THE GREAT moral principles are the same for all religions as for humanism, the new honorary president of the Humanist Association of Ireland Dr David McConnell said last night.
He also said aggression was “as far away from humanism as it is possible to imagine”.
In the context of Pope Benedict’s claims in Spain at the weekend that aggressive secularism was behind new abortion laws and recognition of gay marriage there, he said that in his experience, “the boot is on the other foot.”
He recalled, for instance, how in 1960 a council of education report here stated that “the dominant purpose of secondary schools is the inculcation of religious values and ideals”. So-called aggressive secularists such as Richard Dawkins were operating at an intellectual level and were “not aiming their slings and arrows at the ordinary person.”
He praised the Educate Together model of schooling and said it merited more State support. But he also supported faith schools where parents wanted them.
He praised Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, and former bishop of Killaloe Willie Walsh as “very thoughtful, generous people”. He said Dr Walsh’s interview in The Irish Times last Saturday was “very wonderful to read . . . to hear of his self-questioning and terrific independence of mind . . . I always found him a very inspiring man.”
Dr McConnell, professor of genetics at TCD, was installed as honorary president at the association’s agm in Dublin yesterday.
