Senator Ivana Bacik (Photo credit: infomatique)
Michael Nugent – one of Ireland’s most active secular campaigners and creator of Atheist Ireland – has blogged this morning that Senator Ivana Bacik will be speaking at an upcoming conference focused on empowering women through secularism.
Although the two chambers of the Irish parliament are hardly chock-full of Atheists it’s very encouraging that some of Ireland’s most eloquent politicians – like Bacik – are coming out as Atheist. In fact, even better, Bacik’s political zeal seems to be defined by her lack of faith and commitment to secularism.
This begs the question, of course, as to how many Atheists or secularists there might be in our own legislature. I suspect there may be one or two. But perhaps it’s time they came out if we are to see a real move towards a secular political discourse here – rather than the tit-for-tat ranting about the two tribes. Because that brand of politics is boring a substantial percentage of the population witless.
AT LAST!!!…A CHINK OF LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS OF RELIGEOUS MYTHS AND AILIENS…..
I know of several who, while not vocally atheist, don’t hide it either. The next few months should be interesting…
I know of several who, while not vocally atheist, don’t hide it either. The next few months should be interesting…
Also it is early days yet but the NI Progress Party are openly secular.
I’m an avid secularist but the need to ‘out’ oneself professionally seems almost as bizarre as legislating (as Donaldson and co do) as a ‘Christian’ politician.
As a side note, the NIPP…. really? Their homepage reads as yet another policy free, it’s nice to be nice, who cares about policy of governing, NI holding hands party, (we hate sectarianism yay!) and the genius who came up with the name… less said the better