MarkHumphrys.com

by Mark Humphrys

• Pro-free private life: Atheist. Pro-science. Pro-reason. Pro-free speech. Pro-liberal democracy.
• Pro-free economic life: Pro-capitalist. Pro-West.
• Pro-interventionist: Anti-isolationist. End tyranny everywhere. End communism. End Islamic law.

These are my "Religion and Politics" pages - the topics you should not discuss in polite society. So I don't. Instead, I discuss them here. If you cannot stand robust discussion, then please do not enter.

This may be the oldest extant political blog in Ireland. This site has been running since 1994 or 1995. (I did not note exactly when I started it.) It certainly existed here by 10 Jan 1995. As at 1999 it was here. Here are archive.org copies of it from 2001. (There are no earlier archive.org copies because the servers it was on before this blocked spiders using robots.txt.) Let me know if you know of a political blog in Ireland which is older.

This site is now running at 60,000 site visits per month, yielding 170,000 page views per month.

Site address: markhumphrys.com

Repeal the Irish blasphemy law!
Defend the right to criticise religion.
Stop Sharia law in Ireland!

Introduction

Why this site?

These pages have grown slowly over the years, from a simple set of political links to some analysis explaining what I think. Is it a bad idea to put my political/religious ideas online for the world to see? Maybe. Maybe not. You only live once. I am tired of listening to ignorant people talk on my radio and television. I am tired of having to stay silent. I want to speak. I don't want to die without explaining why I think these people are wrong.

Previous generations of my family weren't exactly prudent. My family has a long history of putting their political and religious ideas in the public domain. My great-great-grandfather was a Home Rule MP and Free State Senator. My great-grandfather was a Home Rule MP and Free State TD. My grandfather took part in an armed insurrection against the state in 1916. RIC Special Branch had a long file on him. My other grandfather took part in the allied capture of Iraq in 1917, and was then a colonial administrator in Iraq, probably in Hilla province. My granduncle was the first Prime Minister of Ireland in 1922. His son became Prime Minister of Ireland in 1973. My father put his political and religious ideas in the public domain, as do my brothers. Many other relatives have spoken and published on political and religious topics. If they weren't and aren't silent, why should I be? And my workplace is covered with offensive political posters, including ones glorifying violence and terror. If they can speak, why can't I?

If you're the kind of person who is going to be upset by other people's political and religious ideas, then go away. Please do not read any further. Just take it as read that Humphrys has political and religious ideas you don't agree with, and go away. Because so does everybody, if you really get to know them.

Members of the First Dail 1919.
Including my great-grandfather (on my father's side).
And my granduncle (on my mother's side).

Why are people so emotional about Religion and Politics?

• Religion - since it has no factual basis - is in fact nothing but meme competition.

• Politics is largely described by meme competition too.

As a result, these are the areas of human thought where humans are the most irrational, emotional and violent.

If you're not interested in my opinions on these matters, feel free to leave. I'm not really a campaigner on any of these matters - I haven't got the time - but I do like the freedom of being able to at least publish my thoughts.

This site is topic-sorted, not date-sorted

1. It is date-sorted. So you can drop in regularly and see exactly what is new since your last visit. You can also distribute new posts via RSS and blog search engines.
2. External links always work, because what you are reading are always recently-created external links.

The major disadvantage of blogs is it is hard to find similar material grouped together by topic. Once it has scrolled off the front page, it tends to be gone and forgotten, like last year's newspaper articles. Compare trying to understand, say, the Israeli conflict by going through articles for 20 years in the archives of a newspaper, versus reading a book with all the important material in one place.

I prefer to build up a "book" rather than a "newspaper". So, like Wikipedia, this is more a topic-sorted library than a date-sorted blog. This site is however similar to a blog in the sense that:

1. A lot (but not all) of it is about current events.
2. It's by an individual.
3. It's full of annotated links.
4. I add links regularly as I read new stuff.

1. I add the new links all over the site in different topic areas.

The Blog is as close as this site comes to the date-sorted blog format. It lists the sections I have done major work on recently. However note:

1. Most of these sections will contain old links too.
2. It omits sections I have done minor work on recently.

This is a personal, non-profit site for political commentary and criticism. This site is hosted in the USA and is protected by the First Amendment.

"General comment on arguing (with anyone about anything) - you almost never get the pleasure of seeing that you won the argument in real time. People just don't like to publicly change their minds. They change their minds in private."
- Sam Harris on why the Internet is great for politics and religion and all those topics that are unpleasant and uncomfortable to discuss in person.

"I think we have to accept that people do grow and do change their minds. If I ever felt that people were fixed in their positions I'd give up activism, and I'd certainly give up blogging."
- Comment on the surprising news in 2009 that a Muslim Council of Britain member defended gay rights. It may be a false dawn, but on the other hand Islam may change slowly for the better this century. People do change their minds.