Efforts to defend the separation of church and state in English Canada are already suffering as Quebec’s Charter of Secularism Values is used to argue that secularism is “exclusionary” or intolerant. The latest example comes from the City of Saskatoon, where the city is considering options for a prayer policy
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Terahertz: Atheist Freethinkers: Stop embarrassing yourselves
David Rand’s Quebec-based “Atheist Freethinkers” is positioning itself as an embarrassment to the Canadian freethought movement. Rand stands nearly alone in the debate in English Canada by supporting Quebec’s proposed Charter of Values. The Charter ostensibly proposes to officially declare Quebec a secular province but only does so by demanding
Continue readingTerahertz: Not my secularism
Critics of religion (such as myself) are sometimes not precise enough in our criticisms. We will sometimes lash out that the “moderate Muslims” don’t condemn fundamentalists enough or complain that liberal Christians only make space for creationists and anti-choicers (in both cases the truth is not difficult to find, for
Continue readingTerahertz: City of Windsor to raise the Christian flag… again.
I got a phone call this morning from Susan in Windsor, Ontario. Susan’s rightly infuriated that her city council is violating it’s own policy by raising the Christian Flag as part of the annual “March for Jesus” campaign, hosted by a local Christianist organization. The council’s policy on flag raising
Continue readingTerahertz: Atheist and Republicans
I haven’t had time yet to deal with a piece of nonsense from last week on Canadian Atheist. The arguments put forward by the Monarchist League of Canada are entirely secular. You might or might not find them more persuasive than the arguments put forward by republicans, but this is
Continue readingMusings on Canadian Politics: Soccer, Sikhs and multiculturalism in Quebec
Quebec’s Soccer Federation is going into hiding. The names and contact information of its board of directors have been pulled from the federation’s website. They’re refusing to talk to the media. Are they being accused of embezzlement? Did they steal children’s money? No, they’re refusing to allow Sikh kids to
Continue readingBoreal Citizen: Can reason and secularism protect kids from anti-science rhetoric (and build a better society)?
When it comes to teaching my kids about the world, I never assumed science would be a top priority. Yet these days I find myself spending little time focusing on language, instead opting for discussions about things like gravity, the solar system and human evolution. This is partly due to
Continue readingTerahertz: Religion, Politics, and Rex Murphy
Tomorrow, the Canadian polysyllabic pontificator Rex Murphy will be in Vancouver recording a live episode of Cross Country Checkup on religion in public life.. The Checkup is a long-time Canadian radio talk show, designed to spark dialogue across the country. To arrange my thoughts for the discussion, I sat down
Continue readingTerahertz: Safe and filthy sex
I did a quick interview this morning for a country music radio station in Abbotsford, which followed up on this story that ran in Vancouver’s 24 Hours yesterday. The story prompted the following email from a fan with an Ontario email address (a province that has recently bowed to pressure
Continue readingTerahertz: I get email: Bibles and Abstinence
Posted without comment. TO: Ian Bushfield—B.C. Humanist Association DATE: November 17–2012 FROM: Leonard R., Abbotsford, B.C. SUBJECT: Article in Abbotsford Times — Nov. 8–2012 The article states you have protested to the Minister of Education of B.C. about the free distribution of Bibles to Grade 5 students at various schools
Continue readingTerahertz: Radio Freethinker on Tuesday
Just a quick post tonight. On Tuesday afternoon, I’ll be on CITR’s Radio Freethinker show talking about all the latest news from the BC Humanists. The show runs for a full hour, so if you have ideas for what I should talk about, drop them below (obviously soon so that
Continue readingTerahertz: American Secular Stainless Steel Ring
Some of my most popular blog posts remains my rejection of the iron ring posts based on the religious references that I wasn’t allowed to strike. Every few weeks I get a new comment, typically a self-entitled engineer who feels like calling me names on the Internet. But the latest
Continue readingTerahertz: On the Simi Sara show
On Monday I did a brief interview about Christy Clark’s recent bible comments on 100 Huntley Street and the BC Humanist Association’s response. Ironically enough, the interview was on Clark’s old radio station, CKNW, with host Simi Sara. 1:30-1:40 CHRISTY CLARK’S RELIGION COMMENTS SPRARK CRITICISM FROM B.C. ATHEISTS Last week,
Continue readingTerahertz: Bible no basis for public policy, declare BC Humanists
BC Premier Christy Clark recently went on 100 Huntley Street and explained that she finds her courage to make tough decisions from what the Bible teaches (~5:30 mark in the video) This story prompted me to quickly throw together a press release with some input from the BCHA members. That
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Qualia Soup – Secularism
Qualia soup argues for secularism and its benefits to atheists and theists. Filed under: Atheism, Religion Tagged: Qualia Soup, Secularism, Secularism is good for society
Continue readingTerahertz: Vancouver’s Freethought Movement Grows
Today was a very good day. This morning the trend of increasingly successful BCHA meetings continued, with just over thirty humanists gathering at the Oakridge Seniors’ Centre for a discussion on Neuroscience and Memory. Four-year-old Addysen was perhaps one of the youngest attendees to one of our meetings yet –
Continue readingTerahertz: Prayers in Peterborough go to court
Canadian Atheist blogger Veronica Abbass has taken her opposition with the Peterborough city council’s practice of reciting Christian prayers to court. Her lawyer, Dan Mayo, is a Humanist Officiant and is active in the Humanist Association of Ottawa. A woman is taking the City of Peterborough to court over the
Continue readingTerahertz: CFI Canada skips critical thinking
Last week a story broke from Nova Scotia that a high school student was suspended for wearing a t-shirt that said “Life is wasted without Jesus”. The story went that the student wore the same shirt several days in a row (let’s assume he washed it or had multiple ones
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Globe and Mail Mis-Defines ‘Secular’
I’m happy the Globe and Mail is not responsible for defining words for us all. In the poll below, on its website tonight, we see them create a false choice about students wearing shirts at school that declare religious beliefs: freedom of religion versus secular public schools. Secular public schools
Continue readingTerahertz: Successful in Ottawa, Religious Right turns to Edmonton
My shortage in blogging lately hasn’t been for lack of topics. This past week has seen blow up and scandal plague Alberta politics, as the boobs come off the Wildrose bus. First, we have a compilation of quotes by Danielle Smith shaping her as a Christian Libertarian, then we have
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