The Irish leader Enda Kennedy said that as a result of the vote in support of gay marriage on 23rd May that:
With today’s vote we [the Irish] have disclosed who we are. We are a generous, compassionate, bold and joyful people who say yes to inclusion, yes to generosity, yes to love and yes to gay marriage.
Despite the propaganda of the Catholic Church and money poured in by American right-wing religious groups, common humanistic values prevailed. This is an amazing result in a country that until a few decades ago the Catholic Church held sway over all moral issues.
The world is realising that there are humanistic values of fair play, decency and respect for other individuals that have evolved naturally despite resistance from the established churches. The values of the old religions are becoming less relevant in this modern world. It is now the secular society that is more concerned to create a more caring and compassionate world. Now, these new humanists need to learn from religions on how to value and cherish their cultural heritage and teach these new found humanistic ideals to future generations.
These same humanistic values that have proved popular in Ireland form a large part of the moral basis of Eco-humanity.
