Canadian Atheist
Athée Canadien
Canadian Blog Awards results!
Jan 23rd
This year Canadian Atheist was a finalist in two categories for the Canadian Blog Awards and thanks to your help, we brought home some medals. Last year we won the Best Religion and Philosophy Blog, but we slipped behind an evangelical Christian mother this year.
Best Religion and Philosophy Blog
Taste and see… – momjeans80.blogspot.com – 49 Votes (26.92%)
Canadian Athiest – www.canadianathiest.com – 44 Votes (24.18%)
Whatever He Says – WhateverHeSays.blogspot.com – 43 Votes (23.63%)
Bene Diction Blogs on – www.BenedictionBlogsOn.com – 37 Votes (20.33%)
Feminist Christian Socialist – feministchristian.blogspot.com – 9 Votes (4.95%)
But to make up for that shaming, we did win the Best Collaborative/Multi-Author Blog
Best Collaborative/Multi-Author Blog
Canadian Atheist – CanadianAtheist.com 31 60.78%
DAMMIT JANET! – scathinglywrongrightwingnutz.blogspot.com 16 31.37%
Sister Sage’s Musings – sistersagesmusings.ca 3 5.88%
Now, anyone looking at these results is probably going to recognize fairly quickly that this wasn’t that great of turnout for any of the winners. The category with the most votes (Best Overall Blog) collected 883 ballots, while our winning category collected a mere 50 ballots. A well-pharyngulated poll will pull in a few thousand votes.
These straw-poll contests are a little bit of fun but need better exposure in the blogosphere to have any real meaning.
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.
Don’t want a Bible in PEI? Too bad.
Jan 19th
When I was in elementary school in rural Alberta, I remember getting a form to either opt-out or opt-in (I don’t remember which) for a Gideon Bible.
As a sign of the anti-theist I was to become, I also remember joking to my friends on the school bus that if they gave me a Bible that I’d burn it.
So this story out of Prince Edward Island has an air of familiarity to it for me.
A Prince Edward Island school board says it doesn’t plan to stop handing Bibles out to students despite receiving a complaint from a parent.
Ricky Hood, superintendent for the Eastern School District, said the Gideon Society has been handing out Bibles to students for 46 years, and it doesn’t take up any instructional time, reports Charlottetown’s Guardian newspaper.
They go on to argue that there is an opt-out permission form and that they don’t actually spend any instructional time on religious topics.
The Sun Media article also mentions a similar controversy in Ontario last year and notes that premier Dalton McGuinty was unwilling to actually take a stand on the issue.
What’s interesting here isn’t that this was a bit of a loss for secularists but that the default position of those forcing religion down impressionable children’s throats is now one of defense. They have to come up with pathetic arguments like tradition and flimsy opt-out forms to justify their privilege.
It’s very clear we’re winning and it’s only a matter of time until the Gideons are out of our schools for good.
Your last chance to help us win the internets
Jan 19th
Just a quick reminder that you only have one more day to vote for Canadian Atheist as the 2011 Best Religion and Philosophy Blog and Best Collaborative/Multi-Author Blog in the Canadian Blog Awards.
We won the Religion and Philosophy contest last year, let’s hold our title!
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:
BC Interior freethought groups launch The Secular Circular e-newsletter
Jan 18th
It’s always good to see more grassroots freethought groups, especially in smaller centres and places often infamous for their conservative religiosity.
Case in point, a number of atheist and skeptic groups in the interior of BC have launched a e-newsletter to provide updates on the local groups in the area, including the Kamloops Centre for Rational Thought, CFI Okanagan, a student group at UBC-O and two new groups in Nelson and Salmon Arm.
Check out the first edition and subscribe online.
The Current State of the Freethought movement in the BC Interior – Since the Four Horsemen (Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, and Harris) published their books 5 years ago, the freethought movement has been growing by leaps and bounds. Groups have been sprouting up across the world and here is no exception. Early in 2010 groups formed both in Kamloops and Kelowna, the 2 largest cities in the interior. Late in 2011, we had additional groups form both in Salmon Arm and Nelson and a student group at UBCO. This is all very exciting since there really isn’t a comparable movement in smaller centres anywhere else in the country, hopefully what is happening here will be emulated in other provinces in the near future and we will be able to offer guidance and inspiration.
Coincidence or Physics?
Jan 18th
This morning, before settling down to write this post on Jerry Coyne’s article, “Why you don’t really have free will,” I logged on to Why Evolution Is True and found Coyne’s follow up post on his article. I don’t know whether there is any connection between physics and coincidence, but I like the title, so I used it.
However, my initial reason for writing this post is to call your attention to the article, provide my comments and ask for yours.
In his USA Today article, Coyne clearly states his thesis:
The debate about free will, long the purview of philosophers alone, has been given new life by scientists, especially neuroscientists studying how the brain works. And what they’re finding supports the idea that free will is a complete illusion. (emphasis added)
Coyne goes on to define what he means by free will, and he supports his position with analogy:
Our brains are simply meat computers that, like real computers, are programmed by our genes and experiences to convert an array of inputs into a predetermined output. . . . The ineluctable scientific conclusion is that although we feel that we’re characters in the play of our lives, rewriting our parts as we go along, in reality we’re puppets performing scripted parts written by the laws of physics.
The second sentence is familiar and makes me suspect that Shakespeare preempted Coyne:
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players (AYL 2.7.1-2)
Coyne presents a convincing argument for the absence of free will, and in his last paragraph, he assures us,
There’s not much downside to abandoning the notion of free will; . . . And there are two upsides.
The only sentence in the whole article that I question is the very last sentence:
With that under our belts, we can go about building a kinder world.
If we don’t have free will, how can we build a “kinder world”?
“Why you don’t really have free will,” deserves a close reading. After you read it, let’s discuss it.
Woman sues Ontario over Catholic school funding.
Jan 14th
Awesome. I’m going to give the OSSN a plug here.
And, I should probably say more about this article, but there is so much secular goodness in it, you should just read it yourself.
Canadian courts, she argued, have consistently said that legal decisions that limit charter rights must be interpreted narrowly.The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled already that Sect. 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867, which guarantees Catholic school funding in Ontario, is immune from charter challenges. (The charter specifically exempts from review all rights guaranteed in the constitution.)
In Landau’s application, filed in the Superior Court of Justice, Landau asks for an order that eliminates all government aid for Catholic schools from Grades 9 to 12.
She also seeks an order that limits the funding of Grades 1 to 8 to “only that aid available in 1867, that is, only property taxes from Catholics who declare themselves to be separate school supporters and who live within three miles of a separate school, and property taxes from wholly Catholic-owned businesses.”
Update: Toronto Star is covering this too.
Centre for Inquiry Canada Is Hiring
Jan 13th
I received this email yesterday:
The Centre for Inquiry Canada is hiring part time branch directors in Toronto and Vancouver!
Accepting Applications until January 20th
About the Centre for Inquiry:
The Centre for Inquiry is an international education and outreach organization dedicated to promoting and advancing reason, science, secular ethics and freedom of inquiry in all areas of human endeavour. We engage in educational lectures, debates and conferences, coordinate 30 campus freethought groups across Canada, run a robust series of secular humanist social and community services, and undertake political advocacy defending church-state separation, the integrity of science and equality rights for non-believers.This position is two-fold:
1. The successful candidates will act as the branch directors at CFI Canada headquarters in Toronto or branch director in the growing community at CFI Vancouver. He/she will lead CFI’s in-house and ongoing programming, event planning and hosting, promotions, newsletter publishing, social services and membership committees at their respective branches. There will be numerous leadership opportunities through support staff and volunteer recruitment, training, supervision and delegation. All activities taking place at the branch level will fall under the candidate’s jurisdiction.
2. CFI’s Canadian operations include Communities in major cities across Canada, campus outreach and support to affiliated groups across the country. The successful candidate will work with the National Executive Committee sharing information and coordinating national efforts.Timing/Duration:
This position has no fixed deadline, but is anticipated to last at least 6 months. The weekly time commitment will come to approximately 20 hours/week working mostly in the evenings after 4pm. Please indicate your daily and weekly availability as well as the duration of your commitment.Job Requirements:
An understanding of the freethought/humanist/skeptic community and/or some demonstration of commitment to the values of free and critical inquiry is essential.To perform this job successfully an individual must possess excellent skills in organization, promoting and leading. The individual must also have the ability to exercise independent judgement and manage multiple priorities, the ability to organize and lead volunteers, strong verbal and written communication skills, and the ability to represent CFI via public speaking and media appearances. The job frequently involves speaking in front of crowds, some financial
management, customer service skills and a strong background in event planning which the successful candidate must be comfortable working with minimal supervision. Knowledge of the non-profit sector, project management and community development strategies is ideal.Additional Technical Knowledge
To assist in specific projects, the following technical background is helpful, though not completely required. Candidates without such background should still apply. Candidates with such technical knowledge should highlight it in application:Web development experience:
Basic Microsoft Office Skills including Word, Excel and Powerpoint
Experience using and maintaining SQL databases (eg. MySQL) or similar technology
Basic understanding of video technology and video editing, uploading and embedding (e.g. through youtube or google video)
Proficiency in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Microsoft Publisher or similar program for poster and ad creation
Knowledge of Social Media
Knowledge of Volunteer Management and Donor RelationsHow to Apply
If you are interested in applying, please email a cover letter and resume as a Word or PDF attachment, to Michael Payton at mpayton@cficanada.ca. Please write “Application to Toronto Branch Director” or “Application to Vancouver Branch Director” in the subject line.This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the overall growth of the secular community in Canada, exercise skills in non-profit management and to become part of a growing international movement. We hope you will consider joining us.
Thank you
National Executive, Centre for Inquiry Canada
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