Terahertz

Rob Johnstone of Winnipeg Manitoba has alcoholism and is trying to get help.

Unfortunately, Addictions Foundation of Manitoba requires recovering addicts to accept a higher power before they can proceed in their programs. Rob has a “faith-neutral” stance and would rather recover on his own then submit to a different vice. In fact, he was asked to leave AFM because he refused to submit.

Even worse, the AFM, which is a government-funded organization, still maintains that faith or religion is absolutely necessary to recover from addiction. Then, the CBC article quotes the Christian Salvation Army who also think religion is necessary.

Secular organizations have been established, including one in Toronto, that work to help people effectively manage their addictions, some were established through requirement from similar cases in California (I think).

Hopefully, a new organization can be established in Winnipeg, and most other Canadian cities, so people like Rob can get help.

Finally, the story has an attached poll that, like all very unscientific web polls, deserves to be exposed for how useless they are, and that there are a large numbers of secularists in this country.

This is unfortunate news.

Last month, Manitoba NDP MP Pat Martin blasted plans to spend $3 million of federal money on a Youth for Christ youth centre in his riding. His statements then were:

“I have no objection to faith-based organizations providing services. Sally Ann (the Salvation Army) and others have been doing a great job for years. But these people are evangelical fundamentalists," Martin said of Youth For Christ. "Offering much-needed sports opportunities is just their way of luring in young prospects."

He went on to quip: "Would the federal government be so willing to give them $3 million if they were called Youth for Allah?"

But now, with Winnipeg city council voting in favour of the project, Martin is pledging his support.

While I think this move came from a desire to see any sort of facility built for youth in his riding, it’s disappointing it has to come from a group that actively proselytizes and recruits youths for “faith journeys.”

Mayor Sam Katz had even more concerning comments:

"A lot of citizens do not believe we should be funding any faith-based organizations. Little do they realize, it happens every day," said Katz, who called Martin’s statements about Youth for Christ "unfortunate."

So a lot of people aren’t being listened to by our elected officials.

Democracy fail.

My only final question, why doesn’t Conservative MP Vic Toews use the word Conservative anywhere on his website? Ashamed much?

In about my second or third year at the University of Alberta, a referendum was held to charge students a fee to build a new Physical Activities Complex (PAC). The fee failed, in part because students of the day would be paying for a building to come and would also have no input on the design or operation of the facility.

Basically, most of us saw it as a grab by PhysEd students to make everyone pay for them to get a new building.

Well, PAC is back as PAW, but now the fee will only be put in place once the building is finished. Further, it looks like students will actually get a majority role in the makeup of the board of the building.

But there’s another key difference. PAW stands for “Physical Activity & Wellness” and in terms of “wellness” the supporters state the following:

Broad Scope of Wellness – The PAW Centre will combine new construction with renovations of existing facilities in order to address the broader idea of health and wellness. Physical, mental, and spiritual wellness concerns were identified and addressed in the design of the facility. This holistic approach will ensure the PAW Centre appeals to all students. [emphasis added]

So how will they address these spiritual concerns?

• Meditation/Yoga Rooms – special facilities will cater to rapidly-growing programs aiming to focus and relax the body and mind.
• Prayer Space – adequate space for prayer is critical to addressing the spiritual aspects of wellness for many students. The PAW Centre will address the space shortage for groups on campus that desire a large space to pray.

This reminds me of the news releases from the University of Toronto in 2005 when they were building a Multi-Faith Centre. The newly formed UT Secular Alliance, led then by now CFI Canada Executive Director Justin Trottier, opposed the creation of the building on the grounds that a secular university should not be dedicating money to the promotion of religion.

In the end the UofT still built the building, but the university did take secular worldviews into account and now includes a Humanist chaplain and a link to the UTSA.

Over a year ago the UofA agreed with the UofA Atheists and Agnostics that the school is a pluralistic secular institution and modified the convocation charge to include more humanistic elements and a sort-of opt-out of using your degree for God. The challenge for the UAAA this time will be to either outright oppose the creation of dedicated prayer space on campus – with student funds – or to demand space for Humanistic and secular world views.

While I am not longer at the school, I will be keenly interested in how this referendum goes, and what dialogue the UAAA can spark.

Dear Ivy Ash,

I read your article vilifying atheism [Leave religions alone, February 8] and I had to comment. Perhaps it is cowardly of me, but I chose to copy most your letter because you express unoriginal thoughts on a subject that is far more simple than you think. You’ll find I make no apologies.

There is a certain truth to what you’re saying. Graham Templeton is as bigoted as your postmodern relativism. His article reads as a blind attack at people. And there are Christians, Muslims, Jews, and even Wiccan atrocities. Yet there is actual substance to the critiques of religion that are being provided, and ad hominen attacks back and forth solve little. And it’s easy to conflate an attack on blind, irrational faith with one directed at the believers themselves.

There’s more to atheism, Ms. Ivy Ash (a funny name for a fundamentalist Wiccan – see that, we can all use useless ad hominens and oxymoronic terms to emotionally bias our readers) than just bigotry. There’s love, for one thing, and tragedy (those exist in every human). There’s critical thinking. There’s understanding that, as Richard Dawkins points out, without an understanding of the Bible, “you can’t understand English literature and culture.” But there’s also a greater subtlety to atheists critiques then you seem to comprehend. These include realizing that the Bible is a myth that was written and rewritten by human beings over long periods of time. It’s realizing that the ethnography of the Bible is more likely a fictitious myth, as no actual evidence that the events of Exodus exists. But you can throw a few more ad hominens in to ensure that if your shoddy arguments aren’t enough, you can at least make fun of us.

Now, lest you think I may be an atheist, I’ll tell you right now, I am. But I’m also more than that. I’m a humanist, a person who finds inherent worth in every person.I’m a naturalist, someone who accepts the scientific method as our greatest source of knowledge, and that method has yet to reveal any evidence of something beyond this world. And I’m a skeptic, someone who only accepts claims that are backed up by objective evidence. Our views have also survived Roman Catholicism’s widespread eradication efforts of the past, and present. And yet to this day, religious bigotry still targets atheists as immoral and subhuman.

Now we need to talk about the truth. Since you seem to believe in a postmodern, relativistic form of truth, in that whatever works for you is true, I think I ought to take a second to explain what’s behind the apparent aggravation of atheists (alliterations are always awesome). Atheists, in general, arrive at their worldview via a critical evaluation of the claims that are made by various proponents of the true faith. Similarly, when new evidence is presented, atheists are generally open to evaluating that evidence to see if there’s an inconsistency within their worldview. To date, there hasn’t been enough evidence for the vast majority of us to require supernatural explanations. If there’s anything the success of the sceptical scientific method has taught us, it’s that an objective truth does exist outside our minds (this keyboard I type on exists). Yet postmodernists are making intellectual war on the existence of objective truths in an attempt to destroy several hundred years of scientific progress. That is, progress that has led to the ability for you to write an article on your computer, email it to the Peak, and for it to appear within the hands of tens of readers within a week.

Now, I’ll be honest. I don’t have the highest esteem for theists. In fact, since most theists rank atheists the least trustworthy demographic, there’s evidence of a deep seated, and in this case hypocritical, bigotry. Why? Apparently in your case it’s partly daddy issues. Or as you admit more likely, you were raised with a bigoted view that sees belief in a god as necessary for a meaningful and moral life. Both of which are demonstrably false by the growing number of happy, fulfilled atheists across the world. Of course, we can all get annoyed by fools with whiny diatribes, but that by no means gives you the right to write off all atheists as assholes. I’m not about to declare all Wiccans as overly-sensitive hypocrites because of your piece.

Finally, who is it that you think you’re talking about? Who, exactly, are you preaching to? Obviously you are writing to Mr. Templeton and trying to publicly chastise him for writing such tripe, but 90% of the articles in The Peak are crap. More likely you feel you need a stage to showcase how progressive and accepting your Wiccan beliefs are. You try to save yourself a little at the end, by admitting there are “fine upstanding atheists who aren’t bigoted at all.” And I will agree that Graham’s (suddenly you’re on first name basis?) article was offensive, but you failed to define it as either hate-filled or hypocritical. Clearly, the only hate literature that’s appropriate in Canada is anti-atheist hate literature. Or perhaps, you might want to understand that free speech is still allowed in Canada, but hate literature, defined as literature that incites and advocates violence, is properly regulated.

Most sincerely, Ian Bushfield

P.S. Because you couldn’t fit enough ad hominens in the actual 958 word letter, you had to give us a pointless post-script.

A few quick stories of note recently:

• A whooping cough outbreak is occurring in the BC West Kootenay region because woo-woo parents think vaccines are evil and now their children are at risk of dying. And some people ask what’s the harm in letting people believe in alternative medicine.
• Speaking of unfounded woo, NDP MP Denise Savoie has claimed that evil “toxins” are to blame for NDP Leader Jack Layton’s recently diagnosed prostate cancer. Throw out the fact she doesn’t state what specific toxins cause cancer and implies all chemicals are evil. Perhaps cancer is more frequent now because we’re living longer and are better at detecting it.
• Further to the Jack Layton story, it’s commendable to see everyone setting aside partisanship to wish him the best for a speedy recovery.
• The BC Civil Liberties Association is rightly backing the right of University of Victoria’s Your Protecting Youth pro-life student group. While I disagree with the groups stance, they do have a right to exist and organize and pushing them aside is the wrong thing to do. If the group crosses the lines of civil discourse and propagates falsehoods, then there may be a case for disbanding them, but the same ought to apply to any and all campus groups.
• The Kamloops Atheists report that the local “Daily News” paper refused to publish any atheist material in their religion page since “the rest of the paper was for atheist material.” They subsequently didn’t publish the request article anywhere in the paper. Further they note that the Kamloops Christian School is teaching Biblical Creationism with equal time to the “theory” of evolution.
• Finally, to end on a positive note, the Centre for Inquiry Vancouver has just hired Radio Freethinker co-host Ethan Clow as their new Executive Director, making him the third paid CFI employee in Canada. I look forward to see continued success for CFI and wish Ethan the best of luck. Further to that, I’ve accepted a position as CFI Canada’s Campus Outreach Director, and hope to continue the success of the dozens of student groups across the country.

First, most atheist-blog readers have probably heard the story about the American military using gun sights with references to Bible passages on them in Iraq and Afghanistan. What Canadian readers may have missed was that our troops are also carrying an unspecified number of these sights in Afghanistan.

While this isn’t as constitutionally-questionable here as in the USA, it is definitely in really bad form to try to establish a democratic government in a predominantly Muslim country while carrying Christian-endorsed weapons.

Luckily it sounds like there is agreement within the Canadian military that the inscriptions ought to be removed (now hopefully they actually do before it insights further aggression against our soldiers).

Second, an anti-abortion group in Kelowna, BC (the bible-belt of the otherwise secular province) has gotten together to put the following (American religious) ad on local television, featuring the severed hand of an aborted foetus:

The ad ends with “May our hearts be broken enough for God to enter and stir us to action to defend their lives.”

I reluctantly support their right to show this ad, as free speech is a right that I generally support.

Nevertheless, the positive result here is that this made me realize that following the wildly successful atheist bus ads, we ought to target another venue, perhaps television (especially in a cheaper market like the BC interior which can still yield earned press) could prove equally fruitful.

Finally, to end positive, the Saskatchewan Skeptics have written a letter to Premier Brad Wall to declare February 12 as Darwin Day. Provincial and local proclamations are often made for special-interest groups, and there is precedent for Darwin Day proclamations. Unfortunately, February 12th marks the opening ceremonies for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, so I foresee very few proclamations being made on that date in this province.

Nevertheless, it may be a cause worth submitting to a few city councils and media outlets.

Update: I just saw an anti-abortion ad on A Channel Vancouver from “The Signal Hill” which provided a website that offers a lot of myths and outright lies about abortions. Although this one was not explicitly religious (and neither is their website), it still demonstrates the size of their budget base.

I’m not convinced about the structural integrity of wood versus cinder block, but BC premier Gordon Campbell thinks ultra-poor Haiti ought to have bought BC lumber:

“It’s interesting when you think, ‘what would Haiti look like today if that had been built with wood instead of cinder block?’” Campbell said in a speech to the Truck Loggers Association convention in Victoria. “And the fact is there’d be a lot of buildings that would still be standing.”

Meanwhile, a pastor in Surrey had this to say about the tragedy:

“Haiti is infamous for its voodoo spiritual darkness,” he said in comments tape-recorded by a parishioner. “I can’t help think that maybe God has shaken them, shaken them against the kingdom of darkness.”

Of course he claims the words our out of context, so let’s see a bit more of it:

Here’s the text transcript:

“We’ve got people on the ground right there in Haiti and it’s a wonderful way in which we can express tangibly the Lord Jesus in that situation.

“You know, just thinking about, ‘Why is all of this happening in Haiti, a very poor country?’ The country’s been shaken.

“Now probably some of you are aware that Haiti is infamous for its voodoo, its spiritual darkness, bleakness. I was kind of thinking maybe God has shaken that place, shaken that . . . shaken against the kingdom of darkness, maybe the light of Jesus will shine through and come out of the ashes.”

On the plus, his congregation did raise $6,500, although they don’t say who the money is going to.

Update:

DrPlatypusMan of YouTube has provided the context from the above talk. Seems like his case is pretty flimsy. Hatred, racism and bigotry are sometimes just that:

While it’s unfortunate that all of the “elders” are male (likely more to do with the few women who are making it into positions of power), it is phenomenal to see them explicitly call out the extreme sexism in many of the world’s leading religions (read the whole article).

So the Elders have spoken. Carter, Mandela, Tutu, Robinson and the others present a formidable counterweight to blind tradition. They are immensely respected for their achievements and their integrity. They say that they are fully committed to the realization of equality and empowerment for all women and girls. They call upon all leaders, religious and secular, to promote and protect those inalienable rights. Theirs is a powerful message.

Catholics, Baptists, Muslims and more are explicitly named by the group which includes Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and more.

The United Church allowed women pastors in 1936 but Stephen Harper’s Christian and Missionary Alliance had been debating the issue for over 20 years.

Is there really still a debate as to whether women are equal to men in society?

I placed fourth in Round 1 of the Religion and Philosophy section of the 2009 Canadian Blog Awards. Thanks to everyone who voted but the work is not done yet, as now begins Round 2.

I came in fourth of five qualifiers, and have taken a look at the competition.

I’m the only atheist on the list (Armchair Antichrist didn’t make it through), but Benedicton Blogs On and Pulpit and Politics are both liberal Christians who I likely have a reasonable amount of shared ground with. Benedicton writes exposés at Religious Right Alert and has frequently criticized Stephen Harper’s theocons. Meanwhile, P&P is written by former NDP MP Dennis Gruending.

However, leading the pack is the newer (his archives only go back to October) “Bible Journey” which is an anti-homosexual and anti-choice Christian website:

Another controversial passage of the Bible is the above — the passage where the Lord condemns homosexuality (lying with a man as you would lie with a woman). Sex being for marriage, it would be inappropriate to assume that God wants churches to support the marriage of same-sex couples of some of those more "progressive" "Christian" demoninations have done.

Despite the controversy of Leviticus 18, it’s still quite clear what we are to make of it…take it at face value. [Source]

Finally, we have Anglican Samizdat filling the fifth spot in the finalists. AS seems to have taken a shining to the denialist wave surround the manufactured Climategate controversy, and attacks a progressive Christian charity run by the Anglican and United Churches of Canada. He even takes to putting attack quotes as “Fanmail” on his sidebar. My favourite is the irony of a regressive Evangelical Christian making Douglas Adams references, considering Adams was both a “radical atheist” and an environmentalist.

Round 2 voting is open, and for the Religion and Philosophy section, I recommend myself (I do need my ego stroked), Benedicton Blogs On and Pulpit & Politics. Let’s keep the anti-science/human rights blogs out of the medals.

As for the political category of the Awards, I was eliminated in round 29 of 49. Of the top 10 Political Blogs, my picks are Daveberta, CalgaryGrit, and Buckdog (in no particular order).

Recently, I bemoaned about Paul Jubenvill’s attempts to start a Bible study group at his kids’ public elementary school in Surrey. Well as luck would has it he was “taken aback by the storm of controversy.” He has now withdrawn his human rights complaint, which is a little funny since he “didn’t even know what this tribunal was.”

Uh-huh.

Really, my only surprise in this story is that there was an uproar.

I think I fit in nicely here in Vancouver.

(h/t Religious Right Alert)

PS Alliterations are always awesome.