Local Issues

This page is dedicated to Athiest and secular issues Northern Ireland that deserve a permanent, and prominent place. Since Atheism is a lack of religion, then by it's nature, this page will mostly deal with trying to stop the advancement of mainly Christian policies being taken by the government.

The Ulster Museum

This gem of science and reason in the sea of religious idiocy in Northern Ireland is under attack. Our friends at the Caleb Foundation wrote a letter to the Culture Minister Nelson McCausland which can be found on the "The Enemies of Reason" page. Nelson then stated that he supported the Foundation's efforts and published his own open-letter before using "equality" to vindicate his views. For those not following it, it got such news coverage that Professor Richard Dawkins "debated" with Nelson on the local radio.

This is another attack on science and reason made by The Caleb Foundation and the DUP who keep pushing for Creationism and Leviticus in all areas of life. To show the level of intelligence going into this from the creationists side, McCausland thinks that Ulster Protestants are one of the lost tribes of Isreal...

Here are some links relating to the story. As always, please contact your MLA to express your concerns over the issue.

• The BBC News Article
• The Facebook Group (which is independent of NIA.)
• The Original Article in the Guardian
• Here is another good Guardian Article in the "Comment is Free" section.

The Giant's Causeway

Caleb is behind this one as well. They objected to the visitor centre saying that it was millions of years old which is obviously incompatible with the fundamentalist Christian view of the world being less than 6000 years old.

They are playing the equality card as always saying that since a significant proportion of the Northern Irish public believe in Creationism, Creationism should then be thought and reflected in all areas of science and nature. The head of the Caleb Foundation, Wallace Thompson, has met with the Tourism Minister Arlene Foster (there's the DUP again) to discuss the issue although SDLP MLA Alban Maginnis said "I do not think it would be appropriate in these circumstances to have a very narrow religious view expressed" on the basis of it being an attraction to international visitors, rather than anti-creationist grounds.

As with everything else, please contact your MLA to show your concern. Here is the BBC News article.