society

Irish Politicians break promise to reform Blasphemy laws

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Ireland rather absurdly has a Blasphemy law, and this is not some archaic dictate inherited from the dark ages, but was introduced in July 2009 by the then Fianna Fáil-led government. Enacting something like this as recently as 2009 would appear to be truly bizarre, because nobody was demanding it should happen, and nobody was particularly bothered about the lack … Read more

Saudi Atheist Facing 10 Years in Jail and 1,000 Lashes for Blasphemy Receives Prize from Reporters Without Borders

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A very brave Saudi Arabian blogger, Raif Badawi (pictured above), was sentenced to 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes for the (from the viewpoint of the Saudi authorities) hideous crime of starting a progressive website. It contained ideas that truly frightened and terrified them, for example religious tolerance and women’s rights, and so they came down hard on … Read more

Two on-line petitions for you to sign – Will it make a difference? Yes it will.

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If you are on-line you will often come across some truly tragic stories regarding people who are being abused horrendously or who have their human rights being trampled into dust, and often you will find a petition for you to sign associated with it. So will it make any difference? You might be tempted to … Read more

Separation of Church and State is not an attack, it is a defence for belief.

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The call for the complete separation of church and state is often portrayed by some religious beliefs as an attack – how dare those non-believers force prayer out of schools, how dare those non-believers force the removal of the 10 commandments from outside the courthouse, etc… and so what we find there is a complete failure to … Read more

UK’s NUS refuses to condemn ISIS because that would be Islamophobic

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There has been a bit of a fuss recently because the UK’s NUS (National Union of Students) refused to condemn ISIS. So here it how it played out … NUS held a meeting in the NEC and at the meeting various motions are put forward One was a motion to condemn ISIS Their executive committee … Read more

2014 Nobel Prize – Peace … rather a lot of upset often comes from this one

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This is the one that they often get very very wrong. I don’t mean to imply that those within the selection process are either stupid or daft, but rather is an observation that it is perhaps a political decision, and so when the decision goes against the tide of my own personal politics, it becomes … Read more