Much Ado About a T-shirt

The Ottawa Citizen appears incapable or unwilling to provide the religion experts with challenging questions.  The latest question concerns the wording on t-shirts worn to school.  The question is general but is inspired by the controversy about whether a Nova Scotia student was entitled to wear a t-shirt with the slogan, “Life Is Wasted Without Jesus” to school. The controversy is over but not for the Ottawa Citizen, it seems, because the question for this Saturday is “Should students be allowed to proclaim their religion on a T-shirt at school?”

As usual, Roman Catholic priest Geoffrey Kerslake takes the opportunity to quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which says,

The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in religious and moral matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of man. But the exercise of freedom does not entail the putative right to say or do anything (CCC, n.1747).

Reading the advice of a Catholic priest is always painful; however, the lack of clarity in the CCC sentence is equally painful.

For Rick Reed, a senior pastor at the Metropolitan Bible Church, the issue is not t-shirts but ideas:

I side with those who value freedom of speech when it comes to religious beliefs. Even on campus. Or I should say, especially on campus. School is meant to be a place where meaningful ideas are explored and expressed. If religious ideas are expelled from the discussion, our students are the losers.

Rabbi Reuven Bulka  points out,

proclaiming religion at school. It “offends” so many people, and makes them feel uncomfortable. Just as an aside, as often as I hear the words “I am offended,” I really have no clue what this means. If it is the sense of objecting, then why not just say — I object to this? To anger, displease, annoy, provoke, all are covered by this term, but to be offended, there needs to be an offence.

and goes on to ask,

What offence is there in a T-Shirt?

Good question! What would Bulka say to someone wearing the CFI t-shirt that proclaims “Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence”? Ask Kevin Smith; he shares a not uncommon encounter that took place when he was wearing a “godless” t-shirt:
Two years ago, while picking up some groceries, I was wearing one of my [favourite pro-atheist t-shirts] and became an unexpected participant in a brief war of the world views. A Goliath of a man, wearing a Bible Camp shirt, glanced at my godless garb. We locked eyes and he advanced toward me. Seconds before impact, he changed course, emitting a sound which I hoped was only a grunt.
Smith is fortunate that the sound was only a grunt or maybe a muttered insult.  Some people tend to get rabid when religion, any religion, is challenged.  Some people believe it is their “God given right” to be religious even if they can’t agree on which God or which religion to follow.

 

An Evening with William B. Davis

Centre for Inquiry Toronto presents:

“Words, words, words” Skeptics and Skepticism with William B. Davis

On August 23rd CFI is proud to present an evening with William B. Davis- author, skeptic and beloved character of the X-Files (The Cigarette Smoking Man).

Join us in an intimate setting as Bill explores the gritty realm of skepticism. How does a skeptic challenge a skeptic? Is it time to switch sides? Is it time to be Mulder instead of Scully?

When: Thursday August 23rd, 8pm

Where: The Bahen Centre of Information Technology Auditorium 1190 (40 St George Street)

How Much: $10

FREE for CFI Members

Click here to buy your ticket now (limited seating)

Members: Please email jwarner@cficanada.ca to reserve your space.

Zoltan the Adequate

Who is Zoltan the Adequate, and why do you need to know?

http://justadequate.com/zoltan.htm

 

 

 

 

Zoltan is a consummate street entertainer, performing bizarre geek magic tempered with more traditional magic trappings.

 

 

 

 

 

You need to know because

On August 9th, Centre for Inquiry Toronto presents an evening of discussion into the nature of being fooled, bamboozled, duped, and conned.  Our special guest for the evening will be Toronto Magician Andy Blau – Andy will fool you, delude you about how you were fooled, deceive you about that delusion, and then lie to you about the deception.  There will also be a demonstration of side-show stunts, comedy and laughs, a follow-up discussion with (hopefully) grand insights… all that plus a cash bar.  What more could you want?

 

Where: O’Grady’s Pub,171 College Street

When: Thursday August 9th, 7pm

How Much: FREE (Suggested $10 Donation)

 

 

 

 

CFI Canada: Resignations and Revelations

As promised, today brings another wave of resignations from Centre for Inquiry Canada. It must be clear that the Board of Director’s official statement was insufficient to prevent further haemorrhaging.

This morning CFI Vancouver Executive Director Jamie Williams resigned and was followed shortly by Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism (CASS) co-chair Michael Kruse. While Jamie didn’t discuss his reasoning openly in his email to the CFI Vancouver Google Group, Michael provided a detailed note on Facebook discussing his concerns.

In the note, Michael discusses his disappointment with the split in the board and his concerns that the branding project is now at risk. He had hoped for a more structured and professional CFI with a clear mandate. Instead recent events have put that possibility in jeopardy.

He also discusses his desire to found a new group dedicated to promote scientific skepticism outside of CFI. His group’s focus will irk PZ Myers-loyalists though:

…the promotion of atheism and secularism, a promotion that I value highly, is yet a hindrance to our attempts to promote scientific skepticism, and that an organisation that is committed to promoting critical thinking and science will be more successful if it has only that as a focus.

From what I had heard of the results of the branding process, CFI would have been dropping humanism and community building from its core mandate in favour of focussing on tackling winnable skeptical and secular issues. Despite the fact that this thoroughly refutes the accommodation-confrontation narrative, this also seems to be the direction that Michael is hoping to head in.

Locally though, volunteers are quickly following Jamie in the exodus. Treasurer, book club, and blood drive coordinator (and my wife) Sonia Milbradt has resigned. Each resignation was quick to acknowledge how much they valued our local community. The planned Solstice Potluck between the BC Humanists and CFI Vancouver will continue, as will December’s blood drive and book club.

Finally, from the comments on my big piece (and a follow up email with me), former board member Ian McCuaig revealed that Justin Trottier’s uncle and board member Lorne Trottier had promised to make a $100,000 donation to CFI Canada next year provided Justin could be given a position. While Lorne has been a substantial donor in the past, this new donation sounded conditional to Ian.

This reeks of corruption and nepotism. We expect this from churches, not from an organization dedicated to rationalism.

When the dust settles, the community will go on. While CFI Vancouver has lost a number of capable and dedicated members today, I am confident the Vancouver freethinking community will remain vibrant.

CFI Montreal gets some good press

In spite of the strife within the national leadership, local branches of CFI Canada are still pushing forward and putting on events.

CFI Montreal was featured in the Montreal Gazette yesterday in an article that talks about their bookclub and what they’ve been up to.

The truth is out there. It just might not be found at a church, near a crop circle, or in a dated X-Files reference. According to Jen Carmen, a good place to start is the Montreal Freethinkers Book Club. A discussion group associated with the local chapter of Centre for Inquiry Canada – an organization dedicated to promoting secularism, science, and critical thinking – the Club is ideal for those who, Car-men says, are "open minded, open to discussion, open to learning new things."

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Freethinkers+take+subjects/5770865/story.html#ixzz1ey0k90f5

The article makes the common mistake that CFI Canada ran the “There’s Probably No Bus Ads”. They’ve run the ad in Kelowna, but otherwise the Freethought Association of Canada was responsible for those ads.

Otherwise, it’s a good article and links to their book club’s meetup group: meetup.com/cfimontreal/

Reasonable Women Vancouver branches out

Edited: I made a couple errors in my original post. I’ve edited it accordingly below.

First off, I want to say that am posting this because I think it’s important news about the secular community in Vancouver. I really want to avoid hearsay, rumours, and any other gossip, especially directed at any of the groups involved. Everyone involved in this situation is still friends (as far as I know).

A couple months ago, CFI Vancouver created a discussion group for secular women in Vancouver. Their goal was to provide a safe place for women in skepticism to gather and talk.

Whether or not you agree with segregated meetups is irrelevant to this story.

Yesterday the organizer of the group, tentatively called Reasonable Women (RW) Vancouver, posted this to her Facebook page:

Reasonable Women:
We are no longer affiliated with CFI Canada, as of today. This changes some things for us when it come to financial support, organization of future events, recruitment of new members, etc. I think this is both a small set back and a great opportunity to help us redefine our goals, aims and procedures. As I stated at our previous meeting, we need to create something like a board of directors or a committee to help us manage Reasonable Women better. I would be in favour of an egalitarian, vote-based system, where all members participate.

I’m not sure the exact specifics that precipitated this change, but I think it had to do with a desire for greater autonomy for RW.

CFI has always had a corporate top-down structure. This helped it expand quickly, since a national strategy can be implemented, but it can be less responsive to local concerns. While CFI Vancouver has recently been very effective at promoting local community initiatives (with a number of successful meetups and events), those initiatives still fall within CFI’s branding and are expected to conform to the national vision. This can obviously lead to conflicts among freethinkers who each have their own goals and visions. The herding cats analogy comes quickly to mind.

While schisms like this can leave hurt feelings and frustrations, this may be a case where each group is better off focussing on their own goals. In some cases it makes sense for skeptics, humanists, atheists, etc. to pool our resources and work together, but in other cases it may be better to stick with what we’re each passionate about and try to not compete with one another.

There is also the chance that RW Vancouver can seek out support from other sources, or alternatively they can build their own membership base.

Change at the top

Big news from CFI Canada today:

To All CFI Canada Friends and Supporters,

The Board of Directors of Centre for Inquiry Canada is pleased to announce the appointment of Derek Pert as National Executive Director, effective immediately. We are excited to have Derek continue the outstanding work he has done in facilitating a new strategic plan and organizing the move to our new headquarters.

The Board would also like to announce that Justin Trottier, the former National Executive Director, is leaving CFI Canada to pursue other interests. We thank Justin for his commitment to the organization and for providing a voice for secularism and reason in Canada. We wish him success in future endeavours.

Carol Parlow MD, FRCPC
Chair, Board of Directors of CFI Canada

Justin Trottier had taken leave of his position as CFI Canada Executive Director to stand as a candidate for the Green Party of Ontario in the upcoming provincial election. Now it looks like that leave has been made permanent. It’s really hard to tell from this message whether the feelings were mutual.

Many volunteers, including myself, have grumbled at some of Trottier’s more controversial positions, but CFI Canada wouldn’t be where it is today without him. After great success with the University of Toronto Secular Alliance, Trottier founded CFI Ontario and pushed it onto the national stage. His determination has forced the much older (both in terms of length of existence and demographics) humanist organizations that they’ll need to step up their games to continue. CFI’s rapid expansion put pressure on many local humanist groups, with some dividing and others folding into new CFI branches.

It’s not clear yet what direction Derek Pert will take CFI Canada over the next few years. I haven’t met him personally yet, but look forward to some new ideas from him.

Give early, give often

Rumour has it that CFI Canada is doing pretty well on their quest to raise $300 000 by the end of the September. You’ll recall that if they reach that target, an anonymous donor is promising an additional $200 000.

This half-a-million dollars will go a long way to supporting freethought in Canada. CFI will obviously benefit, but even smaller groups will gain notoriety from access to the increased resources of a central organization.

For key cities, those with the donor base to support it, physical venues will be established. Every small meetup will have one central location in their town where 100% of the people through the door will be their target audience.

But there’s still a ways to go in this goal.

So think bigger. A one-time donation of $50 or $100 helps, but contributing $25 or more per month can go a long way to ensuring the sustainability of freethought in Canada. Just think of it this way: if you’d donate $5 at a meeting every week to help cover the costs of the space, why not guarantee that money, giving predictability to the budgets of your favourite organization.

And, as an added bonus, every Canadian resident can claim those donations on their taxes. Everyone wins!

Finally, when Canadian atheist organizations have enough money to operate, I can stop pimping out this blog asking you all for money.

Vancouver Book Clubbing

Wow, it’s actually been almost an entire year since I last posted about the book club I co-host with my wife Sonia in Vancouver.

It’s been a good year though. We’ve done a book every month

So far we’ve covered:

  • Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  • The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence Krauss
  • The Armageddon Factor by Marci McDonald
  • The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris
  • 36 Arguments for the Existence of God by Rebecca Goldstein
  • Elbow Room by Daniel Dennett
  • Charlatan by Pope Brock
  • Mistakes Were Made by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson
  • The Purity Myth by Jessica Valenti
  • Three Cups of Tea by Ted Mortenson
  • The Atheists Guide to Christmas
  • Contact by Carl Sagan

Continue reading

CFI to establish physical centres in all Canadian cities!

with your help that is.

Centre for Inquiry Canada has just announced that it has a donor who is willing to put forward a fifth-of-a-million dollars (Canadian dollars even!) if CFI can raise another $300,000. That would total half-a-million dollars, enough to lease or buy physical locations for each of their centres in Canada.

Even if you’re not the biggest fan of CFI, these physical centres will benefit the entire freethought movement. Local groups, as is the case in right now Toronto, will have a sympathetic landlord who will either rent at a reduced or complimentary rate.

So go and donate now, and again, and get your friends to donate to the Next Big Step campaign.

The deadline is September 30th, so there’s not a lot of time to reach this goal.

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