Seanad debates

Thursday, 11 December 2008

Charities Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages

 

12:00 pm

Photo of Labhrás Ó MurchúLabhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail)

——but I would be surprised if the Holy Spirit is not in there among humanists as well, in their own way.

Religion in many ways is community and in other ways it is individual. We need to be very careful when it is community and when it is individual. I will focus on individual for the moment. There is a slight danger here — I do not attribute this to anyone who has promoted the idea here or elsewhere — that often when someone wants to become part of someone else's party, so to speak, it is intended to distract or dilute from that. I would be a little worried that to put humanism in the same context as religious is precisely what it could do. In fairness, it is not prescriptive enough when it comes to legislation. I do not know what will be the Minister of State's response to it, but my first reaction is that it is not the category for humanism.

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