buy tickets now

Bloggery

I had to overcome the fear of hell and God’s many other consequences and satisfy my own conscience that the source of these punishments came from Mohammed who was not a Prophet sent by God. God himself cannot punish you but the enforcers of Mohammad’s religion are the only ones carrying out the punishments when a person willingly apostates. – Geoff hosts a guest post from a now ex-Muslim

I’d never felt that I’d missed out by being an atheist, but one thing I could use is an occasional nudge away from narcissism. It’s easy to lapse into self-absorption when convinced there’s no master plan or purpose for life, let alone afterlife. – Clerical Whispers on Pope Francis as a leader for believers and atheists