species and said: 'I've really got to tell that guy to stop gathering sticks on the Sabbath'." He described a radio debate with irate Catholics protesting against an art exhibition as being "like discussing the rules of quidditch with people who believe Harry Potter was a documentary." He predicted that moderate religious belief will become a minority position in many countries. He said that religion is being squeezed by science, which undermines its claims about reality, and secularism, which erodes its positions on morality. He also wrote a series of five articles for the Irish Times about atheism and its relationship to reality, morality, faith and Jesus. Nugent published a manifesto on "ethical atheism" that sought to promote reason, critical thinking and science, natural compassion and ethics, inclusive, caring atheist groups and fair and just societies, and challenged the myths that atheism is a religion or belief system based on faith and certainty, and that we need religion for meaning and morality. In a BBC radio debate, he defended Richard Dawkins against charges by New Humanist editor Daniel Trilling that some criticism of Islam was a cover for racist views. He told an RTÉ debate about miracles that you have a better chance of dying than being cured at Lourdes. He described Pope Francis as a pope of the global south with good PR in the global north, saying that as two in every three Catholics live in the global south, Pope Francis has to appeal to Catholics with very different values. He debated on RTÉ Radio with a Catholic priest who said that he would not report child rape to the police if he heard about it in Confession. He told TV3's People's Debate on homophobia that the Catholic Church is overtly homophobic, and is becoming more so as its population shifts to the global South. He debated the Christian theologian William Lane Craig in University College Cork about the existence of God. Secular constitution Nugent opposed the law against blasphemous libel introduced by Justice Minister Dermot Ahern. He described it as "silly and dangerous", and argued that ideas should always be open to criticism and ridicule. As part of the campaign, he was involved in the formation of the parody Church of Dermotology, which satirises organised religion and the concept of blasphemy, and in the launch of a website opposing the bill, called Blasphemy.ie. When the Irish blasphemy