Secular Sunday #95 – Fighting The Good Fight

We’ve had another very busy week. I say we but I really mean my fellow committee members who have mostly been working very hard; all I have to do is compile everything they’ve done in this dominical digest. I think I’ve got everything. Anything I missed will be in next week’s edition.
Derek Walsh, Editor

News

• Atheist Ireland is financing, developing, designing and piloting Ireland’s first ever primary school course about atheism. We are working with Educate Together to coordinate this project, with information provided by us and developed into lessons by professionals. This is our biggest project to date and has made global news. Please donate to help us make this course a reality. Learn more.
• This week Atheist Ireland has made two submissions to the Constitutional Convention, on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Without Discrimination and on A Secular Constitution for a Pluralist People
• The Constitutional Convention will be holding public meetings throughout Ireland to get the views of the public on changing the Constitution. You can give your views on Constitutional issues for consideration in the next phase of the Convention’s agenda.
  The first public meeting will be held in Cork next Wednesday, 23 October at 7.30pm, in the Aula Maxima (Great Hall), University College Cork. Atheist Ireland’s Regional Officer, Kevin Sheehan will be attending this meeting.  He will be there at 6.30pm if you would like to meet and discuss the meeting. The full list of the various meetings throughout the country can be found here
• There is still time for members of the public to make a submission to the Department of Education on inclusiveness in schools. The views expressed will help shape Government policy and will input into the preparation of a White Paper next year. Atheist Ireland has advice for parents and other citizens who are making a submission to the Department of Education’s consultation on promoting greater inclusiveness in primary schools. Read more
• Last Monday Jane Donnelly appeared on an episode of RTÉ’s religious discussion show Beyond Belief, about RTÉ’s broadcasting of the Angelus. You can watch the entire episode here. You can also view selected highlights here.
• PJ Floyd has created a petition to abolish Northern Ireland’s blasphemy laws, to be delivered to the Northern Ireland Assembly. You can sign it here.

Calendar

All events are free and open to everyone unless otherwise stated.

• Wednesday, 23 October, 7.30pm, Aula Maxima, University College Cork (map)
  Public meeting of the Constitutional Convention. See News section for more details.
• Tuesday 29 October, 6:00 pm, Irish Writers’ Centre, Parnell Square North., Dublin 1 (map)
  The launch of the book Faithless: A Journey Out of Religion with Stops for Light Refreshment Along the Way by Tony Philpott.
• Thursday 31 October, 10:00 am, Carmelite Centre, Aungier St., Dublin 2 (map)
  ‘Promoting a Constitutional Convention Debate on economic, social and cultural rights’, an information meeting to support participation by civil society and community organisations in calling for an examination of economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights by the Constitutional Convention.Read more
• Saturday 2 November, 12:00 noon – 2:00 pm, GPO, O’Connell St., Dublin 1 (map)
  Brendan Maher and friends 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 3 November, 4:00 pm, Buswell’s Hotel, Molesworth St., Dublin 2 (map)
  Monthly meeting of the Humanist Association of Ireland.

Blogonomy

A new Canadian study reportedly found that children of same-sex parents have a lower graduation rate than opposite sex married families. It is currently doing the rounds on your usual anti-gay sites as proof that homosexuals are unable to raise children, are unnatural, the spawn of Satan, harbingers of death etc. – Peter Ferguson exposes the flaws in yet another study of same-sex parents.

When somebody is on a roll like this, you know that a reference to Hitler is not far away. And sure enough, sandwiched between the atheist and Marxist-Leninist Irish Council of State and the mysterious God hiding in the United States Constitution, Mary tells us how she thinks the Nazis started off and warns us that “we have this with Atheist Ireland.” – Michael Nugent rebuts Mary FitzGibbon’s “Ireland Stand Up Comedy approach to political history“