Teletubbies Falwell Likes To Watch
If you’re old enough, and into American odd news, you’ll remember Jerry Falwell saying he thought the purple Teletubbie was gay. His son carried on in the family tradition of…
religion
The Talibangelist Conspiracy to Rule America and the West
Talibangelists (aka (aka the pseudo-Christian, far right) would love to force everyone believe in and obey their highly-adulterated pseudo-religion, and to punish those who don’t. Or won’t. Punishment is big…
Trump plays the god card
For a nation that allegedly separates church and state, Americans sure love to splash religion all over everything, their elections especially. So this week, Donald Trump made headlines by accusing…
Can an atheist be a good citizen?
The answer to the headline’s question is no, at least according to the late Catholic priest Richard John Neuhaus in a podcast in the Socrates in the City series (Sept.…
Is The Sask Party A Cult?
It’s hard to deny that the Sask Party could be a cult. I'm trying to think of a scenario where your Conservative supporters would not vote for your candidates. You…
The Gospel Of Thomas: A Key Text In World Religions & A Gateway To Mystery
The greatest scholar of world mythology, and one of the greatest scholars of world religion, Joseph Campbell, introduced me to the Gospel Of Thomas, and made clear its monumental…
On “Natural Religion”
Both deism and orthodoxy are cloudy. Experience, in terms of inner experience, outweighs both reason and so-called empirical evidence, since the former can conjecture or rationalize anything, and the latter…
Angkor Wat: Reflections On Our Modern World
~*~ Angkor Wat is the crown jewel of a 400 square kilometer set of temples and holy sites, set in the jungles of Cambodia. Built as a Hindu temple in…
Laying Waste To The Religious Right
A few brief thoughts for perspective: “Censorious scrupulosity” – Stephen Toulmin is as witty as he is brilliant. Make it viral (so to speak… Yikes, we will soon have to…
Happy New Year – We Are All Going to Die
Yes, we are all going to die and that’s it, the end. Except for the Christians, of course, they get to go to an afterlife of either heaven or hell.…
The War Against Holiday Diversity
They call it the War on Christmas, but in reality it is just an opportunity for a few people to get apoplectic, or is it apocalyptic, about the fact that…
Religious Tolerance on the Decline
Quebec’s Bill 21 which bans public teachers, police officers, government lawyers and other authority figures from wearing religious symbols at work has met vigorous criticism. Its critics claim it violates…
Left by the pope with a choice between glory to God and death to the carbon tax, what will Jason do?
Turns out you really can’t serve God and Mammon! Who knew? Tout le monde Conservative Alberta was reeling over the weekend at Friday’s news from Rome that Pope Francis, leader…
Time To Clear The Room With A Talk About Faith And God (Or My Lack Thereof)
I am about to break a rule. My Father always told me that bringing up religion or politics is great way to clear a room. Time to test that theory.…
Christmas – Whose Holiday is it Anyway
It is time for the annual discussions about the “War on Christmas” and putting “Christ Back in Christmas”, but whose holiday is it anyway. The Christians claim it as theirs…
Searching for Justice and Equality in Ancient Times
One of the classes I’m teaching these days is a secular Bible study class. I treat the Bible like a work of literature. We discuss the different historical periods and…
Reflections on Easter Sunday, 2018: There really is a war against Christianity … it’s being waged by Christians
PHOTOS: Easter Sunday shoppers at West Edmonton Mall. Is nothing sacred? Well, actually, something is: The Almighty Market, god of Canada’s state religion. Below: A brass idol to the Market…
Nellie McClung and the challenge of history
Up until a few weeks ago, if I was asked my impression of Nellie McClung I probably would have said “oh, she was that suffragette, right? The one people say…
What Christmas Means To Me. Again.
It's Christmas Day in Canada. Where I live and where I'm going everything is covered with a blanket of fresh snow, as it should be in the Great White North.And…