The Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics (Unione degli Atei e degli Agnostici Razionalisti, UAAR) is the only nationwide association of

atheists Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

and

agnostics Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. It is independent from political parties or lobbies and numbers around 3,000 members. Its logo references the

Happy Human The Happy Human is an icon that has been adopted as an international symbol of secular humanism. Created by Dennis Barrington, the figure was the winning design in a competition arranged by Humanists UK (formerly the British Humanist Associatio ...

symbol, in common with other humanist organisations.

History

UAAR was founded in 1986 to promote the diffusion of atheist and agnostic ideas, campaign for a thoroughly secular state, and struggle against any privilege granted to the

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

religion and against any discrimination of nonbelievers.

Activity

Between December 1996 and July 2019, UAAR regularly published a bi-monthly magazine, ''L'Ateo'' (''The Atheist''). In January 2020 it started publishing a new bi-monthly magazine, ''Nessun Dogma''. Besides seeking contacts with government representatives, UAAR is prepared to initiate legal actions to obtain the full acknowledgement for atheism and atheists' rights. They have, for instance, obtained recognition of the right for those

baptised Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

as infants to be considered no longer Catholic if they wish. The UAAR has held Debaptism Day and Darwin Day annually. The UAAR has pushed for the removal of

crucifixes A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...

in the classrooms of state-run schools, a position which was upheld by the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...

in Strasbourg in November 2009. In 2014 and 2015 The UAAR condemned rulings against teachers who removed crucifixes. In 2009 the association funded research to see if the Shroud of Turin could be reproduced. In 2010 the association campaigned for stricter regulation of when church bells in Pisa were allowed to ring. The UAAR has been campaigning against Italy's blasphemy laws since at least 2017. In 2019 the UAAR condemned a ruling which charged an Italian photographer with blasphemy for comparing the Catholic Church to a

masochist Masochist may refer to: * Sadomasochism, giving or receiving pleasure from the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation Music * The Prophet (musician) (born 1968), Dutch DJ and producer who has recorded as The Masochist Albums * ''Masochis ...

club during a

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

interview. UAAR is a member of the Humanists International (HI) and

European Humanist Federation The European Humanist Federation (EHF, french: Fédération Humaniste Européenne, FHE), officially abbreviated as EHF-FHE, is an umbrella of more than 60 humanist and secularist organisations from 25 European countries. Founded in Prague in July ...

(EHF), and collaborates with other secular humanism, humanist organisations on international issues. Among UAAR's main goals is the abrogation of article 7 of the Italian Constitution, which recognises the Lateran Treaties between

and Vatican City. The UAAR has also challenged the Catholic Church on issues such as abortion.

The Atheist Bus Campaign

In January 2009, the organisation promoted an atheist bus campaign inspired by the similar initiative of the British Humanist Association. The campaign, due to start on 4 February 2009, was symbolically launched in Genoa, on the occasion of the nomination of the city's archbishop, Cardinal (Catholicism), Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, as president of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI). The original slogan chosen for the Italian campaign read: "The bad news is that Existence of God, God does not exist. The good news is that you don't need it". On 16 January 2009 IGPDecaux, the company holding licenses for ads on public transport in Genoa, refused to give authorization to the atheist bus campaign on the grounds that it may "offend the moral, civic and religious convictions of the public". The UAAR changed the slogan for the campaign to "The good news is that Zeus doesn’t exist. The bad news is that you can only say this about Zeus", but this slogan was also rejected due to the design including “UAAR, free not to believe in God”. Antonio Catricalà, the then head of the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, Italian National Authority for Fair Trading and Competition, announced that the Authority filed a case against the Atheist Bus initiative because of the potentially "dangerous and mendacious nature" of the ads. As a reaction, the UAAR launched a new campaign in Genoa with a different slogan to comply with the advertising authority's rules: "The good news is that there are millions of atheists in Italy. The excellent news is they believe in freedom of speech".Alt URL
/ref> Subsequently, the UAAR also ran newspaper ads containing the original slogan.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1991 establishments in Italy Atheism in Italy Atheist organizations Organizations established in 1991 Skeptic organisations in Italy