PZ Meyers in UCD next Tuesday

Next Tuesday at 6:30pm in Theatre B in the Science Hub of UCD, the UCD Secular Humanist Society will be presenting its first Honorary Life Membership to PZ Meyers, the writer, blogger and Humanist of the Year 2009 (named by the American Humanist Association). The event is open to UCD students (for free) and a limited number of members of the public (for a mere €5). Check out the Facebook event page here or e-mail ucdhumanistsociety@gmail.com for more details.

– Conor

 

The EU’s ‘Culture of Death’ and more

As reported in yesterday’s Irish Times, a parish priest has denied claims that he spread a “vote no to Lisbon” leaflet (although he doesn’t deny that he wrote and signed it). The leaflet claimed that the EU has:

“embraced the ‘Culture of Death’. Yet again, Europe has become a slaughterhouse. Millions of its own children have been slaughtered”

This is in spite of the fact that only 17 out of 25 members of the European Union have access to safe and legal abortion on request (data accurate to 2007 – pdf). As an aside, far more have access to abortion to save the life of the mother (all except Malta); Ireland’s laws prohibit abortion except in the case of risk of death to the mother. Not, however, in the case of rape, incest, preservation of physical or mental health, fetal impairment or economic or social reasons.

The real gem, however, is the quote at the end of the article, from Cardinal Tarcision Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state.

“If Europe recognised homosexual couples as equal to marriage, for example, it would go against its own history. And it would be right to stand against it. The Church wants to encourage states in this.”

The age-old argument of “we’ve always done it this way, why should we change?” emerges. Never mind that polygamy was also the status quo at one point, the institution that tried to cover up systematic child sex abuse, that instigates the oppression of women’s rights and that caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people in the Crusades also want you to live in a static age; one that never progresses or advances. The Vatican, apparently, feels the need to retain control over who you love, who you have sex with, who you marry, what contraception you use, what you do in the case of that contraception failing, what you do when you’re raped, whether you want to go through the trauma of a still-birth (in the full knowledge that this will occur). I think I would be more appalled if there weren’t people like CountMeOut.ie in this country, providing people with information on leaving the Catholic Church.

Ok, rant over.

On a separate note:

The UCD Secular Humanist Society is holding an event tomorrow evening in the Blue Room of the Student Centre. Michael Nugent, the chair of Atheist Ireland, will be speaking on the topic ‘Blasphemy is a Human Right’. All members are invited (if you’re not a member you can sign up there and then, for a mere €2). The event starts at 6pm. This is sure to be a great talk; I’ve heard Michael on the radio before and he’s got some great ideas. E-mail ucdhumanistsociety@gmail.com for more information, or follow them on Twitter.

Happy Wednesday

– Conor

 

What I’m reading at the moment

 

The God Delusion

 

 

Yep, I’m an atheist. Funnily enough, it’s not something that I talk about all that much, because I’m still working it all out. One point that Dawkins makes in the book is that religious groups (in particular in the U.S.) have a huge sway in public opinion and politics (in spite of the supposed state/ religion separation) and that, given that there are many atheists in the world (in America some polls suggest that there are more atheists and agnostics than Jews), we should exert similar influence. Anyway, it’s just something I thought I’d throw out there.