The New Age
I am thinking about this task I set before me. But what is this task? Every time I define it, I eventually realize that my solution is disconnected from life.…
religion
This New Year’s, Resolve to Stop Chasing Happiness
Many wisdom traditions encourage a path or process orientation rather than a destination or product orientation to living well. Happiness makes for a poor goal. It’s not particularly well-defined. What…
More Christmas books
For three years now, we’ve made it a tradition to sing Christmas carols every evening of advent. Some nights we read Christmas stories, and sometimes we watch Christmas movies as…
Religious Explanations Don’t Help Explain Tragedies. Or Crimes.
Sooner or later, after any incident in which a large number of people die, a preacher who thinks he has some sort of grand insight into human nature advances something…
A big reason why I’m an atheist…
is that I’m smarter than that. Only fools believe. Sorry if you are offended. But guys like these are your spokepeeps. 20 Children died because a fictional bogeyman has been…
An Atheist Celebrates a Secular Christmas in a Multicultural Canada
So why would a non-Christian celebrate Christmas. Well first of all from a religious point of view Jesus Christ is not just the Christian Messiah but also considered to be…
America’s Intolerant WBC Fundamentalists
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I watched this. laugh because Russell Brand* just runs circles around these guys from the Westboro Church and they don’t seem…
This is a cover version by Jock Mackay (with a few updated…
This is a cover version by Jock Mackay (with a few updated lyrics) of the underrated and relatively unknown John Lennon song “Serve Yourself”, which is a scathing attack on…
How to Survive the Mayan Apocalypse
How will anyone survive the “end of the world” predicted for December 21, 2012? Easy: by breathing. That’s because it won’t happen. That the Mayans never predicted it would seems…
Oh Dear Lord – Prayer in the PEI Legislature
A couple weeks ago I was asked to go sit in the gallery of the PEI Legislature, during Question Period, as a reminder to MLAs that folks from the ‘Stop…
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…
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…
Yes/no?
On a lot of specific things, opinions are a pretty binary yes/no or on/off kind of thing, especially when they come to identifying with labels. Are you a Liberal? How…
Shame: 61 million children not in school worldwide
Globally, 61 million children, most of them girls, are denied their birthright to education. They’re discriminated against, marginalized and exploited. Please click here to add your voice to millions around…
Predictions and Credibility
I find the current political air in Canada to be insufferably stupid. Despite there being excellent, professional journalists everywhere, there are many more time/space fillers who skew the public’s perception…
Lana Wachowski, Joe Simpson and our evolving social mores
The recent release of Cloud Atlas, piqued my interest in writing some thoughts about sexual identity. As has been fairly well publicized leading to the movie’s opening, Lana Wachowski (born…
Reasons to NOT Support Operation Christmas Child
It is that time of year, where people are talking about getting together shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. While I think it is great to try to give extra joy…
Who cares?
And why is this news? It is a prime example of the non-secular bias in our mainstream media. Hell, the news about Streisand wowing he crowd at Scotiabank Place last…
Saturday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to end your Saturday. – Jim Stanford looks in detail at the aftereffects of free trade with the U.S., and finds rather little to cheer: In sum, the…