An article in today’s Irish Times asks a number of people what will replace the Church as our moral compass. For many people, of course, the Church will remain as their moral compass, or more accurately, Jesus Christ will remain as their moral compass. 

One of the individuals asked to comment is Ann James, Secretary of the Humanist Association of Ireland. I’m inclined to place scare-quotes around humanists because whenever you see an organisation described as ‘humanist’ it is really atheist. It wasn’t always so. Among the first people to be called humanists were Christian intellectuals such as Thomas More and Erasmus 500 years ago. 

In any case, I was struck by what James said about our new blasphemy law (something I don’t support) and freedom of speech. 

She remarks: “I regard it as unethical to try and take away freedom of speech, as the Government is doing with its blasphemy legislation.” 

I applaud the sentiment. But no more than Christians have always been in favour of free speech have atheists always been in favour of free speech. The atheists who ran the Eastern bloc in the days of communism, for example, weren’t exactly known for their fondness for free speech, or religious freedom. 

More pertinently, what is the attitude of the Humanist Association of Ireland (HAI) to so-called ‘anti-hate’ laws which have been used in countries like Canada to stamp out strong criticism of, say, Islam? 

In Ireland a couple of years back there was an attempt made to have Kevin Myers charged with incitement to hatred because of a particularly polemical column he wrote about aid to Africa. 

I don’t remember the HAI jumping to his defence on that occasion, and I don’t recall the HAI ever criticising these ‘anti-hate’ law in the name of free speech. Why not?