Atheist Ireland publishes 25 blasphemous quotes after the new Irish law on Blasphemy took effect on New Years day 2010. The group, Atheist Ireland, wants the law repealed:

This new law is both silly and dangerous. It is silly because medieval religious laws have no place in a modern secular republic, where the criminal law should protect people and not ideas. And it is dangerous because it incentives religious outrage, and because Islamic States led by Pakistan are already using the wording of this Irish law to promote new blasphemy laws at UN level.

We believe in the golden rule: that we have a right to be treated justly, and that we have a responsibility to treat other people justly. Blasphemy laws are unjust: they silence people in order to protect ideas. In a civilised society, people have a right to to express and to hear ideas about religion even if other people find those ideas to be outrageous.

Fr. Andrew Dickinson is the new chaplain of the Catholic church located at the Newman Center, South Dakota State University. For the past Sunday masses, and in a number of daily masses, Fr. Andrew Dickinson has been condemning the “Merry Christmas” greeting.

The first time I’ve heard Fr. Dickinson asking people to avoid saying the “Merry Christmas” greeting before December 24th, was that afternoon when I felt, for the very first time, the very spirit of Christmas. The moment I thought Christmas was already in the air, Fr. Dickinson cut the happy moment short. That was sad. He said in his homily that people should not use “Merry Christmas” but rather say “Have a good Advent.” He further said that whenever someone will say “Merry Christmas” to him before the 24th of December, he will not answer the same.

I understand his argument.  He contended that “Merry Christmas” is often said minus the real meaning that comes with the words. In short, people who utter the greeting without knowing what it truly carries, are hypocrites and pretenders. He said that Catholics must instead prepare themselves for Christ’s birth and start the “Merry Christmas” greeting on the 24th and on each day for 12 days thereafter (like the 12 days of Christmas).

November formally lands boiling over with questions on faith in God. Since I had written a couple of religious stuff in the previous issues of this paper, I rummaged through one of the products of my early glorious moments at writing and thought of publishing a non-sequitur-like entry such as this.

Action without faith, is it enough? To do good and not evil; is it a guarantee of getting a place up there in the vast kingdom of God?

They say it is easy to be among the millions who are rejoicing in the heavens. They say that a place has already been set for us – a place surrounded by God’s infinite goodness. But can the grace be granted to those who are unprepared and undeserving individuals?

Fr. Paul mentions something about people who seem to be so attached with work that they forget and set aside God.

I wrote something about this before.

Ora et Labora (translated as Prayer and Work) are ancient monastic values. The values are for busy people who, because of their tight schedules, have sporadically affected their time of silence and prayer.

I pondered on how God has viewed our being individuals whose moment of stillness has not been so apparently fulfilled. The line in the bible that says “Be still, and know that I am God” really means, in its complete contemporary biblical setting, “Cease, relax, and shut up! Spare time for me and know that I am God”. In one of Fr. Paul’s homilies last holy week, the same verse came out and I was taken back to the time when I devotedly listened to God in the stillness of my heart.

Knowing that I haven’t read anything religious printed in the Collegian since I started writing late last year, I thought that this will be the start of something different. Few days ago, someone close to me asked, “Are you not reluctant to write about God in your column?” “With what God has done for me all these years, writing won’t even be enough”, I answered without reservations.

Life’s miracles often appear in diverse packages. A bunch of them take place in a flashing instant when you wish for them, others occur over a life span, and few more others occur when you are not even anticipating them. Regardless of the type, it cannot be denied that a miracle brings in us a wonder and an admiration at something unfathomable. A miracle that defines a wonderful accomplishment is what we all fancy to happen for ourselves. But what truly aids a miracle to come to life, in my opinion, are: first, faith in God and second, goodwill.

For years I have taken note on little and rather enormous miracles in my life and in the lives of people I have personally known or stumbled upon day after day. Since I started writing, I have been broadcasting life stories that depict miracles as I recognize them to countless souls through magazines and dailies. The stories were unequivocally spirit-uplifting. They were the sorts that offered a smile to a frowning face or inspiration to the heartbroken. Stories from everyday miracles. Inspirations from everyday stories.