Nothing as It Seems

In 2001 the Netherlands made history by becoming the first country in the world to legalise same sex marriage (SSM); this feat was soon followed by their closest neighbour, Belgium. Since then several other countries have also amended their laws to permit same-sex couples to marry; they include: Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland, Argentina, Denmark, Brazil, France, Uruguay, New Zealand, Great Britain, and Luxembourg. In addition, 36 states in the US, at present, allow SSM and over 70 percent of its citizens live in places where gay couples can marry.  There’s a good chance Ireland will soon also join this list. In December the Government announced that a referendum on legalising SSM will take place sometime in May. Public opinion in support of the move has remained steady over the past couple of years: one Irish Times /Ipsos MRBI poll taken just before the Cabinet announcement said that 71 percent support SSM and just 17 percent are agains...

An edited version of this article was printed in  Humanism Ireland , November-December, Vol. 149 (2014)   E mpathy is the capacity to recognise the feelings of others in such a way that one can identify and understand the experiences of another being’s circumstances. It is where one can transfer one’s own feelings and emotions onto the subjective experiences of another.  The term ‘empathy’ has been only around for less than a century, and is a translation of a German psychologist's neologism whose exact definition is ‘feeling into’. One remarkable thing about humans is their ability to empathise with the suffering of others. The idea of empathy being a positive trait is widely accepted, since it normally stimulates motivation for moral and altruistic behaviour. As expected, many believe that if people had more empathy and moral motivation the world would be a much better place. In his book,  Zero Degrees of Empathy: A New Theory of H...

A version of this article was printed in  Humanism Ireland , Jan-Feb, Vol. 144 (2014) About half a century ago, homosexuality was illegal everywhere in the world, with the exception of a dozen or so countries. It wasn't until the 1960s and 1970s that the gay rights movement, supported by the principle of human rights, accelerated. Today homosexuality is legal in about 120 countries—though still banned in several places—and some have even moved towards legally recognising same-sex marriage. In 2001 the first laws enabling same-sex marriage occurred in the Netherlands; since then, fourteen other countries (including Argentina, Belgium, and South Africa) and several other regional jurisdictions have also introduced same-sex marriage. Homosexuality in the Republic of Ireland was finally decriminalised in June 1993. Despite a slow start, the trajectory of gay rights moved rather fast, with the  Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Coha...