The Religious Extremism of New Atheists
I wrote a tiny blurb about this over a month ago. This one is much longer and leans heavily on solid arguments from many critics – letting their words speak…
religion
Canadian Ambivalence Towards Religion
A new Angus Reid poll underscores the changing, ambivalent nature of Canadian attitudes towards religion, but there are many things about the poll that concern me and make me question…
Fisk On Harper
It’s articles like this one that make you wonder if the Canadian media is telling you everything you need to know. (Seriously though, that’s plainly obvious.) If Stephen Harper is…
Conrad Black: Off the Rails
I generally read Conrad Black‘s columns for their entertainment value, but I also read them for the language. Black is the best tosser of pithy epithets since Spiro Agnew*. And…
The Homophobe and the Homeless
You might think that a church might be a safe place for homeless people to sleep. Considering how hard their lives are, and how little they have, and everything Jesus…
Don’t Be A Scared Tool
Here’s a song for radicalized Canadians to sing. I’m white and scared (clap clap) They want my guns (clap clap) And veils are wrong (clap clap) Except on nuns! (clap…
Republished: Religion poll is a waste of paper
My second (and last) editorial in The Gateway while at the University of Alberta, salvaged via the Web Archive. The paper had a policy where writers were forbidden from submitting…
Republished: The Christians are coming!
Another old article, this one a review of Marci McDonald’s 2010 expose on the influence of the Christian Right in Canadian politics. Still relevant given that Harper has since gained…
Stephen Harper: Racist AND a Hypocrite!
Just WHO should be covering up? I recall once that Stephen Harper believed in championing religious freedom. Except for people he doesn’t like. Now he’s appealing a federal court ruling…
Religion’s Twelve Deadly Sins
Alternet’s Valerie Tarico has written an insightful piece about 12-concepts, integral to organized religions, that “promote conflict, cruelty, suffering and death rather than love and peace.” First up is the…
A Devilishly Smart Pope
A DEVILISHLY SMART POPEOne of the books I'm reading now is John D. Barrow's 'The Book of Nothing'. The subject is a look at the concept of 'nothing', the void,…
A Devilishly Smart Pope
A DEVILISHLY SMART POPE One of the books I’m reading now is John D. Barrow’s ‘The Book of Nothing’. The subject is a look at the concept of ‘nothing’, the…
A Devilishly Smart Pope
A DEVILISHLY SMART POPE One of the books I'm reading now is John D. Barrow's 'The Book of Nothing'. The subject is a look at the concept of 'nothing', the…
On Words and Virtue
Scott Long wrote an excellent article separating the act of supporting free speech from the act of supporting the words and images created by Charlie Hebdo. But I disagree with…
What Christmas Means to Me. Again
It's Christmas Day, and although I'm an atheist, and I believe that our beautiful planet is our heaven and our hell.And that it's up to us to decide what world…
On Sex Ed, Double Standards, and the Red Herring of Consent
We discussed Erin Anderson’s article from Friday’s Globe and Mail in my philosophy class on Friday, and it provoked a whole gamut of topics. I’ll try to encapsulate some of…
Hate Crimes Against Non-believers Growing
We all know about the hate crimes religious believers commit against one another, against people of a different faith. It’s headlines news, almost daily. Protestants against Catholics. Sunnis against Shiites.…
Dr Katherine Hayhoe: A Climate For Change
Dr. Katherine Hayhoe, climate scientist, communicator, educator, and CCL science advisor, spoke at Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada’s Carbon Fee Prosperity conference last month. Dr Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist and…
Don’t mix me with them!
In these two videos , prominent non-believers Neil deGrasse Tyson and Sam Harris reject the denomination “atheist” as not only inaccurately portraying their views on the (non) existence of God,…
Absence of evidence and evidence of absence
It has been a while since my last blog post (yes, I love euphemisms). I have not been writing for the simple reason that I ran out of things to…