Category: Religion

RTE journalist attacks media and Atheist Ireland

RTE journalist Damien O’Reilly took the media and Atheist Ireland to task in a recent (Feb.17th) edition of The Irish Catholic.

According to O’Reilly there’s a media conspiracy to damage the church by exaggerating the fall in numbers attending Mass.

It’s a tad extreme says O’Reilly to claim that the church is fighting for survival solely on the basis of church attendance numbers.

O’Reilly should really have a chat with one of the head honcho’s of the church Archbishop Diarmuid Martin who recently claimed that the Catholic Church in Ireland is on the brink of collapse.

On the question of Mass attendance the Archbishop said that it was down to 2% of the Catholic population in some of his parishes.

O’Reilly also attacked as bizarre the campaign by Atheist Ireland which asks citizens to be honest about their religion when filling in the Census form next April.

In a bizarre comment himself O’Reilly says:

I know plenty of people who don’t go to Mass every Sunday, but I wouldn’t for a moment call them heathens.

Atheist Ireland is not calling anybody a heathen but is quite reasonably asking for people to accurately reflect their actual religious beliefs on the Census form (See below for the full text from Atheist Ireland).

Further on in the article O’Reilly declares:

We live in a democracy, and we should be tolerant of all religions and none.

This tolerance, however, does not apply to teachers who are banned from teaching in Catholic schools when they are in conflict with the ethos of the Catholic Church.

Atheist Ireland

Be Honest in the Irish Census on Sunday 10 April. Think before you tick your answer to the religion question, and give an answer that matches your actual religious affiliation. If you still believe in God but you are no longer truly a Roman Catholic, please say so. If you are an atheist or agnostic or humanist and you have no religion, please tick the ‘No Religion’ box.

Atheist Ireland wants to see accurate answers to the question on religion. The last Census showed 3.7 million Roman Catholics (that’s about 87% of the population) and 186,000 people with no religion (that’s about 4% of the population). We believe the true figure for Roman Catholics is much lower than 87%, and the true figure for people with no religion is much higher than 4%.

We believe that this inaccuracy happens because many people tick their childhood religion out of habit, or tick a religion that they don’t really practice, or let somebody else fill in the answer for them. But you won’t write in your childhood home address unless you still live there. So don’t write in your childhood religion unless you still really practice it.

Why is this important?

The Census results are used to predict future demand for State services such as schools and hospitals, and other policies. If we get a falsely very high figure for Roman Catholics, and a falsely very low figure for people with no religion, it makes it more likely that the State will discriminate against people of other religions and nonreligious people when providing these services.

Also, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin says that it “does not make use of baptismal registers for calculating the Catholic population of the Archdiocese of Dublin. It relies solely on the data from the Central Statistics Office, obtained through the census, by which citizens themselves choose to record, or not, their religious affiliation.”

So careless answers to the question of religion will have an impact on the allocation of State resources, and on the political lobbying power of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. If you want a fair future based on accurate statistics, please answer this question honestly.

Personal faith v enforcement

The Naval Chaplin, Fr. Desmond Campion spoke recently about church attendance and personal faith (iWitness).

Over the years I have seen quite a change. For example church attendance would be down but then again you have to put it in the context of the days that we’re living in and to me church attendance is important but what I think is more important is the fact that they have personal faith.

I got to know Fr. Campion during my navy days because of my strong objections at being marched down to his church and forced to participate in a religious ceremony in which I did not believe.

On one occasion when I refused to enter his church I was ordered to stand to attention, in the rain, outside the church until the ceremony was over.

I later put the following question to Fr. Campion.

Surely your god would be better pleased if he had just one genuine believer (with a genuine personal faith) attending the ceremony rather than having a hundred disbelievers who are forced to attend?

He agreed with my argument but never acted on the matter.

The key words in Fr. Campion’s quote are:

In the context of the days that we’re living in.

At the time (70s/80s/90s) he was happy to go along with ‘the context of those days’ (forced attendance) but now that his church (and the naval authorities) has lost the power of enforcement, he has fallen back on the ‘importance’ of the personal faith argument.

Fr. Campion’s thinking is a mirror reflection of the church he serves – when available, power is to be used to its fullest extent for the benefit of the organisation even if that means trampling on the rights of individuals.

I should say that Fr. Campion is, personally, a gentleman but unfortunately he never saw the necessity to challenge his religious/military overlords.

Helping out god

Paul O’Donoghue of the Irish Skeptics Society had a good article in yesterday’s Irish Times.

The piece considered whether science should help out god in correcting evolutionary flaws in humans.

Some quotes:

On the design of the human body:

In a world preoccupied with environmental issues one might wonder who in his right mind would construct two waste-disposal units right next to a recreational area?

Woody Allen:

If it turns out that there is a god, I don’t think that he’s evil. But the worse you can say is that basically he’s an underachiever:

More than any other time in history, mankind is at a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other, to total extinction.

Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.

Bishop Ted?

Letter in today’s Irish Examiner.

In 1992 Galileo was welcomed back into the fold of the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II and last week Homer Simpson was ‘converted’ to the faith.

Surely now it’s time that Fr Ted was made an honorary bishop?

Anthony Sheridan

Senator Mullen: No principle too precious, no law too draconian

Independent Senator, barrister and militant Catholic Ronan Mullen doesn’t really believe that his fellow politician, Senator Callely, did anything wrong by intentionally misrepresenting his normal place of residence for the purpose of claiming allowances.

I find it hard to see where it could be made out that there was a criminal act per se. A person has to be judged according to the law as it stood at the time they did what they did.

There’s certainly a case, however, for tightening up on the law here so that there would be no doubt but that it would be fraud if a person were to over claim on expenses in such a fashion.

This vague response to what is, in real democracies, a serious crime stands in stark contrast to Mullen’s usual absolute moral judgements when it comes to those who defy the rules of his particular god.

For example, he campaigned long and hard to stop the enactment of the Civil Partnership Bill motivated, principally, by the laws laid down by his Catholic god who ruthlessly condemns practicing homosexuals to everlasting hell.

Mullen and other opponents of the bill were (accurately) described by fellow Senators as dressed up bigots.

Mullen was also deeply involved in the recent enactment of a draconian law which makes it a criminal offence to sell a Mass card not authorised by a Catholic bishop.

This law effectively restores an absolute monopoly to the Catholic Church that it had previously enjoyed for centuries until recent times when others began to encroach on the lucrative trade.

Neither has this Catholic politician/barrister any qualms about the fact that this law runs contrary to Article 48 (1) of the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights which states:

Everyone who has been charged shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.

Under this new (religious?) law any person suspected of illegally selling Mass cards is assumed to be guilty until proved innocent.

Those found guilty could face ten years in prison or a €300,000 fine – for selling Mass cards without the permission of a Catholic Bishop.

It’s a case of using a nuclear bomb to crack a nut or to make absolutely sure that anyone silly enough to threaten a very lucrative monopoly are going to be very severely punished.

Mullen’s hypocrisy is typical of those who inhabit the murky world of Irish politics.

When dealing with the dodgy behaviour of a political colleague everything descends into a murky fog of political waffle where accountability is suffocated to death.

Similarly, when it comes to personal political agenda’s no law is too draconian, no principle too precious that it cannot be discarded.

Copy to:
Senator Mullen

Aggressive secularists to join Homosexuals in Hell?

When Fianna Fail Senator Jim Walsh was asked how he was going to vote on the upcoming Civil Partnership Bill he went all coy (Frontline).

I haven’t finally declared yet, he said, there are a number of matters I must first consider before making up my mind, he said.

All in all he sounded very reasonable until he (mistakenly) heard retired Supreme Court judge Catherine McGuinness (who was in the audience) laughing at his contribution.

It was then we witnessed the real Senator Walsh.

This is what we’re being faced with from aggressive secularists… if we want a totalitarian state then we go down this route but we go blindly and I’ll tell you, we’ll live to regret it.

Later, he moved from hysterical to patronising:

If you have a republican philosophy and try to be a good Christian I think you have to recognize that people in same sex relationships do have issues that need to be addressed.

He had nothing to say about his god’s policy of condemning (active) homosexuals to the everlasting fires of Hell.

I suspect, however, that the Senator is in full agreement with the policy and indeed would be happy to see aggressive secularists thrown in as well.

Dead man needs to do more if he’s to be promoted

Ultra conservative Catholic, Mary Kenny, is writing in today’s Irish Independent about the forthcoming visit of Pope Benedict to the UK.

Apparently, Cardinal John Newman is to be beatified by the Pope during the visit but Kenny is worried that this might prove controversial.

Cardinal Newman — who undoubtedly added to the acceptability and prestige of British Catholicism when he converted to Rome in 1845, and was a brilliant writer and intellectual — has only performed one miracle since his death in 1890, and that seems to some people to be less than decisive.

Jack Sullivan, a 70-year-old deacon in Boston, has been cured of back and leg pain after praying to Newman and doctors have testified that there is no medical explanation for his cure.

But is one such miracle enough? And doesn’t back pain sometimes heal itself spontaneously?

It’s incredible, and somewhat disturbing, to witness somebody, who most people consider to be perfectly sane, seriously suggesting that a dead man needs to do more if he’s to achieve sainthood

Daily prayer: An insult to democracy

The following sectarian prayer is recited every day in Dail Eireann.

Direct, we beseech Thee, O Lord, our actions by Thy holy inspirations
and carry them on by Thy gracious assistance; that every word and
work of ours may always begin from Thee, and by Thee be happily
ended; through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

The prayer is a direct appeal to the Catholic god for assistance in the running of the country.

Other gods, for example, Muslim, Jewish, the pantheon of voodoo gods and the god of Scientology, are all ignored.

The daily recitation of this prayer is an insult to rationality. It’s an insult to all those many people who do not believe in the power/magic of the Catholic/Christian god.

It’s an insult to the growing number of people who don’t believe in any god whatsoever.

Most of all, however, it’s an insult to democracy.

Pat Kenny unnerved by Hitchens challenge

During an interview on yesterday’s show Pat Kenny asked author and outspoken atheist, Christopher Hitchens, for his views on the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.

Hitchens didn’t mince his words when it came to how Irish authorities were dealing with the matter.

Hitchens:

What’s happening in your country, don’t you have a department of public prosecutions?

Kenny:

We do.

Hitchens:

What are your police for? If there are men who have admitted forcing children to sign untruthful statements and forcing them to shut up. These men are walking around free, why is that may I ask, why should a private citizen be left to point this out.

What are your forces of law and order doing?

Kenny:

Well, it is a matter, as you can well imagine, of robust debate here and has been for quite some time.

Hitchens:

Yes, I know, I follow it and I’ve been very impressed with the tenacity of the Irish survivors and their friends and representatives but again as I say it’s been left to victims and their friends to seek justice.

Why do the organs of justice not decide to take a hand and when will they do so, I’ll leave you with the question.

Kenny seemed unnerved by Hitchens’ challenge regarding the lack of action by the forces of law and order.

He seemed puzzled that Hitchens didn’t understand how these things are dealt with in Ireland – by endless talk.

Hell is back

Paedophile priests face the prospect of “burning in Hell” forever, according to the Vatican’s top prosecutor dealing with sex abuse cases.

Feck, it’s only recently we were told that Hell was merely an absence of the Catholic god. The previous Pope said:

While Scripture uses the image of place in relation to eternal damnation, what is really involved is a state of self-exclusion from God

Now that it’s back I’ll have to buy a new fireproof suit.