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Humanist Ceremonies

Posted on November 6th, 2008 by larry1506

Humanists the world over have evolved secular ceremonies to mark the rites of passage through life; most importantly those of birth, marriage and death. The Humanist Association of Ireland can put you in touch with accredited officiants, whilst some people arrange their own celebrations and funerals of a secular nature.  A clergyman is not required for a secular ceremony. The officiant can provide certificates for naming and wedding ceremonies if desired. Your solution may be a Humanist non-religious ceremony.

This is from the HAI website and for more information click Ceremonies

I believe that working to have humanist ceremonies available to the people of the mid-west would be a very worthwhile project for us to undertake.  There would be many more such ceremonies undertaken if the general public were aware of their existence and could access them readily.  I believe that it would also get many people interested in the humanist movement generally.

Brian Whiteside who organises ceremonies nationally has been invited to come and talk to us at our next meeting about what is involved and how we might proceed.  I would recommend as many as possible attend as it promises to be very interesting.

Filed under: humanism, Meetings | Tagged: | Leave a comment »

New Irish Atheist Association

Posted on November 6th, 2008 by dj357

Hi all,

Just to let you all know, as some of us don’t tend to frequent forums, based on the feedback from the members of the Atheist.ie forum, a new Secular/Atheist organisation is being formed and a group of people from the Atheist.ie forum (myself included and hopefully Jason if he can spare the time) are coming together for a meeting to help found this new “Irish Atheist Association” (a tentative name at present) at the end of this month. The details:

Sunday 30th November – 4pm to 7pm.
Central Hotel
Exchequer St Dublin

As I’ve volunteered to be an “executive” member (i.e. some form of coordinator, treasurer or secretary etc…) for the organisation, I’m taking it upon myself to try and gather a group of interested people, who may like to add their voice and/or opinion to our formation, mission and goals, to head up to Dublin on the train or the bus or whichever form of transport we decide upon, to attend the meeting, as individuals or to represent MWH.

Also, if anyone is interested in joining the group or applying for an “executive” role in the organisation, sign up to the Atheist.ie forum and then check out the links below.

I’ll be collecting names and confirming travel details with everyone at the meeting on the 23rd, so if anyone is interested, please let me know at the meeting, here on the blog or via email.

You can find all the relevant discussions on this new group at these links:

The initial thread proposing the formation of a new group:
http://www.atheist.ie/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1634

The thread discussing possible aims of the group:
http://www.atheist.ie/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1644

The thread for committee volunteers and suggestions for possible roles:
http://www.atheist.ie/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1656

Peace!

Filed under: atheism, humanism, skepticism | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

God Hates Ireland…apparently

Posted on November 3rd, 2008 by dj357

So, it would seem that not only are we unbelievers going to approximately seventy different kinds of hell, and several different forms of alternate location for eternal damnation, but we are also hated by God for living in Ireland. Who knew?

From the lovely people of Westboro Bapist Church (the wonderful people who brought us GodHatesFags.com) I present http://www.godhatesireland.com/

Quote from the expanded text of the tag-line on their main page:

Ireland’s Filthy Manner of Life

Ireland has absolutely failed its duty to God. It has been wholly given over to the idea that it is okay to be a filthy fag. They have allowed their fags to establish themselves at every level of society, especially in the government. A law called “An Act to Prohibit Incitement to Hatred on Account of Sexual Orientation” has been enacted by the wicked lawmakers in Ireland to eliminate any true gospel preaching there. Jeremiah 7:28 But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth. Isn’t that just exactly what Gospel preaching is supposed to do: incite people to hate sin? 2 Chronicles 19:2 Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord.

While only about 10% of the population of Ireland are fags or dykes, the other 90% are most assuredly their soul-condemning enablers. The old preachers used to say fag-enablers are worse than fags because fag-enablers support the filthy beasts calling themselves gay, and they don’t even have the excuse of being prisoner to a vile lust. Romans 1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Ireland is a land of vile, feces-eaters and anus lickers and those who have pleasure in them – all of whom are abominations to God and headed for Hell. Deal with it!

Led by such unclean canines – (“dogs” often means “sodomites” in Scripture, e.g., Deut. 23:17,18) – as openly-gay Senator David Norris, Ireland has become a veritable cesspool of corruption. Yielding to the Strasbourg Sodomite Whorehouse masquerading as a court superior to the supreme court of Ireland, enforcing a so-called: First Supranational Law System! It’s a fag court! Calls itself the European Court of Human Rights. Hogwash! First Supranational Law means Fag Law.

Meanwhile, not to be outdone by the over perverse nations of Chaff-People, Ireland is now scrambling to promote fag “unions.”  Headlines of 06.25.08 declare:  “Ireland Introduces Same-Sex Civil Partnership Legislation”, boldly proclaiming that “Ireland will soon be the latest country to create legal civil partnerships for same-sex couples.”  Of course, as they strain to increase their impudent disobedience toward their Creator, the number of fags “cohabitating” and the number of people with AIDS increases steadily.

A report from Dublin in November 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) noted that:  “Irish homosexual activists who came to Canada to ‘marry’ and are currently challenging Ireland to grant them spousal inheritance rights have garnered support from Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and shockingly from Dublin’s Catholic Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.”  NOTHING SHOCKING ABOUT THAT!  How could the catholic beast take any different position in light of the cancer that has been raging inside that body for decades?!
Just a quick question…where in the Bible, or actually anywhere on the planet, does it say that Ireland has a “duty to God”?
And which God would that be? What about Odin and Thor? Surely as a country we should be practicing the proper Norse rites in accordance with Odin’s wishes, no?
Won’t Quetzalcoatl be terribly upset with us for not performing ritual animal sacrifices at his altar?
Ahem, NO, is the answer there, I think you will find. What’s even more laughable than the postulate of an omniscient, omnipotent, supernatural “Creator” that these gay-bashing cretins are using, is the fact that they think they can say without a doubt that they understand not only the motives of this “Creator” but know for a fact that he not only hates “fags”, even though he “created” them and billions of other homosexual-leaning species, but that he would damn an entire country to eternal damnation for allowing these humans to go about their lives like everyone else free from harassment and ridicule.
It is infinitely more likely, and yet still ridiculously unlikely, that if such a “creator” were to exist, YOU, Mr. GodHatesIreland.com would be the one condemned to eternal damnation for being such an intolerant buffoon and for presuming to know what such a powerful supernatural entity is thinking or wants in the first place. Oh how he would scoff at your ignorance and presumptuous behaviour.
I think it is much safer, much more moral and downright rational to presume that neither of these childish attention-seeking bully creators exist, and to just get on with our own lives and to stop interfering in other peoples private lives.

Filed under: atheism, humanism | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

An unsurprising double standard?

Posted on November 2nd, 2008 by Sully

Like many Irish folk, I find the US presidential elections to be gripping stuff, and I’ve whiled away many an hour reading the articles and watching the dribs and drabs of coverage that Digg throws at me.

When McCain interrupted one of his supporters who called Obama ‘an arab’, he was rightly lauded by the media for showing a spark of the integrity that once defined his character. However, nobody seemed to pick up on the latent racism his sloppy wording betrayed. Eventually, Digg threw up this video from CNN’s Campbell Brown, who immediately earned my respect for pointing out something obvious in a pointed, mature fashion:

The nature of how I consume my American-News Media (5-minute chunks on YouTube, in case you weren’t paying attention) means that I encounter a lot of pundits, but this woman left an impression on me for having a rare kind of common sense, as well as a willingness to stand up for a minority who are slighted so often that few seem to notice anymore.

My respect for Ms Brown was diminished somewhat by this next clip, relating to an even more egregious misrepresentation of a political candidate’s creed (this time perpetrated by the incumbent senator). The embedded video shows enough background for you to see what’s going on here:

As you can see from the video, Brown commits the same casual linguistic xenophobia that she rebuked McCain for just a few days prior. She hits the word ‘godlessness’ with such a punch it betrays her own derision of the position, and after slamming Senator Dole for ‘falsely accus[ing] her opponent of not believing in God’, she takes the effort to emphasise that this is ‘again, a false accusation’.

Surely they could have run a find&replace on the script from the first video embedded above?

So what if Kay Hagan was an atheist? So what if Senator Dole was an agnostic? Would it matter? When did that become a disqualifier for higher office in our country? When did atheist become a dirty word, the equivalent of dishonorable or radical?

Whenever this gets raised, the implication is that there’s something wrong with being an Atheist-American. And the media is complicit here, too. We have been all way too quick to accept the idea that calling someone godless is a slur.

There are more than X million Atheist-Americans, former Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, successful business people, normal, average Americans from all walks of life. These are the people that are being maligned here every time this happens. And we can only imagine how this conversation plays out in the Rationalist world.

We can’t tolerate this ignorance, not in the media, not on the campaign trail. Of course she’s not an atheist. Of course she’s not an agnostic, but, honestly, it shouldn’t matter.

I couldn’t agree with you more, imaginary-Campbell-Brown-who-has-consistent-logic. This bare-faced bigotry needs to end.

Filed under: humanism | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

A New Atheist Group?

Posted on October 31st, 2008 by Jason

I know some of you have already been active in this discussion over at atheist.ie.

To give some background Dick Spicer from the HAI wrote an article on atheist.ie suggesting a new more assertive atheist group should be set up.

While there has been much to and fro on the topic the general feeling seems to be supportive of such a move.

The suggestion I made for a next step is below, what do people here think? What would people think of the MWH offering to host such a convention?

Do people think we need a new national organisation? Should we concentrate on building the membership of the HAI instead?

If we do want a new group I’d suggest we call a convention. What I mean is that we form a temporary organising committee and then select a date and location and advertise as widely as possible with the aim of starting a mass movement with local branches throughout the country. The convention would have to run over a couple of days and work on a constitution, name, aims & objectives. This might need to be done by a series of committees and then voted on by those present. Existing groups like the HAI and ISS should be invited to participate.

As I see it the rationalist position will only be treated seriously when we have numbers, another 200 member group won’t change anything. People have criticised the HAI but please remember that it is a entirely voluntary organisation. If we can garner enough support we can have full time paid staff, that means people who are available to write press releases/blogs and appear on TV or radio. There is only so much free time people can give to any organisation.

Filed under: atheism, debate, humanism, skepticism | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Desperate Measures…

Posted on October 23rd, 2008 by dj357

…is all I can call it. Aside from intellectually rage-inducing and just plain annoying.

By which I am referring to the following piece of “snail spam”, i.e. unwanted post in the letterbox generally sent en-masse in a carpet-bombing-like affair:

The Useless Virgin

This thing is a rather laughable attempt to try and convince the reader that the Virgin Mary made specific promises to the entire planet, and not only will she keep those promises, but she is honorable enough to demand strict obedience and daily prayer of the rosary before she will “solve the problems of the world, and our own problems too.” – Actual quote!

Actually, I’ll just give you the entire text of this piece of nonsense, and I shall highlight the outrageously silly/redundant pieces. (To be honest, it would be easier to highlight the pieces that are NOT outrageously silly, but anyway…)

Like most people nowadays you may have problems…

Are you worried and uncertain at times? Do you wonder what the future holds for you and your family? Do you feel threatened by so many dangers and problems that surround you? (so Mary only helps the severely depressed or disadvantaged…?)

Worry and anguish are written on countless faces. People are no longer able to hide their troubles. Even when someone is smiling, it is often to try to forget the things that make him weep inside. (hmm…they make the entire world out to be emotionally stunted and unable to adequately deal with their emotions…ah, appealing to their target audience…now I understand…)

Isn’t it true that people are giving in more and more to anguish, worry and affliction? Do you know why this is happening? It is because the world has forgotten God! (……AHAHAHA!!! No, nothing of the kind, my dear friend. It seems you have begun with the assumption of God, followed it with a shot of bald-faced assertions about the “horrors afflicting our world” and then you downed a pint of widespread Godless-ness and now you are understandably drunk from your severe lack of logical thinking.)

It was for these troubled souls – for you (yes, you!) – that the Virgin Mary appeared in Fatima, bringing the real solution from Heaven! (okay, so first you expect us to believe COMPLETELY unverified claims of the Fatima farce, then you expect us to believe that these apparitions were an attempt from someone up above to bring us a solution to problems that only exist in your head?!?)

Here is the great solution you need…

In 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared at Fatima, Portugal, to three children on six occasions. After showing the children a frightening vision of Hell, She warned of terrible chastisements that would fall on the world if we did not amend our lives. (No, she didn’t. If there was even a remote possibility of this having happened, okay, fine, but there isn’t. Epic fail, my friend...hey, wait a second…I’m sorry, WHAT? She showed CHILDREN a frightening vision of HELL??!? …..WHY??!?! And WE are the ones to receive chastisement?! I think in any fair situation the “Blessed” Virgin Mary would be chastised in the form of legal proceedings for REPEATEDLY exposing children to horrific imagery in an attempt to scare the love of Jesus into them, or have I simply been perverted by the “Godless” legal system of most nearly ALL the 1st world countries…?) During each of the apparitions, Our Lady insisted that we should recite the Rosary every day. She promised that, if we heeded her requests, the problems of the world would be solved, and our own problems too. (Ah yes, now I understand. The reason double-blind, triple-checked, peer-reviewed extensive experiments with the “power” of prayer showed absolutely NO evidence in favour of positive effects resulting from prayer, was because they were praying the WRONG prayers for the WRONG reasons to the WRONG arbitrarily appointed Blessed Problem-Solver…it’s all become so clear to me now)

The benefits of praying the Rosary

Why not heed her request? You will see: praying the Rosary to Our Lady only brings advantages. (in the form of heightened expectations and a propensity to mental delusion, sure) And not to pray it is to neglect a great remedy for our own problems and those of the world. You can be sure that the Rosary is something which will profoundly change your life and the lives of your loved ones.

This is because the Rosary greatly favours union within the family, especially these days in immoral education, laws and fashions, threaten to break this union. (….it seems my “Godless” law system is to blame again. Would you like to provide some evidence of this immoral education and law you speak of?) The Rosary, recited in the family, constitutes a specific antidote to these evils. Hence the well known motto: “The family that prays together, stay together.” (…I give up…)

The Church teaches that the Rosary purifies our souls, enriches us with graces and with virtue, gives us an ardent love for Jesus Christ (clearly EVER-SO important) and is a treasure that enables us to pay our debts to God and to our fellow man. (I’m sorry but how do I owe a god who does not exist, and who I do not believe in, A SINGLE THING?)

To sum up, you will obtain all this if, out of your 24 hour day, you will take a mere 15 minutes to pray the Rosary. Why not to decide to begin right now? (probably because prayer is SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN to be simply a way to do absolutely nothing, and still think you’re making a difference i.e. it’s bloody useless! And besides, a vindictive b***h like the “Blessed” Virgin Mary who only has the grace to save the world, which is apparently within her power somehow, once she has received enough prostrations and fawning adulation does not DESERVE 15 MILLISECONDS out of my day let alone 15 minutes!)

Start today…

Even if you haven’t prayed for years, don’t worry. Now is a good time to start. And if you want something to help you to pray and meditate on the Rosary, then order your Rosary book today, and put it to use as soon as it arrives.

We will enclose a free rosary with every book ordered. Just fill out the coupon opposite, detach it and put it in the nearest post box. You don’t even need a postage stamp.

It goes on to describe how you will receive a free wooden rosary and the wonderful book containing the “15 promises” the Blessed Virgin Mary was SO kind to bestow upon us.

And as if they hadn’t had enough of the bald-faced assertions, on the reverse of one of the folded sections they have the following to present as “evidence” for the power of the Rosary….yeah, right…

Eloquent Testimonies:

Do you know that the(sic) praying the Rosary is a most efficacious means to obtain from the Blessed Virgin Mary the solution of all sorts of problems? Look at some examples:

  • Family breaking up restored to harmony (NOTHING to do with prayer.)
  • Woman in despair avoids suicide (NOTHING to do with prayer, and the suicidal tendencies probably had root in feelings FOSTERED by prayer and religion.)
  • A young alcoholic recovers from his condition (NOTHING to do with prayer except for a placebo/crutch effect, but there MUCH are better methods than prayer for assisting in difficult situations like that.)
  • The father of a family succeeds in avoiding default of mortgage (Yeah, because the Virgin Larry appeared to the bank manager, showed him a frightening vision of Hell and warned of severe chastisements if he didn’t lay off the poor pious father of five…give me a break!)

These are only a few examples among so many that could be cited. (hahaha….oh really? And how many of them exactly constitute ACTUAL evidence for the efficacy of praying the Rosary?? Sorry, what was that?)

I welcome your comments on both this piece of trash, and my evaluation of it and it’s message. Oh, and if you want a good laugh, or to induce a fit of intellectual rage upon yourself, check out the website of the people responsible for this charming little flyer, the “Irish Society for a Christian Civilisation”, http://www.isfcc.org/

Now I’m off to annoy those silly Catholics with some awkward questions and some demands looking for evidence for their ridiculous claims!

p.s. excuse the odd colour changes in the quote boxes, I had a tousle with the text editor, and no matter how I smacked it with that hammer it didn’t quite come out right. I think it will remain obvious which pieces of text are in fact my pithy derision of the Catholic faith…

Filed under: atheism, humanism, skepticism | Tagged: , , , | 7 Comments »

Those all important first impressions…

Posted on October 20th, 2008 by Sully

As one of the new contributors that Jason mentioned a few days ago, I feel as though it’s important that I start off my input to this blog with the kind of entry that gives the reader a feel for who I am and what’s important to me, while tying into the interests of a humanist in the mid-western area.

The following is largely plagarised from my personal blog, an entry called ‘Saints and Shitters’.

Just over a year ago, I became aware of a uniquely grass roots approach to religious proselytizing, one that can be found in a growing number of toilet cubicles up and down the country, and I’m still incredibly curious as to where they come from. Here’s the first example I found in a restaurant called ‘Mother Hubbard’s’ in Oranmore, facing the user as he sits upon the throne.

The Bible is the Word of God - A priest

"The Bible is the word of God - A priest"

I’m sure you’ve seen one of these before, such is their diffusion throughout the country, but how is this getting around so much? Are the priests of Ireland issued with a permanent marker upon graduation from their seminary? Do they believe that man is at his most philosophical whilst exercising his sphincter? Do they believe that  the thick olfactory fog of human fecal matter acts as a catalyst for profound metaphysical thought?

Initially I feared that I may have been missing the point somewhat – it’s very possible that such messages are the richly ironic fruit of graffiti-happy religion spoofers, and any comment on it is but an exposure of my ignorance on such matters. That said, with the passage of time, and the accumulation of evidence, I’m beginning to think this thing is bigger than I had first realised.

Believe it or not, a week after my stop in Oranmore, I was in a Subway (restaurant) on O’Connell St., Limerick, and I found the following in their bathroom:

The Bible is the word of God - A priest

"The Bible is the word of God - A priest"

The first thing that entered my mind was to blog about it and joke about ‘having the lab compare the hand-writing samples’, when I realised that they were a damn-sight similar. But don’t take my word for it – see for yourself (I won’t even make you scroll up!):

Spot the difference

Spot the difference

Just try and convince me that these two don’t look incredibly similar. Look at the penmanship! Look at the way the sentence is formatted! I will be so bold as to say that these were definitely done by the same person.

I will be the first to admit that is is a staggering coincidence that I happened across two of these in the space of as many days, but I guarantee you that I am not responsible for either of them, in case you’re thinking I’m trying to slander the good name of the Jesus-pimping parishioners in our society.

The sightings on that fateful week weren’t the last, dear reader, as (parts 2 and 3 of this epic saga attest), and I’d wager there’s a great deal more instances of religiously motivated vandalism on this emerald isle to uncover, but I am just one man…

One man who recently got access to the readerbase of the Mid-West Humanists blog!

I’m hereby declare that this will be an official project of ours – if you spot a sample that matches the above, document it, report it, and it’ll be added to the list!

Filed under: atheism, humanism | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

The Self Thought Police

Posted on October 20th, 2008 by doctororgasm

I often think of a quote I heard in a movie I saw when I was a teenager. I cant remember the name of the movie, or what it was about, but I do remember one person warning another to be careful how close they stood to the edge while staring into the abyss, its very easy to fall in. On the surface it doesn’t sound like much, but for years I have been reading a little more into it that maybe I should ever have, and I have applied the concept to many aspects of my life as a sort of beacon from which to gauge my objectivity in approaching matters which have affected me and the people around me.

As flippant as it may sound, I have always seen opinions as somewhat like Arses. Everyone has one, a lot of them stink and you can just about manage your own. But on further consideration it becomes clear that, although you might do your best to avoid the hairy ones that don’t interest you, like it or not you will probably have to share a loo with someone some day and a little understanding in both directions goes a long way. You see, I have noticed that most people, ultimately, have the same opinion about everything. When you boil it down to its base everyone is of the opinion that they are right, and the semantics of it are simply a different means to the same end. That end of justifying their own position to themselves and to those around them, and swaying the opinions of others in order to create an environment where the needs of said justifications are best served. I am pretty sure about my opinions, I’ve thought about them carefully and taken what evidence I can find to help fit the pieces together in order to produce a lucid world view with which I hope to impart a little objectivity into my children in the hope that I can arm them with the power to deduce their own world view and not be influenced to heavily by others, including me, which is the crux of the point here.

In trying to make society accept the ways and opinions of non believers, how close to the abyss of repression are we willing to edge before we inevitably plunge down the dark path of actively suppressing opinions that don’t fall into the category of acceptable to Free Thought? What is acceptable? I think the most fundamental ability that needs to be considered in any free society is the ability to objectively analyse ones goals and means of attaining ends. Is it acceptable to judge those who choose to think differently, or grant exceptions or simply choose to ignore faith rather than challenge it? How can we call ourselves tolerant when we are openly and obviously no such thing?

Filed under: atheism, debate, humanism | Tagged: , , | 8 Comments »

Today’s Meeting

Posted on October 19th, 2008 by Jason

I just got back a little while ago from our third monthly meeting. 

To say I was taken aback by the turn out would be an understatement, we filled the room and even had to go next door for more chairs. We had a great bunch of people turn up and I think we have the start of a really vibrant group. 

As a result of today you’ll start to see some changes around here in the next few days with at least three new authors on this blog.

In the meantime to whet your appetite and following on from Larry Maher’s talk on the history of doubt, I’ve posted Jonathan Miller’s Brief History of Disbelief  below. Enjoy!

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Filed under: atheism, humanism, Meetings | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

The Names We Call Ourselves

Posted on October 16th, 2008 by Jason

When someone asks you what you are, in the context of religious views, how do you answer?

The options should appear in a random order to help eliminate any bias.

I know short answers rarely capture what people really believe so please feel free to expand on your answer in the comments.

Filed under: atheism, debate, humanism, skepticism | Tagged: , , , | 8 Comments »

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