Massimo Pigliucci writes, blasphemy is a strange concept, according to my dictionary it refers to “the act or offence of speaking sacrilegiously of God or sacred things.” By that definition, every religious believer constantly engages in blasphemy — of all the other gods she doesn't believe in. You would think ...
The Minister for Justice is proposing to amend his new blasphemy law by providing, as a defence, that a person accused of blasphemy can “prove that a reasonable person would find genuine literary, artistic, political, scientific, or academic value” in the blasphemous matter. He is not proposing to reduce the ...
Atheist Ireland member Micheal Nugent was a guest on Spirit Moves on Sunday, May 17, on RTE Radio 1 at 6:05pm. The other guests are David Quinn, Harry Browne, Fr Brendan Purcell and Claire O'Connell. Courtesy of Irish Shaman Part 1 of 6 (more…)
Do you want to stop the Irish government from reviving the medieval crime of blasphemy? Do you want to promote a rational, ethical and secular society in Ireland? Atheist Ireland has put a campaign website online at http://blasphemy.ie/ as part of our campaign against this proposed new law. It includes ...
The Irish Government’s new proposed blasphemy crime combines the oppressive religious thinking of 1950s Catholic Ireland and modern Islamic fundamentalism. This proposal should be opposed for three reasons: One, it does not protect religious belief. Instead, it encourages outrage and it criminalises free speech. Two, it treats religious beliefs as ...
The term agnosticism owes its origins to the great twentieth century biologist T.H. Huxley, personal friend of Charles Darwin and champion of Natural Selection. Few nowadays understand that it is in fact an antonym of the word “Gnosticism”; referring to a diverse array of early Christian and Jewish religious sects ...
The Limits of Free-Speech: “Both these individuals have engaged in unacceptable behaviour by inciting hatred against a number of communities,” The above was the justification given by a UK Border Agency spokesman following the recent decision by the British government to prohibit Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper from ...
The following is the contribution by Michael Nugent to a debate at the Philosophical Society of University College Cork, on Monday 23rd of February, in support of the motion that ‘God is Fraud.’ Thank you for inviting me, and it is a pleasure to be here. I am going to ...
An abhorrent tactic amongst religious apologists keep coming to my attention of late. Coming under many names, including "God of the gaps" this tactic is to attempt to find an area of discourse upon which you, the mark, have little knowledge, opinion or conclusion. From this they try to claim ...
How did the recent Pew Landscape Survey find that one in every five American atheists believes in God? Are these people stupid atheists, or stupid theists? I believe there is a more rational explanation. Firstly, the survey question was more nuanced. It was: "do you believe in God or a ...
