Athée Canadien
Christianity
Enablers
Jan 23rd
Doug Thomas, president of Secular Connexion Séculaire (SCS), asks the question, “Is There a Line to Draw,” as the Email Topic Discussion for January 23. Thomas’ question and answer,
So, is there a line to draw between those theists whom we can see are peace-loving individuals and the fanatics? There may be, but it must be a blurry and faded one and it’s time theists stepped up and helped us draw it more clearly.
echo Jerry Coynes’ statement in the concluding paragraph to his post, “A bad week for free speech”:
As usual, Muslims who claim not to be extremists stand by silently while their coreligionists try to dismantle freedom of speech via threats of death. The silent ones are enablers.
I reserve a special censure for men and women who attend Catholic services, or send their children to Catholic schools, public or private. They are enablers; they enable The Roman Catholic Church to continue its nefarious activities and spread its damaging propaganda.
Eppur si muove (and yet, it moves)
Jan 18th
In 1633, Galileo was charged and found guilty of the crime of heresy for suggesting the earth was not the centre of the universe. He was sentenced to life imprisonment (reduced to house arrest) and forced to read and sign the following:
Awww, how embarrassing for you.
Dec 26th
The following photo was posted by @LoveGod50. He’s been one of two people (the other is @GodsWordIsLaw) who have been openly harassing Ricky Gervais on twitter. More >
Three jeers for Christian charity!
Dec 8th
In response to the American Atheists “What myths do you see?” billboards, the Catholic League just launched a new holiday campaign of their own — Adopt an Atheist:
Today we are launching our “Adopt An Atheist” campaign, the predicate of which is, “We want atheists to realize that there may be Christians in their community, even if those Christians don’t even know they are Christian.”
Here’s what our campaign entails. We are asking everyone to contact the American Atheist affiliate in his area [click here], letting them know of your interest in “adopting” one of them. All it takes is an e-mail. Let them know of your sincere interest in working with them to uncover their inner self. They may be resistant at first, but eventually they may come to understand that they were Christian all along.
If we hurry, these closeted Christians can celebrate Christmas like the rest of us. As an added bonus, they will no longer be looked upon as people who “believe in nothing, stand for nothing and are good for nothing.”
Where to begin? JT does a good job untangling most of the dreck above, but the last lines of the campaign’s page are what get to me the most.
First of all, “closeted Christians?” Um, no. I’m not sure how much clearer I can be when it comes to Christianity — I didn’t “lose” my faith, I rejected it. Plus I resent the implication in those last lines that as a non-believer, I’m somehow not able to celebrate Christmas like “the rest of us”.
But the most revealing part of the campaign is the last few words of the release — atheists are people who “believe in nothing, stand for nothing and are good for nothing.” Wow.
I suppose I should expect no less from the likes of Bill Donohue, the same man who said that atheists should apologize for the “anti-religious” impulse that motivated Stalin, Mao and Hitler’s actions.
That said, if there’s a multimillionaire Christian out there who’s willing to take me on as his or her pet project, do feel free to contact me. Fair warning: I’ve been told I’m a bit of a problem child.
Grasping at the funnest straws ever!
Dec 5th
I absolutely loved the first Austin Powers movie. I thought it was a brilliant piece of parody – the fact that it spawned not only the two godawful sequels and inspired a generation of people to start describing things as “shagadelic” are lamentable, but all in all I loved the movie. It’s hard to pick an absolute favourite moment from that movie, but a recent news item kind of reminded me of one particular scene. The story:
In increasingly secular Canada, how do you bring people to God? “Through parking and bathrooms,” says Scott Weatherford, lead pastor of Calgary’s First Alliance Church. He’s only half joking. On Sundays, the evangelical church’s 1,350-spot parking lot is overflowing. The $25.7-million, six-year-old campus feels more like a convention centre than a cathedral. Weekend services are high-tech, multimedia spectacles. The church provides free fair-trade coffee, with cup holders in every one of the 1,704 seats in the sanctuary. Whether it’s the caffeine, the big-screen monitors or the rock band, no one appeared to be drifting off when Mr. Weatherford, equipped with a wireless microphone and an iPad, took the stage at a recent weekend service.
The scene:
Dr. Evil – “I’m with it, I’m hip”
(Canadian Atheist’s server doesn’t like embedded videos, so you’ll have to click through)
I just love how blatant the sucking up is. “What do kids like? Let’s get some of that hippity hop music in here, and some of those Justone Beavers people keep talking about! I don’t care what they are, get fifty of them! And a bouncy castle!” It’s like watching your 60 year-old uncle try skateboarding for the first time to try and impress his midlife crisis girlfriend, or catching your mom shopping at Sirens – embarrassing and a little creepy. More >
95 % of Statistics are Made Up.
Nov 21st
OK so I am sure that Ipsos Reid, being in the business of statistics is a little more careful with their numbers, and how they portray them, than the title would suggest. Statistics can be quirky things, they can be made to say a variety of things, even the truth. No that is not my quote. The author is unknown.
A Shorter Education…
Nov 2nd
It still bothers me that modern areas of the world can be so culturally behind the times. Shorter University in Georgia is forcing over 200 employees to sign a “Personal Lifestyle Statement” that rejects drug use, premarital sex, and homosexuality. This is apparently within the confines of the legal system (for now) because the university is not publicly funded. Employees who chose not to sign the statement could risk losing their job. More >
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