The confluence of beauty and truth is so compelling, I almost reverted myself.
The Shahada is the Islamic Creed, one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The word “Shahada” comes from the verb shahida, meaning “he testifies” or “he bears witness.”
No Religion: Imagine!
From all accounts, Imagine No Religion 3 was a resounding success. Kevin Smith, the president and chair of the Centre for Inquiry Canada Board of Directors, had a great time. Smith provided Canadian Atheist with the text of his excellent closing speech: This weekend has gone by far too quickly. … Continue reading
A Protestant in a Catholic System
Justin Trottier, the spokesperson for the Canadian Secular Alliance, sent a well deserved thank you to Ken Gallinger, the Ethically Speaking columnist for the Toronto Star for the article, “Should a Protestant Work in the Catholic School Board?”: Hi Ken, Great article in today’s Toronto Star on the ethics of … Continue reading
Religion and sex in Canada
So a week or so back, Statistics Canada released the data from the 2011 National Household Survey (which is what we have to work with since the long-form census was scrapped). I took a look at the overall data regarding religion in a previous post, and now I’ll dig a … Continue reading
Bonnie Tyler’s Little Salute To Skepticism
By all accounts the annual Eurovision song contest is a campy, kitschy, trashy spectacle that reasonable people can tolerate only when accompanied by the caustic commentary of the BBC’s Terry Wogan, who unfortunately stopped covering it years ago. It’s enough to make one think European culture must have been on … Continue reading
CFI Canada Announces Its Annual General Meeting
The Nominating Committee of the CFI Canada Board of Directors is pleased to announce that the Annual General Meeting of the Centre for Inquiry Canada will be held on Saturday, June 15th 2013. The following are nominees for the new Board to date: William Cranor Zak Fiddes Gary Fitzgibbon Iain … Continue reading
The Atheists Are in Kamloops
It is an exciting time to be an atheist in Kamloops, British Columbia. On May 17, the Daily News in Kamloops announced, “The Atheists Are Coming, The Atheists Are Coming“! Not anymore, they’ve arrived to join and celebrate Imagine No Religion 3 with the Kamloops atheists. The Daily News article … Continue reading
Vernon On Robinson On Demythologized Christianity
Former Anglican priest Mark Vernon discusses the impact of Honest to God, a book by Anglican bishop John Robinson, when it was first published in 1963. For Robinson, the problem was the belief that we are “down here” and God is “up there”, as if sitting on a cloud. Science … Continue reading
Pope Jr. pontificates about the evils of money
But is anyone listening? I have to say, I don’t actually disagree with his call for reforms… Pope Francis issued a strong call for world financial reform on Thursday, condemning a heartless “dictatorship of the economy” and saying the economic crisis had made life worse for millions in rich and … Continue reading
The Virgilian Lottery
One thing I neglected to mention in my previous post on the Aeneid was the curious, superstitious tradition of the Virgilian Lottery or Sortes Virgilianae, which involves opening the Aeneid to a random passage and interpreting it more or less as one would a note in a fortune cookie (I … Continue reading