Canadian Atheist
Athée Canadien
This is why I <3 PZ Myers
Aug 4th
Hopefully you’ve all followed the PZ Myers on his turbulent trek over to his new home at freethoughtblogs.com. If not, you’re missing out on gems like this:
Whenever I see one of the big voices in the skeptical establishment pontificating about “poorly-articulated philosophical differences”, I just know we’re about to get a load of rationalizations for not changing, remaining stodgy and conservative and boring, and repudiating progressive differences in opinion. Loxton is no exception. And when I hear them complaining about all these atheists, a refrain that has been very common in the last few years, my grumpiness gland starts secreting voluminous quantities of bile.
I’ve met Daniel Loxton, he lives just across the Georgia Straight in Victoria, and he is a really nice guy.
PZ hits the head on the nail though, calling out Loxton’s desire to see skepticism get more visibly diverse without getting any more intellectually diverse.
Old white guys might like chasing ghosts and sea monsters, but a lot of people actually care about things a bit more substantive than Roswell.
Stopping religion… one right at a time.
Aug 4th
Some times extreme circumstances call for extreme measures… but… really?
Tajikistan’s authoritarian leader has approved a law barring minors from praying in mosques as his secular government seeks to minimize the rising influence of Islam in the Central Asian nation.[..]
The law also requires people under the age of 18 to study in secular schools thus barring thousands of students from attending mosque schools seen by authorities as a breeding ground of Islamism.
I know some atheists… and even me, a little, would be very happy if religion, and certain religions specifically, dried up and disappeared, but although I sympathize… and don’t pretend to understand the circumstances that seem to have brought this about, I find I can’t in all conscience agree with this. I am against indoctrinating children, but I think this goes too far. And further, I don’t think it will be effective. What do you think?
A minor point
Aug 3rd
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.
Technologies You Can No Longer Use!!!
Aug 3rd
I find it incredibly interesting that some (if not all) of the most popular devices and technology of this century, and the last, often utilize the exact same scientific principles used to:
- Determine the age of the universe
- Determine the age of the earth
- Disprove various aspects of the creation story
- Prove microevolution
- Prove the Big Bang Theory
The scientific principles are so inherent in the design and functionality of some popular technologies that they literally would not work without them. Therefore, this message is for those who believe the creation story, and/or that the earth is only 6000 years old, and/or that microevolution is still debatable and not proven, etc. (I’d like to generalize by saying all biblical accounts, but there are just so many that have nothing to do with science or facts). If you are a person described by the beliefs I’ve just mentioned, PLEASE PAY ATTENTION!
Ultimately, it is hypocritical and illogical to deny the validity of a particular science for your own agenda and then use it for another. Therefore, I’d like to present a list of technologies you should stop using immediately: More >
Islam is pure evil?
Aug 2nd
A few days ago I wrote about Sam Harris’ take on the Norway tragedy. Naturally, it elicited some responses, the most interesting to me were the ones that focussed on the necessity to take on the apparent evils of Islam.
First, it’s always interesting to see atheists use such moralistic absolute phrases as “pure evil.” While I don’t believe atheism necessitates a nihilistic moral relativism, and that objective morality can exist (when words like morality are defined in meaningful ways), absolutist language is still discomforting to me. I’d even go as far as to say that I somewhat see absolutism as part of the root cause of this atrocity, and something we ought to be very wary of.
This absolutism also neglects the large diversity in Islamic theology. It is true that Iran, Saudi Arabia, and many other regimes are tremendously abhorrent, and I won’t for a second attempt to justify their actions. But what I will point to is the fact that not all Muslims are the same.
Case in point, this past Sunday, I marched in the Vancouver Pride Parade with the BC Humanists and CFI Vancouver. Directly behind our group was a queer Muslim group, including the (almost radically) liberal Ismaili Muslims. Perhaps the most famous Ismaili Muslim in Canada today is Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi who likely has more in common with Barack Obama then Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Further, we ought to recognize that Christianity is still dangerous across the USA and world.
I believe that Humanism and the positive atheism espoused best by PZ Myers teaches us not to see the world in simple black and white terms. Islam, like all religions, is bad, but there are worse aspects and less bad aspects. All are religions are based on unsubstantiated myths and promote uncritical thinking, but some are far more harmful than others.
Focussing on any specific religion can easily turn from critical analysis and consciousness raising to racist xenophobia. At the very least, focussing on the irrationality of the minority can miss the far greater threats posed by the irrationality in the majority. Just by a purely statistical argument, we ought to fear the latter more.
You probably have far more to worry about from your racist neighbour (or even the cops) than your new Iranian co-worker.
And I don’t just say that because most Iranians that I’ve met are atheist physics/engineering graduate students happy to have escaped.
CCLA on Separate Schools
Aug 2nd
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association joins the fight against separate schools in Alberta.
From the press release:
Most recently, parents in the town of Morinville were told that a secular school option would be made available within their town, by a neighbouring school division. This compromise does not solve the problem, however, since parents who send their children to this school cannot participate in the governance of the school board or even vote for trustees, since they don’t live in the district. In any event, it has recently been suggested that this plan cannot be put in place because it is financially too costly. Parents in this community are once again unsure of whether or how they can secure a public secular education for their children. The CCLA finds this unacceptable and urges the school board to act promptly to ensure that the constitutional rights of parents and students in thier community are respected and a public secular school option is provided.
I’d prefer the CCLA took a stance against all separate schools rather than tackle one problem within them but because they don’t have the resources like its badass American counterpart the ACLU, I think any support should be welcomed. I hope to see more civil rights organizations get involved in the separate school debate because atheist organizations in Canada don’t have the knowledge or experience to launch legal campaigns.
Changing minds
Aug 1st
Marie-Claire Shanahan explains the difficulties involved in changing people’s minds.
The way we understand the world is shaped by all of our interactions with it and with all of the people in our lives. We don’t just have a set of ideas that sit on a shelf like books and can easily be replaced one for another. Ideas about the world are more like tangled webs of connected information, experiences, and beliefs. A complex ecosystem is a better analogy than a bookshelf. This means that writing to bust myths, convince people about scientific evidence or change their minds takes more than just communicating clearly. If that were all it took, science teaching would be easy and there would be few public controversies about accepted scientific ideas.
Shanahan, a science education researcher at the University of Alberta continues with some advice: More >
New Blog: Science-ish
Aug 1st
Maclean’s magazine launches a new blog:
Every day, newspapers and websites are filled with grandiose health claims (chocolate heals the heart one day, and causes obesity the next) and statements about healthcare that aren’t based in evidence. Science-ish has had enough. A joint Maclean’s, Medical Post, and McMaster Health Forum project, Science-ish will check the latest health-related headlines against the evidence—and hold politicians, opinion leaders, and journalists to account. Our modest aim? To improve health reporting, and the quality of information about the health-related issues of the day.
The low frequency of posts suggests they aren’t willing to devote many resources to the project and the content isn’t any different than what you’d find among the army of skeptical blogs on the internets. But with science-based reporting almost non-existent in Canadian mainstream media, it’s nice to see someone willing to give it a try.
Whining Catholics
Aug 1st
A Toronto group of parents may withdraw their children from the publicly funded Catholic school system if the government doesn’t change its equity policy and allow them to discriminate.
According to one expert in Ontario education, if the threat were carried out, the board could lose upwards of $40,000,000 in annual public funding, and over 150 teachers.
If the board implements its policy, wrote Fr. Jeremiah Attaalla on June 22nd, “we will not hesitate to withdraw our children at once from attending any Catholic school within Toronto or [the Greater Toronto Area].”
The equity policy, passed earlier this year as part of the Ontario government’s sweeping equity and inclusive education strategy, has sparked an unprecedented mobilization of parents who fear that it will give homosexual activists a foothold in order to further subvert already weak Catholic sexual teaching in the schools.
Is this is good news for the local Catholic private school can expect a rush of 4000 new students? More likely the parents have no intention of leaving the Catholic system and are only responding to a threat to their historical privilege. But if the government doesn’t give in, will separate schools disappear by reduced demand alone?
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