Category Archives: News

The Religious Right and those Pesky women.

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For many of us hearing the words “Harper”, “supreme court”, and “appoints” in the same sentence induces a mild seizure like spasm of panic in the parts of our brain usually in control of functions like reacting to sleazy by elections and listening to the pope praise the Irish Diocese on their work with children.

Are we really giving him a fair shake though?

The selection process for the Supreme Court of Canada does after all allow input from all currently sitting political parties. In an unusual fit of fairness Harper even allowed an ad hoc parliamentary committee of MPs to grill the candidates on Oct 19.

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Occupy the Vatican

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I’ve been supportively following the Occupy protests, but have avoided any discussion of it here since I didn’t find it directly topical (not that I believe we need to just focus on atheist/religious topics). Now that issues out of the way since there’s an offshoot protest going on in Vancouver this weekend:

October 30th: Occupy the Vatican – Holy Rosary Cathedral (Dunsmuir & Richards) – Occupy Vancouver organizers have stated they intend to occupy the cathedral from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday.

This idea is brilliant. I’ve been thinking we’ve needed to push for an Occupy the Churches protest, which would coincide with the OWS protests. As church’s are private property we’d be more likely to get kicked out, but it would be a way to draw attention to a couple key issues – i.e corruption in the Catholic Church.

There’s more info from The Province:

A Facebook page, predictably, leads the charge, but locally organizers have promised to occupy the Holy Rosary Cathedral in downtown Vancouver this Sunday at 10 a.m., right in the middle of church services.

“Jail the Pope, Occupy the Vatican, Expel the Catholic church from our lands,” comes the none-too-subtle online call to arms, complete with a Photoshopped image of the pope behind bars. “Join the worldwide Occupy the Vatican movement this Sunday Oct. 30.

“Squamish elder Kiapilano has banned the Catholic church from Squamish Nation territory – Help us enforce this eviction order this Sunday.”

The Facebook page is pretty anti-Catholic, and it’s not clear how big Sunday’s occupation will be.

Anyone going to church this Sunday?

Can churches be resurrected?

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As confirmed an anti-theist as I am, and as desirous as I am for a day in which religious organizations are redundant and fade into the stuff of history, I am not so blinded by my partisanship that I would deny the fact that churches do engage in positive pro-social activities. In fact, I find my cup of irritation overflowing whenever any apologist for religion (theist or otherwise) points this fact out to me, as though it was a response to what I actually am criticizing. It shows that, despite their ever-present calls for ‘tolerance’ and ‘understanding’, they are simply not listening to what the other side of the debate is saying.

It is a fact that religious organizations can count charity and social services among their many assorted activities. There is evidence to suggest that religious people are, in fact, more likely to contribute to charitable activities than atheists (although when the church itself counts as a charity, I question the true magnitude of this difference). Most religious adherents are good people who care about their fellow human beings just as you or I do. While I may question the validity of their motivation (‘because YahwAlladdha says so’ is a lousy reason to do anything, positive or negative), I will not deny the fact that homeless people, poor people at home and abroad, people undergoing family crisis, and people looking for existential guidance often receive help from churches, mosques, synagogues, and other religious institutions.

Facing declining attendance and influence, churches are undergoing their own existential crisis. What is the role of a franchise that is considered antiquated at best, and harmful at its worst? What will become of those that rely on religious organizations for aid? Is there a future for organized religion?

Queen’s Avenue United Church seems to think so:

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“Not psychologically ready”

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The Toronto psychic backs off the Million Dollar Challenge.

“Psychic” Nikki claimed she wasn’t ducking us, saying, “I’m not refusing to take his test at all. I still need some information on it.” Well, hey, “Psychic” Nikki, you don’t’ have to be psychic to find the info! We have now twice offered to provide her information directly and to ask us questions.

Yet just three days later – Friday, September 9th – she was back on the same radio show again, this time leaving grooves in the road like Wile E. Coyote slamming into reverse before crashing into a mountain. Apparently, “Psychic” Nikki now says she doesn’t want to take the test, especially now, because she isn’t “psychologically ready” for it and “might do it next year.”

This was predictable but what I find interesting is the effort taken by the JREF to follow up with potential claimants. Granted, since passing the test is easy, the main purpose of the Challenge is to destroy the credibility of paranormal artists by forcing them to admit they don’t want easy money. Yet recently, the JREF has taken a more active role in baiting their opponents. The Toronto psychic is an example but the JREF has also been lobbying the big fish like James Van Praagh.

But are stunts like the Million Dollar Challenge effective or does it portray skeptics as a bunch of whiners with too much time on their hands? Is there a better way? Continue reading →

Religious rights over human rights in Ontario

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Toronto Catholics still have no integrity.

Trustees at a Toronto Catholic District School Board meeting decided to put denominational rights above human rights and tried to make a direct attack on gay-straight alliances.

The Aug 31 meeting was the final debate on the TCDSB’s equity and inclusive education policy, which has already passed. More than 100 people packed the gallery for the fiery meeting; in the majority were a vocal contingent of people objecting to homosexuality being taught in any way in Catholic schools, including within the context of bullying prevention and peer support.

“Denominational rights are the first priority,” trustee John Del Grande repeated several times.

To their credit, the trustees voted against the amendment that would allow them to ignore a government mandate forcing them to accept GSA alliances, which is a good start but the language used my most of the Catholic supporters and trustees throughout the evening isn’t comforting.

Delegate Anna Lukowski says being gay is not a “lifestyle consistent with the Catholic church. The board should only have goals that are consistent with Catholic faith and doctrinal rights.”

Separate schools need to be a priority during the Ontario election that starts next week. The Green Party supports eliminating separate schools but won’t bring it up unless it becomes an election issue (which us atheist activists are working hard to create). The other major parties support the status quo so supporters need to contact their candidates to point out the hate-filled discrimination they tacitly support.

See also The Globe and Mail

Dodge, Dip, Duck, Dive, and Dodge

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I can’t figure out which is more shameful; her horribly abhorrent and palpably misinformed judgments of homosexuality, or the fact that she can deny, straight faced, that she ever judged anyone – directly after being shown her own quotations of judgment. Note: The limits of my own vocabulary prevent me from properly expressing my astonishment. Continue reading →

Death Threats cont.

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Montreal police look into death threats against atheists.

Bombarded with “a few hundred” screen shots of various Twitter threats alleged to have been issued by a St. Laurent man – and by more than 3,200 email complaints from all over the world so far this week – Montreal police said Wednesday they have begun a criminal investigation.

The threats apparently include death and decapitation.

A fast-growing online petition launched Monday demanding Montreal police “Take ‘Mabus’ death threats seriously” quickly swamped police email facilities, spokesperson Lt. Ian Lafrenière acknowledged: “It was kind of crazy.”

He refused to confirm the identity of the St. Laurent man, who often tweets under the name ‘David Mabus’ and who did not return phone calls seeking comment made to his work and home numbers.

Anyone who frequents atheist forums has come across Dennis Markuze. He began his trolling career years ago by rambling about how James Randi’s million dollar challenge was a scam but has since moved on to serious threats until finally a petition was created to encourage Montreal police to take action.

I suppose we should be glad Mabus might be taken off the street but keep in mind how difficult it is to prove electronic crimes. I’ll hold my breath until the guy is locked up. Whatever happens, I still consider this a victory for atheist activism, since we were able to quickly influence real change through a small effort by thousands of people. I hope we can harness these techniques and apply them to other issues.

Women leaving religion

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Why does diversity and making atheism a welcoming place for women matter?

How about because women are leaving religion in record numbers.

Women today are attending church and Sunday school less, reading the Bible less, and consider their faith less important in their lives, according to the new survey.

The Barna report also shows that over the last two decades women have become less likely to hold traditional views of God as the all-knowing creator and ruler of the universe. Women today are less likely to see the devil as a real person, considering him more a "symbol of evil."

The poll doesn’t say that these women are becoming atheists, and many are likely moving to the mushy “spiritual but not religious” category, but this shows huge promise for our organizations, provided we can avoid shooting ourselves in the foot.

A minor point

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It never fails to baffle me when people jump on the ‘attack secularists’ bandwagon with such gusto. I usually just assume that whoever is making this argument doesn’t really understand what secularism is. At its simplest, secularism means that laws will be completely neutral to the religious beliefs of those who seek legal remedy. It does not mean that hordes of secularist zealots are going to go around smashing manger scenes on people’s front lawns, or that people will have to have secret church in the basement of their local Darwin Temple, and yet that seems to be the recurring myth that gets tossed around.

We are a bit spoiled here in Canada, where our biggest religious/secular fights have to do with stuff like whether or not Sikhs are allowed to carry kirpans into court. We’re lucky not to live in a religious-majority country (at least in the political sense), where our church/state skirmishes are usually small and don’t result in major harm. We are lucky, indeed, that we don’t live in Indonesia:

An Indonesian court sent a “chilling message” Thursday by giving Muslim extremists light sentences for a vicious mob attack in which three sect members died, rights activists said. Twelve people stood trial but none faced murder charges in what human rights campaigners said was a travesty of justice in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country. The sentences ranged from between three and six months’ jail — less than prosecutors had sought and well below the maximum penalty of 12 years.

Anyone who thinks that this is me trying to make a Dawkins-style “Dear Muslimah” point about Canadian problems not being worth discussion is profoundly mistaken. Those that know me well know that I am game for pretty much any fight that I get get my blog-teeth into. I am not trying to minimize the problems that we have here, nor am I really seeking to ‘put them into perspective’. There are a lot of things to care about, and if we start ‘triaging’ the suffering of our fellow creatures, we’ll be so paralyzed with bickering that nothing will get done. There are, however, two points that I am trying to make with this news item.

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