Diversity

This would certainly be a situation where you’d get support from me. I understand the intent, but the precedent is scary. Banning a group because they make other people uncomfortable is not a reasonable accommodation.

Darebin Mayor Diana Asmar said these events were aimed at women who, “due to their cultural and religious backgrounds, cannot attend events where men and women both attend”.
[..]the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has backed the bans, and declared councils no longer needed to apply to the court for such exemptions.

Private functions that cater to the idiosyncrasies of a culture are one thing, but getting government involved in such things really crosses the line in my view. Governments should at least try and remain neutral in cultural clashes.

One thing that religious people and atheists have in common is that when you start talking about religion… particularly someone else’s… around ‘the children’, you tend to upset people. There is the indoctrination, which some equate to child abuse, and of course the pedophilia, which always seems to come up in such discussions, but as atheists, we have at least a nominal attachment to reality, and religion is part of reality, whether we like it or not. Hard truth is something that we often claim for our own. So at what point, does the reality of the existense of religion become something we must in all honesty acknowledge? Where does education become indoctrination? And does protecting our children mean being intolerant and petty, to the point we demand silence?

Guidelines on the Quebec government’s website say it is all right for daycares to celebrate cultural aspects of religious holidays, but only when activities do not impart religious beliefs to children.

Staff may not lead children in prayers, religious songs and sacred texts or have a member of the clergy do so. The rules also forbid arts and crafts, role-playing and songs that could inculcate religious beliefs.

Repetitive practices related to holiday celebrations are also considered as religious instruction and thus banned, the guidelines say.

Do we really want to ban singing songs? Religion in education is a serious issue, prone to all sorts of abuses, and children always make people defensive, but is there a clear line here, are there ways of dealing with religion? Pretending it doesn’t exist seems… delusional.

France is a strange place, they speak funny there, but like many other countries, their sense of what freedom means, faces contradictions.

A democracy with a tradition of self-expression through (often outrageous) women-objectifying-anorexic fashion, with an anti-burqa dresscode.

But I guess if anywhere, France is the place to have fashion police. In all fairness though, I think this should include men’s speedo swimwear, anything-Gaga… and Bieber-hair. But I digress.

Where I do agree with the French is with regards to creationism. God may be, a type of hypothesis, but its not a scientific one… it’s not science. And we need to defend science.

“We didn’t descend from the apes,” lecturer Ali Sadun told the giggling youngsters. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, he said, was “the scientific basis to defend atheism.”

The last part.. is the trap many of my atheist peers also fall into. Science can, of course, debunk all sorts of supernatural claims, but unlike people like Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking, I don’t see science as being atheistic.

Science is not the reason I don’t believe in religion, although I don’t think it contradicts my lack of belief. Religion, is why I am an atheist. I reject religion because of what it is, and because of how it fails. Science is the icing on that cake.

Science is based around methodological naturalism, that is, it *assumes* some form of natural causation exists, and moves on from there. Its a good assumption in my opinion, but not without problems. Regardless, both truly random events, and truly miraculous or supernatural ones, are simply not covered by science. At its best, science can supply thorough and consistent natural explanations to claimed supernatural events. That is its strength.

Evolution, however it may influence us, is about how things change, not how they began.

Avni Karahisar cited Koran verses he said indicated hidden proof of phenomena such as the Big Bang, planetary orbits and the expansion of the universe.

And while I find humour in the contortions of modern scriptural interpretation, I also find hope. Science can bring new understanding even to those who seem to need supernatural certainty and support.

“This is very important for you and for your pride,” he told the pupils.

The reasons religious people reject this or that science is often more about their personal/cultural insecurities, than their doctrine. Trying to fuse atheism to science simply misses the point, and creates unecessary problems for science.