Donald Clarke: This atheist dogma is beyond belief
Sure, the Rising was undemocratic and religious. As an atheist, I have no problem with that
about 7 hours ago
Donald Clarke
My leaders have, it seems, come out against last weekend’s Easter Rising commemorations. A report in this newspaper explained that “atheist leaders” – in the collective form of Atheist Ireland – had refused an invitation to be part of the epic bash .
“The 1916 Rising involved an undemocratic group killing innocent people, based on a Proclamation whose authors claimed that Ireland was acting through them in the name of God,” Michael Nugent, chairman of Atheist Ireland, commented. “The reason for using the wrong date is to make the commemorations coincide with the Christian holiday of Easter.”
I would cast my eyes to heaven if I believed such a place existed.
You need only look at the news reports on British TV stations to confirm that the organisers got the tone largely correct. The stories observed a mature nation tastefully celebrating its own origin story. There was a martial presence, but we didn’t hear much rattling of sabres. Indeed, the Dublin commemorations offered a considerably more cheering celebration of nationhood than the boozed-up, big-green-hat debauchery on March 17th (which Atheist Ireland would presumably also fail to acknowledge as it falls on another “Christian holiday”). Nugent and his team could hardly have seemed more out of touch if they’d sought to ban Christmas (see previous parentheses).
http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/editorial/donald-clarke-this-atheist-dogma-is-beyond-belief-1.2595119
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