Open letter to Alive! publication

Dear editor,

I’m an 18 year old lapsed Catholic (the type the church is trying to include more), and today while I was in the A&E Department in the Mercy Hospital I was handed a copy of Alive! (the February edition). I kept an open mind when reading it and sampled a few articles, in particular opinion pieces. Actually, every article in the publication was an opinion piece. I’ll admit, the propaganda and poor writing did grate on me somewhat, but I feel you made some errors in your editorial section. Firstly, you wrote about the new policy implemented by ‘Cork University’ concerning embryonic stem cell research. I don’t know of any ‘Cork University’ so I’ll assume you meant University College Cork, a name you did not mention once. You stated that the EU’s stem cell research funding played the main role in the university’s decision to impliment the policy. I wrote an article for the Evening Echo entitled “Why stem cell research will be a vital step forward for UCC” and yes, money is a factor in the issue, especially in a time where funding is increasingly difficult to come by. But as for the deciding factor, that is just not the case. Let’s be honest, Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution (or as I like to call it, the pro-life ignorance shield) is not specific enough, so there is a legislative black hole concerning the issue. The University Research and Ethics Board created a draft policy (with strict conditions) to amend this. That is the main reason concerning the Governing Body’s decision, and waving the “EU are monsters flag” is misinforming (although unsurprising).

Secondly (and to some actual surprise this time), you launched an attack on the atheist community. Let me explain my surprise here. As of yet the atheist argument is a much more sound one than that of the Catholic (or any) religion. By sound is meant there is some proof of their theories, and they accept that they could ultimatly be wrong. So I expected your newspaper to avoid the issue lest some of your readers realise this. But no, commendably, you launched an inciteful counter arguement against atheism. Oh no, actually you didn’t. You bellittled the movement and some of it’s public faces. You called the athiest organisation “A funny little band of agnostics and atheists” And referred to Professor Richard Dawkins, the respected biologist and atheist writer as simply “Professor Dickie Dawkins”. This raises the question, who are you? What qualifies you to speak like this about people who have opinions which are far more based in fact than your beliefs. I can tell you this, reading your newspaper…sorry, opinionpaper has pushed me further from the church than ever.

I know why you wrote this article. You, and the countless like you are scared. You know that after a millenia of war with other religions it will be the atheist movement which kills the power of the Catholic church. Well unfortunatly I am certainly not the most radical anti-religious member of modern Ireland’s youth, and yet the writings in your publication disgust me. What irritates me most of all is your pretention of writing news when every word in Alive! is opinion, and should be clearly labelled as such. Thankfully you are writing on borrowed time, the fear mongering and propaganda on your pages will not be tolerated by the next generation, and I, a young lapsed Catholic, am happier for it.

Regards,

Byron Murphy