Secularism/Skepticism what are they and what they mean to me

I noticed that I throw around the terms Secularism and Skepticism around without really explaining their meaning (both in the general sense and also what they mean to me). I'm sure this must be annoying for some of you who are reading this blog.

Secularism is the view that a government should not be swayed by religious arguments, use personal beliefs of the members when writing laws, nor should they show any favouritism towards any denomination whether by directly funding a state religion, by mentioning a state religion in laws or the constitution of the country or mentioning personal beliefs of the individuals when representing the state in public speeches or press conferences.

The most common knee-jerk reaction by the very religious upon hearing this is that it means "banning religion or religious expression" which isn't true, it means that the state must be neutral in matters of religion and mustn't show favouritism towards one or the other. Private citizens still have to right to religious beliefs and public gatherings expressing such beliefs , such as going to church, or a mosque etc. as are the members of the government in their private time as private citizens, it just means the government cannot hold a public prayer meeting because then they would have to invite representatives from every religion in the state to conduct prayers for their respective religions. This would be fair but a logistics nightmare so the only other 100% fair option is to simply stay out of the religious argument and if church X want to do a public prayer or fundraiser they are perfectly entitled to do so but won't be getting state funding or a state endorsement.

Skepticism is a movement that mostly (but not always) leads to Atheism but they aren't interchangeable terms or necessarily directly related (but tend to be). Skeptics tend to put quite a lot of weighting, on whether something is demonstrably true or not, on scientific evidence or the general consensus of the scientific community. The burden of proof lies with the individual or individuals who make an assertion and then the cogs of the scientific method and peer review are then set in motion. Some examples of things that have, and continue to fail the burden of proof are Homeopathy, Astrology, Psychics and any claims of a supernatural deity.

To me my Atheism is a natural progression of my scepticism as all Atheism means is "not-theism" or the rejection of the theistic claims. You might ask why would I go to these Atheist Ireland or Skeptics in the pub meetings? Do all we discuss is how we don't believe in god? no not at all, because that would be a bit stupid and awkward. We all have something in common just like if you were to join a book club or a photo club or a travel club, except these are social meetups and a chance to make friends with regular attendees, in fact I'd say it's better than these other clubs because there is simply no restrictions on what people discuss. You could wander from one conversation about what's in the cinema at the moment to whether cloud computing is a viable future to US politics (or even Irish politics) and that is the reason why I try to make events when I can.

Skeprechauns Podcast

Well last night I listened to their first episode of the podcast and I must say overall I am quite impressed. There were a few things I feel they could've done better but I put it down to their first podcast. They seemed a little disorganised at the start and seemed to look at each other as if to say "Right will we just press record and bite the bullet? and if we fuck up it'll be edited out" In some ways I commend them with just getting on with it but I would've at least liked them to take a 10 min discussion on how to do the opening ie: settle on the name (not sure if that was ment to be them kidding around) and more importantly  a quick  2-3 min intro from all the people in the studio, and weather they bring their professional opinion into it like the skeptics guide or if it's ordinary people discussing news topics. I was left wondering "wait, who is this guy?", "how many people are involved in this?" I feel it was important to at least determine the names and the number of people speaking. Anyway, they soldiered on and I actually find I quite entertaining if a little slower paced then other podcasts I listen to (for clarification this isn't a direct comparison with the skeptics guide, as that would be unfair, I mean in general as I listen to at least 4-5 in total).

I felt myself being drawn into the atmosphere, it was a homely "we're regular people who meet in the pub and we're gonna forget the mics are here" atmosphere. This adds to the uniqueness to the podcast and I suppose would help the speakers get over their nerves but I feel they shouldn't completely forget that this is a podcast and to explain things that mightn't be 100% apparent to the listener. Like say something like "I'm reading off this guys website and he says X" or "this was in an article in Y newspaper and I've printed it off and highlighted it". There seemed to be a tad of "I was reading this guys website x.com and you guys all know it" *cue agreement from the other panelists* and then they go on and read the lasted post from it without explaining the general feel or genre the website falls in. Now to be fair they may indeed have imparted the needed information to the listener but this is the lasting impression I have from listening to it last night.

I have yet to listen to episode 2 and I have no doubt these niggles will eventually be ironed out. As I said, overall this has given me a good impression and I am willing to put the small niggles down to it being the first episode.

Irish Skeptic Scene

So I was browsing the Dublin Skeptics in the Pub page. A group that I would love to go to one of their meetups as I regularly went to Skeptics in the Pub in Vancouver during my year there and made quite a few friends through that group, In fact I doubt I'd have enjoyed my trip there half as much if I hadn't come across those meetings. Anyway I've known about the Dublin Skeptics in the Pub since before my Vancouver trip but alas, the schedule didn't really suit me then and now since I'm out of work I'm unfortunately less likely to get a chance to go to them. I might make an up and coming brunch they have organised as there isn't the social pressure and the temptation to have a few pints (a few pints often leads to more).

 Anyways I was on their Facebook page when I noticed a url skeprechauns.com, hmm ok you've intrigued me, turns out they have a podcast that I didn't even know about. As I've previously said i'm a bit of a podcast listener in my spare time and particularly like skeptic/science/tech related podcasts and here was one in my home town that I didn't even know about!, with about 15 hour long episodes so far! Well I've subscribed and am committed to listening to them all in order even if it takes me 15 days!

I will report my opinion on the first episode when I get around to listening to it. Either later this evening or I might listen to it in bed tonight as I tend to do.

History of Moi, The Atheist

Well I guess it started off with my Parents. My parents didn't baptise me and decided that it would be wrong of them to impose any religion on me at such a young age. Sound thinking since you can join any religion at any time and religions indoctrinate children out of fear that their "souls" would be lost if they were to die and they weren't made a member of the cult/religion. They enrolled me into a non-denominational primary school that wasn't local to us but was on the commute to my mom's work (or at least not too inconvenient from it). Catholic instruction was possible in this school but it was outside of class time and was an opt in rather then the non religious opting out.

I'll fast forward a bit to around the 10-12 age. At this stage I was an early bloomer in terms of intelligence. I was no means "gifted", I would struggle at things like Irish and some aspects of Maths but myself and another kid, would've been above our age in scientific interest and comprehension. I would've been a regular watcher of BBC Horizon and Wildlife on One at this stage and would've understood most of it. This I feel was key to laying the foundations of evolution and the relationship between similar animal species in my head. I could see the similarity of Humans and the other great apes and of dogs and wolves and other examples. I was only just hearing of Darwin and his body of work at this stage as my first, and still one of my greatest, hero of Biology and natural world was David Attenborough. It just made sense to me and the evidence has only gotten stronger since then.

My transfer to second level wasn't an easy one, I went to the local one whereas my primary school friends naturally went to the nearest one to the primary school. I retreated quite a bit into my shell for the first 3 years and in some areas I haven't fully gotten over those self esteem issues. I was convinced I was the sole atheist but funnily enough that didn't make me feel down as I had built up a mental brick wall and a facade towards my fellow students. I was only myself around my immediate and extended family. It was 4th year or transition year where I came out of my shell quite a bit and made lifelong close friends. I saw no need to keep up the facade and saw transition year as an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start afresh. The fact that there were several bonding trips such as cycling for a week or paris or skiing (5th year) only catalysed my intent.

During 6th year, religion class was a study period with occasional guest speakers from various religious groups we had an ex Jahovah's Witness (he gave us the inside scoop that a practicing one would never give us), group of Hare Krishnas and maybe a few others I forget. I wasn't an outspoken atheist at the time but wouldn't have hesitated to let people know if they asked. The same as I feel now. I found out a few of my friends were also atheists at this stage. But my closest friend funnily enough I don't think I ever asked him. He either is or a very lax catholic otherwise he would have put up with me all these years. This pretty much bings me up to speed as my views haven't changed since then. I subscribe to the Skeptics Guide to the Universe, The Atheist Experience and The Non Prophets podcasts (among others). I am a loose member of Atheist Ireland, by that I mean I subscribe to their newsletters and Facebook page/group (whichever it is, Facebook blurred the lines between them) and occasionally fall in for their social meetups but am not as of this moment a fully paid up member but I certainly would be if I had the disposable income (it's not much but I'm THAT poor).


Well I'm off back to my incessant browsing, Until next time!