Sin, Sex and Samuel Johnson

In this week's Everyday Ethics podcast: Diarmaid Ferriter uncovers Ireland's hidden sexual history in his new book, Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland, and we ask if the idea of sin is running out of steam in the modern world. Jesuit priest Fr Alan McGuckian joins evangelical Protestant campaigner Wallace Thompson and social analyst Eilish Rooney to debate whether sin is a manmade concept or a reflection of God's will. In a separate interview, we explore Samuel Johnson's personal faith with Johnson scholar Howard Weinbrot, who has been has been reading the sermons of Dr Johnson on the 300th anniversary of his birth.

On today's Sunday Sequence, Brian McClinton, editor of Ireland's bimonthly humanist magazine, spoke of the dilemma he faces in deciding whether to publish articles expressing attitudes to homosexuality that many humanists would consider "prejudiced". Our conversation was prompted by a correspondence battle in the current edition of Humanist Ireland about the limits of free speech within the humanist community.