Interesting fact: According to the Humanist Association of Ireland, there are 250,000 Irish citizens who classify themselves as non-believers. I’m not actually sure where they got this figure from. According to the Central Statistics Office, there were 175,000 people who stated “no religion” in the 2006 census, of which 105,000 stated nationality as Irish. Even adjusting for population growth and the gradual increase in people who deem themselves irreligious (starting at 1107 in 1961, see here) that seems a fair jump.

Anyway, I digress. Looking at the figure, it’s a fair whack of people. But breaking it down, that’s only 4.2% of the population. There also tend to be fewer non-religious Irish people (2.8%) than non-Irish non-religious people (16.3%) [All figures from here]. Compare that to the US (where the census cannot ask about religion, leaving us reliant on other surveys) where people without religion account for 15.2% of the population (here).

So why the difference? Well, Ireland is still quite a conservative and Catholic country. One theory I have however, is that even though many people are quite obviously irreligious in the more obvious aspects (Don’t regularly attend church or pray, don’t believe in a god etc) there is still a fear of not being Catholic. Maybe it’s that aul’ guilt springing up inside at the idea of turning away from the big RCC. So instead of accepting that they no longer believe, people conform to the “Big Two” (Christmas and Easter/Lent), thus appeasing themselves. Thus:

Wonder why people adhere to the no meat rule so religiously today when they ignore all the other rules of catholicism every other day…?

And the response:

Eath[sic] Hour syndrome

(Hmmm… don’t think I’ve ever been able to use [sic] before 🙂

So, just as people quell the guilt within them by turning their lights off for 60 out of the 525,600 minutes in a year (I feel like launching into song…) many Catholics do the Lent thing and have an aul’ pray. Thus, lapsed Catholicism is still Catholicism. Actually, if you want you can leave the church. You write to your Archbishop with a good enough reason and they stamp your birth cert with DEFECTED (or something like that). A little more publicity about the fact that it’s not actually so bad “admitting” you’re no longer a believer and no longer count yourself as Catholic is, therefore, welcomed by this atheist in particular.

Which is where the Humanist Association of Ireland come in. They have some interesting policy submissions, including one on “Domestic Partnership” (from April 2006) and one on circumcision (in terms of the ethics and dangers of it being carried out in a non-medical procedure). They also have this:

It’s on DARTs now, I saw it last week while I was home. Did you know that? I didn’t. One might suggest that this is a rather minor point and that it affects very few people (as there are so few judges and only one president anyway), but to me it’s part of a bigger picture. The church and the State have gone hand-in hand for far too long, from the ban on the sale of contraception, to the role played in primary schools, to parish politics (the latter of which I’m sure I’ll touch on in a future post).

Thinking about it, I would have a choice in that situation. Do I refuse to take the oath and risk not being able to take up the position (possibly even taking a case claiming discrimination on the grounds of religious belief) or do I take the oath, knowing full well that it means less than nothing to me and therefore does not have the desired effect (to put “the fear of god” into you, thus binding you to the faithful execution of your duties).

So, what to do, what to do? Well, a third option is to campaign against such an oath, as the HAI are doing. What, so instead of just complaining ’til you’re blue in the face you do something about it? Shocking, really.

They’re my options and the odds are I’ll go with the latter. I’m becomming less of a say-er and more of a do-er (hopefully) and I’d rather not sit idly by and do nothing when I can get involved and (maybe, hopefully) make a small difference.

Anyway, that’s my thoughts on it. Thanks for reading by the way, I appreciate it. And thanks to all those who commented on yesterday’s post, it was great to see 🙂

Two things to end on:

  1. On a similar note, rumour has it there’s a humanist society starting up in UCD next year. I’d love to get involved in that myself. (Thanks Laura for the heads-up!)
  2. As part of the End the Lies campaign, the Human Rights Campaign have responded to the NOM’s anti-gay marriage campaign video. Check it out here, in particular the rebuttal at the bottom of the page. That’s an interesting read alright.

Wow, I’m knackered. I don’t know how all you full-time bloggers do it. This is my fifth post in as many days and it’s exhausting! Back Monday for a new one (unless inspiration hits before then).