Athée Canadien
Ian
Ian holds a MSc in Physics and lives in Vancouver, BC. He is president of the BC Humanist Association. He grew up outside of Calgary before moving to Edmonton for his undergraduate degree in Engineering Physics at the UofA. While there he founded the UofA Atheists and Agnostics and was active in the Edmonton freethought and skeptical communities.
Homepage: http://ian.bushfield.ca
Posts by Ian
Change at the top
Sep 26th
Big news from CFI Canada today:
To All CFI Canada Friends and Supporters,
The Board of Directors of Centre for Inquiry Canada is pleased to announce the appointment of Derek Pert as National Executive Director, effective immediately. We are excited to have Derek continue the outstanding work he has done in facilitating a new strategic plan and organizing the move to our new headquarters.
The Board would also like to announce that Justin Trottier, the former National Executive Director, is leaving CFI Canada to pursue other interests. We thank Justin for his commitment to the organization and for providing a voice for secularism and reason in Canada. We wish him success in future endeavours.
Carol Parlow MD, FRCPC
Chair, Board of Directors of CFI Canada
Justin Trottier had taken leave of his position as CFI Canada Executive Director to stand as a candidate for the Green Party of Ontario in the upcoming provincial election. Now it looks like that leave has been made permanent. It’s really hard to tell from this message whether the feelings were mutual.
Many volunteers, including myself, have grumbled at some of Trottier’s more controversial positions, but CFI Canada wouldn’t be where it is today without him. After great success with the University of Toronto Secular Alliance, Trottier founded CFI Ontario and pushed it onto the national stage. His determination has forced the much older (both in terms of length of existence and demographics) humanist organizations that they’ll need to step up their games to continue. CFI’s rapid expansion put pressure on many local humanist groups, with some dividing and others folding into new CFI branches.
It’s not clear yet what direction Derek Pert will take CFI Canada over the next few years. I haven’t met him personally yet, but look forward to some new ideas from him.
BC Humanists protest pro-life proclamation
Sep 21st
I wrote on my own blog a few days ago about Kelowna mayor Sharon Shepherd’s plan to proclaim “Protect Human Life Week” for the fourth year in a row.
Hemant Mehta picked up the story and was rightly upset:
Yeah, she’ll respect human life… unless you’re a woman who needs an abortion, in which case she doesn’t give a shit about you.
A number of commenters shared their letters that they sent to the mayor: mayorandcouncil@kelowna.ca
Well, the BC Humanists sent their own open letter to the mayor (and the local media outlets).
Catholic School funding… almost an election issue
Sep 21st
Xtra! News has an article out about the recent Canadian Secular Alliance rally. The rally, held on September 18th, was in support of gay-straight alliances, which have been denied by Ontario’s publicly-funded Catholic School Boards.
The article is very supportive and had an earlier title, which can be seen in the URL, of “Ontario Catholic school funding becomes an election issue.”
Sadly, an editor must have changed her mind and decided that the Ontario Green Party – polling around 5% – does not get to dictate the issues, as they are the only party to oppose the discriminatory status quo. Election issues are far too often dictated by the media, and while Xtra! is not necessarily mainstream (as say the Toronto Star or Globe & Mail), they could have helped propel this issue into the dialogue.
The issue is moving forward though, and it’s great to see positive press.
If Ontario’s Catholic schools fall, Saskatchewan and Alberta won’t be far behind.
Genocide equivalent to tearing a piece of paper
Sep 20th
It’s 2011 and we still have to deal with garbage like this, from Brad Hirschfield:
Fanatical atheism is no worse and no better than fanatical religion, though it may be more bitterly ironic. There is something pretty odd, dare I say hypocritical, about a bunch of people who call themselves “freethinkers” and “humanists” not only verbally abusing people of faith, but actually tearing up verses from the Bible as an act of protest, as they did on a pier in Huntington Beach, California Saturday morning. It doesn’t sound terribly humane to me, and I am quite sure that destroying texts, however much one may object to them, is the opposite of free thought.
Murder, genocide, female genital mutilation, and indoctrination don’t “sound terribly humane to me.” Ripping out parts of the Bible that no one even follows is proving a point – one which apparently flew right over Brad’s head.
Nearly half of Canadians don’t believe in God
Sep 19th
In addition to the swath of new reality, cop, and comedy shows, there’s a new “news” show coming to Global this fall called Context.
Context promises to discuss “life beyond the headlines” (the quotes are on their Who We Are page), meaning news from a Christian world view. The show is hosted by Evangelical Christian journalist Lorna Dueck, who previously hosted Listen Up.
I was going to go through the Answers provided by Context, or how she responds to her “atheist friends” that science has disproved god but it’s fairly standard Christian mumbo-jumbo. I don’t have the will power to go through it right now, maybe I’ll pick on it later, or you can demolish it in the comments (or if anyone wants to actually read through it all, send it to me and I’ll post it here).
What’s more interesting than picking on another evangelical TV show (which shows at roughly 11:00 AM local across the country), besides the opportunity to crash her set if you’re in Toronto, is the results of the poll that they commissioned to launch their show.
They hired reputable firm Ipsos Reid, who polled 1129 Canadians earlier this month. Among their findings:
- Only 53% of Canadians believe in God. This puts a combined atheist/agnostic/unsure response rate at 47%, the highest ever reported. Worth noting is the 1 in 3 Catholics and nearly 1 in 4 who attend Church service weekly do not believe in God.
- The same number of believers also think religion is a net positive, while the remaining 47% agree that religion does more harm than good.
- Only 29% of Canadians believe in heaven, and only 19% believe in hell. So sticks and carrots aren’t dictating our morality.
- 71% don’t think that religious people are necessarily better citizens – which means sadly that 29% still think atheists are lesser than the rest.
- 64% think religion raises more questions than answers.
- Finally, a slim majority – 51% – do not think “religious practice is an important factor in the moral lives of Canadians.”
I think the TV show is trying to play these results off as demonstrating the need to evangelize more, given their tweets:
Regardless of their thoughts, these numbers show the success of the secular and atheist movements.
Keep it up!
Eugenie Scott in Lethbridge this Thursday
Sep 19th
Just a quick reminder that Eugenie Scott will be speaking, for free, at the University of Lethbridge this Thursday.
The talk is in PE250, 1st Choice Savings Centre at UofL at 7pm.
If anyone makes it there, consider submitting a review of the talk (or an interview with Dr. Scott) as a guest post!
(h/t Dr. Jim’s Thinking Shop)
God’s existence does depend on us
Sep 17th
Daniel Racicot writes for the Sudbury Star.
In the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans, Hades says to Zeus, "The prayers of the mortals sustain our immortality."
I wonder how many people understood what he meant? Greek mythology is commonly regarded as a great source of ideas and imagery for fantasy movies, but to the ancient Greeks it was their religion. So, what does it mean, in religious terms, that the gods need our prayers for their sustenance? What does it mean that the existence of God depends on us?
Unfortunately, he goes off on some babbling about a two-way relationship with the Almighty when the answer is so much clearer and simpler.
God’s existence depends on us because he only exists in the minds of people. No appeals to philosophy, cosmology, or scripture are necessary.
No consciousness, no God.
Theology makes things complicated, atheism makes them simple.
Missed the boat this year
Sep 17th
Many Humanists and Atheists are increasingly trying to put our actions where are words are. We say we can be good without god, and now we’re ready to prove it.
The Edmonton Atheists have been on the ball with this, organizing an annual highway litter cleanup.
I just came across another great project that I may try to get involved in next year – the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, which starts tomorrow and runs for a week at beaches across the country (and yes, we do have beaches in Canada).
The entire process looks pretty simple, just register yourself as a coordinator, and then go pick up garbage.
There’s already a number of religious, community, and government groups involved. Why not atheists?
Of course, there’s many other possible projects we can get involved in – the BC Humanists are supporting an anti-bullying day in December (which coincides with a Solstice party we were already having). The Harvard Humanists also made 9110 meals for 9-11.
What projects can you suggest?
The issue that won’t go away
Sep 16th
Some issues need to be kept in the spotlight, because without constant reminders we are apt to repeat past mistakes.
With that, the Huffington Post (I know, I can hear your boo-hissing from here) has some things to say about “Do Atheists have a Sexism Problem?” (The title is far more provocative than the article).
Now, more than a month after "Elevatorgate" erupted, freethinkers are assessing its meaning. Many acknowledge they have a "woman problem" — men outnumber women at atheist gatherings, both at the podium and in the audiences.
Yet many, including Watson, say Elevatorgate is less a calamity and more an opportunity to welcome women and other minorities into a community that’s long been dominated by white men.
But it’s not all bad news.
But that is slowly changing. The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey found a 60-40 percent breakdown among men and women who say they who have no religion. Yet women make up 52 percent of the broader population.
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, notes that while men might fill their gatherings, women often lead freethought organizations. She has directed FFRF’s local chapters to use more women — at least 50 percent — in their billboard and bus banner ads.
…
That is reflected in a new "Women in Secularism" conference announced in August by the Center for Inquiry. The conference, billed as the first of its kind, will be held in May in Washington, D.C., and will feature an all-female lineup.
The article also lists several prominent female atheists: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Greta Christina, R. Elisabeth Cornwell, Annie Laurie Gaylor, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Melody Hensley, Susan Jacody, Eugenie C. Scott, Toni Van Pelt, and Rebecca Watson
Daniel Loxton: Too Hot for the USA
Sep 14th
This is the face of a man deemed “so outrageous, so outlandish, so controversial,” that no American publisher would consider his new children’s book Evolution.
Those words come from a new Globe and Mail article that discusses the Victoria-area editor of Junior Skeptic and his book which
…is one of three young-reader finalists in the Lane Anderson Award for Canadian science books. The other finalists for the $10,000 prize, to be awarded Wednesday, are Ultimate Trains by Peter McMahon of Ontario, and The Sea Wolves by the British Columbia team of Ian McAllister, a photographer, and Nicholas Read, a writer.
The article is a good profile of Loxton until this puzzling quote,
Even when displaying a sense of humour, hokum-busting skeptics convey a certain killjoy quality. After all, who does not want to believe in a hairy, harmless, beer-guzzling Bigfoot?
To which Loxton is quoted emphasizing his love of teaching and his disgust at evangelical tactics and debunking.
Comments