A Manitoba Freethinker

The Non Believers Beliefs

2011-08-17T20:49:00.000-05:00

Winnipeg just had it's second annual MASH film festival. NO, there was no Radar or Hawkeye. MASH is the Manitoba Atheists, Skeptics and Humanists. One of the films presented was made by Scott Carnegie and Gem Newman of the Winnipeg Skeptics.

I also made an appearance in here.

Rebecca Watson and the Elevator of Doom!!!

2011-07-04T21:42:00.000-05:00

Aka How to blow something way out of proportion in the most ignorant way possible.

By now most people in the Atheosphere have heard of the huge flame war going on over Rebecca's comments, male privilege and feminism. As usual, I am probably one of the last to comment on this. So here is the back story as I understand it.

I actually watched the video Rebecca posted to her blog that contained this incident. In amongst 4 or 5 other points she squeezed in this story of how when in Dublin she was approached by a stranger while in an elevator and invited back to his room for 'coffee'. She said, as a note to guys, that this was creepy and that they shouldn't do stuff like that. I completely agree with that. Inviting anyone you don't know/just met back to you hotel room for any reason is a bit on the creepy side and does not make a good first impression.

Some people who watched this video picked up on that one point and totally blew things out of proportion. At her next speech she used this episode as an example of some of the difficulties that still exist in the atheist movement when it comes to women. She also quoted and used the name of one of the more vitriolic of posters. Many people didn't like the fact that she refered to the poster by name and not 'some person'. Too bad. Many blogs, especially in the atheosphere, have disclaimers that anything you post there can be used againt them for ridicule. This is mostly for deranged Christians, but can be used for anyone.

It both saddens and angers me to see how badly this has all been blown out of proportion. In my view, there are a lot of people out there that really need to get out from behind the keyboard and experience some of the real world. Rebecca said and did no wrong with this.

Oprah's Finale

2011-05-27T13:27:00.001-05:00

Well, the Oprah show is now officially over. She has been much derided in the skeptic/atheist blog sphere for some of her beliefs. One also has to acknowledge, however, that she has done a lot of good in the world too. By publicizing things like diseases, disorders and discrimination she opened our eyes and probably saved a few people in the process.

By bringing on people with various medical and mental disorders, which many people would have otherwise been "too polite" to talk about, Oprah helped many people see that they are not alone in their suffering. She gave names to their disorders and, through recognizing their symptoms and going to a doctor, she no doubt helped save some lives.

I have known gay people since the early 90's. I have had no problem with them and have openly supported their rights. Oprah did a show where she interviewed parents of gay people. In it the parents said they noticed differences from a very early age. It was because of that show that it really hit home with me that they are "born that way".

And of course there is Barack Obama's election. Sure he was following an immensely unpopular and incompetent predecessor, but we can't deny the Oprah effect in his election.

I have to admit that I was never a huge Oprah fan, being on too early in the day to consistently catch it. That said, I did watch it when I could. My interest rapidly dropped off in the last half of her run when it seemed that she stopped trying to help people on a personal level and started trying to help them on a spiritual level. In her last show she once again got all preachy, crediting god for much of her success. She even got in a jab about prayer in school, mentioning that when she was going to school she was often the invocation leader.

I guess she had not heard of the terrible discrimination that Damon Fowler went through in Bastrop Louisiana. Oprah championed African American rights, she championed Women's rights and she championed Gay rights. I wonder, if she was to stay on the air, if she would have done a show on Damon. I highly doubt it.

Good bye Oprah.

Are You Rapture Ready!!

2011-05-21T07:14:00.000-05:00

This will probably be my last post. Today is the Rapture, where at 6pm local time god will suck up all of his faithful minions into heaven. Hmmmm, on second thought, I'll probably still be here.

As such, I would like to offer some advise to help others make the trip up to heaven.

Rapture ready tips

It is said that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter heaven. As I won't be going, quickly get in touch with me and I will graciously tell you how to wire all of your money to me.
Being sucked up to heaven is no easy task. If you get stuck on tight fitting clothes you might get left behind. So wear loose fitting clothing today. Better yet, go NAKED.
To help god with that gravity thingy, at 6pm sharp TAKE A FLYING LEAP.

This has been a PSA from the Atheist Avatar

Bin Laden is Dead - Hallelujah !!

2011-05-02T20:35:00.000-05:00

Osama Bin Laden is dead. Awesome!!

I personally think this is great news, something to celebrate. Many people in America and around the world would agree. However I have read a few blogs that seem to think that to celebrate the killing of someone like Bin Laden is a bad thing. They They seem to think that we are lowering ourselves to the level of the terrorists. They look at the Americans celebrating at the White House when news of this broke as being equivalent to the celebrating of people in many Muslim countries after 9/11.

I think that is a pile of horse shit. As I have said before, I don't believe in any sort of sanctity of human life. I believe that the value of a persons life is based on their actions. If they treat other peoples lives as worthless, then their life should also be seen as worthless. Bin Laden masterminded the events of 9/11. He purposely killed innocent civilians. We went in and killed him. These actions are not equivalent. They do not lower us to his level. If we were to lower ourselves to his level we would have nuked the compound and killed not only him but all of the innocent people in the surrounding city.

As for the celebrations, they were celebrating the killing of innocents, we were celebrating the death of a mass murderer. These are nothing alike. People who get their morality from a Batman movie really need to get out more and experience the real world.

Earth Day 2011

2011-04-22T16:01:00.000-05:00

It's Earth Day 2011.

I have just read an article from The Globe and Mail about David Suzuki and some of the mistakes he thinks the environmental movement has made. He thinks that the three biggest mistakes have been underestimating big corporations and their willingness to sink money into disinformation, marginalizing the message with special interest political groups like the Greens, and not spending enough time educating children. He leaves out what I think is the biggest mistake of all, The cost to the average person and the resulting guilt trip that we are put on.

Lets face it, most of the 'green' products out there cost more than the non-green items. Light bulbs, food, cars, they just cost more. And when we don't buy green, we are made to feel like we are bad people intent on destroying the earth. What bullshit!!!

Don't think the almighty dollar comes first? Here are some analogies. Manufacturing on this continent has had a heavy blow dealt to it in the last 30 years. Why? Because we like our products cheap. We are willing to ship jobs overseas just to save a buck or two. Want more? A 2l bottle of pop costs $1.20. A similar size bottle of milk is around $3. That is a big difference. Many people who have to budget will short change their own kids health and but the pop just to balance their budget. If they are willing to do that to their own kids, do you really think they will spend more to save something as ethereal as "the environment"? Remember beta was better but VHS won because it was cheaper.

If the companies that made these green products really cared about the environment they would have them sell for less than the regular "dirty" stuff. Profiteering has been the really big killer of environmentalism. Government programs to make these products more affordable more often lead to increased cynicism by the general public. I mean really, if I can't afford a $35,000 hybrid car, rebating $2000 really doesn't make it more affordable. There are also programs to upgrade your home insulation levels, but you have to have the money up front. Let's not forget the underlying message that goes with these programs, that if we don't take advantage of them, if we continue to pollute, that we are bad people. My big response to this is "Go Fuck Off! Take your environment and shove it".

This is not to say that I don't care about the environment. I own a snow shovel, not a snow blower. I own a reel mower, not a gas mower, and I do walk/bike/bus to work. I do what little I can with what little I earn. So unless I get a raise, or one of these obviously rich environmentalists gives me money, I won't be upping the insulation in my house, buy a car made after 1995 or put expensive solar panels on my house.

So what is the environmental movements biggest mistake? Assuming that everyone can afford their overpriced solutions.

Atheists get out and vote!!

2011-04-18T20:58:00.000-05:00

In the Winnipeg Free Press today, The View from the West

Praying for Pols who care

This piece is written by the Press' faith writer and obvious Christian. He feels that everyone is asking the "politicians what can they do for me?" He also feels that not enough is being done to challenge politicians on issues that are important to the church. Issues like poverty, peace and human smuggling. We already know how to reduce or eliminate these things. Unfortunately the answers are ones the churches don't like and the politicians are too jaded to enforce.

The answers, of course, is to implement or strengthen women's rights, especially reproductive rights. Empowering women in this way will also increase their value in society, reducing or eliminating things like female infanticide. It will also bring about peace, after all, if there are no single women in your area, blowing yourself up for a virgin in paradise seems like a deal. Access to birth control and abortion services will not only reduce the population, but it will free up women to earn a living.

The article encourages Christians to get out and vote in this upcoming election, so I will do the same for atheists. Please get out and vote. I don't care who you vote for, just please don't vote for a party that most likely has creationists and other evangelical crazies in it.

What's in a Word - Part 3

2011-04-16T18:50:00.001-05:00

Well, PZ Myers is at it again over at Pharyngula. He is announcing his hatred of "Dictionary Atheists". What is a dictionary atheist? It is someone who, when asked, denies that atheism means anything more than just a non-belief in any deities. I tend to be in that group. There are other groups out there that many atheists belong to that actually have an implied meaning, a philosophy, like the humanists and secularists. The arguments were raging in the comments as atheists tried to avoid being herded into one way of thinking or another. Then PZ wrote this comment and his argument finally made some sense to me.

Another way of looking at his comment would be to look at the swastika. The swastika has been widely used in many cultures around the world, it's shape though to derive from the practice of basket weaving. In the Eastern cultures the swastika is a holy symbol and widely used as a good luck charm. In the west, however, thanks to the actions of Hitler and the Nazi party, it has become the symbol of ultimate evil. What would it take to rejuvenate the swastika in Western society? It would take an awful lot of people working transparently doing good for a very long time, all the while having to battle a small but very vocal group opposed to the idea.

This analogy, while being probably the most extreme, is exactly what atheists face...in the USA. Thanks partly to the likes of Stalin and Mao, but mostly to Mc Carthy, atheists in the US are stigmatized as "cold, anti-American communist". This is were I think most of the problems arise in PZ's argument. He forgets that his blog is read worldwide and that atheists in other parts of the world don't face this stigma. Being in Canada, I have never felt this baggage put on the word. From commenters in his blog, it would seem that many Europeans are in the same boat.

In the end, what will it take to rejuvenate the term "atheist" in the US? A whole lot of people doing a whole lot of good things all the while being out as atheists. There will be a small but vocal group opposed to this makeover, but I don't think it would be as insurmountable as making over the swastika. It will not come from squabbling in blogs about the meaning of the word.

Manitoba chief makes appeal to Pope

2011-03-24T20:31:00.000-05:00

I saw this in the Free Press today

Manitoba chief meets with Pope to discuss water woes

My first thought was "What the fuck!!" What does the Pope have to do with anything. He is not Canada's leader. He didn't sign treaties with them as the British crown did. So why are they going to him? Canada isn't even a predominantly Catholic country ( and the protestants are loosing out too ). Were they there to offer up some more children for the priests? Do they really think the church is going to do anything, seeing as how the natives succesfully sued the church for the residential school/ orphanage fiascos.

Or maybe they are just trying to make good PR for the both of them.

Catching up

2011-03-07T21:40:00.000-06:00

Well, I am finished my garage for now (still have to mud and paint the drywall, but when it is warmer out). There has been a fair bit that I have missed out in commenting on, the usual priests behaving badly, Harper behaving badly and dictators in the middle east getting called out for behaving badly. Where to start up again.

I think I will start with my previous post, the one with Sarah Palin and the gun. In January some nut with a gun shot, wounded and killed several people in in Tuscon Arizona. As one of them was a Democrat, this led to the speculation that all of the extreme rhetoric that is now present in American politics caused someone to act out on it. There were many calls to tone down this rhetoric.

As it turns out, the shooter was just insane, possibly suffering from paranoid delusions. He would have targeted anyone in power regardless of their political stripe. This is sad, and perhaps a bit unfortunate. It is unfortunate because now Americans think that the extreme rhetoric may go on unabated. They think it has no consequences. Combine this with the American supreme court reaffirming free speech rights, specifically the rights of the Westboro Baptist Church to continue picketing funerals and we have a recipe for disaster.

Blogs of American atheists all rejoiced at this decision, saying we should never censure speech. I disagree. As I have stated before, hate speech can be a very powerful tool to recruit and organize killing sprees. It really needs to be eliminated. When the American constitution was being written, free speech was mostly limited to whomever was immediately in front of you. It took time to travel and was debated along the way. If it wasn't a very good idea, it would die in transit, limiting it's exposure. They didn't have radio or TV. They didn't have YouTube or Twitter. I am positive that if they were to be brought to the future to see what is happening, and how quickly an idea can spread, they would go back and add some caveats to free speech.

Yup, I am more than convinced that the USA is setting itself up to get it's ass bit by it's liberal free speech.

War on Christmas takes an ugly turn

2010-12-24T13:42:00.000-06:00

This just in, when asked if he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal saviour, Rudolph replied "No, Santa is my saviour." What happened next was unspeakably horrible, too horrible for me to even blog about. Let's just say that it will be a very unhappy Christmas in foggy areas.

Weird or stupid

2010-10-20T22:29:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I just saw the latest episode of Weird or What? and am now a little sorry for so enthusiastically endorsing it. This episode has a segment on coincidences. An off duty nurse saves a kid at baseball game, then seven years later the kid saves the nurse at a restaurant.

They have three 'experts' on to try and explain this. The first one is a statistician. He explains that while the chance of something like this may be in the billions to one, when you factor in all of the two people combinations you rapidly reduce those chances to about one third. I'm sure that including the fact that, while we are very mobile today, most people do not travel too far from where they grew up. This will increase the likely hood of two people running into each other again.

I had my own weird or what moment like this too. A friend of mine gave up her child for adoption. The agency that did this places the child in an 'adoption halfway house', just in case the mother changes her mind. The next day a co-worker of mine tells us that his family are taking in a child temporarily for their neighbors. Yes!!! It was my friends kid.

So anyway, the next 'expert' is a psychologist. He babbles on (no I'm not biased, really) about synchronicity and how the forces of synchronicity are invisible to us, like magnetism.

The third 'expert' is what really got to me. He is a physicist. He postulated that their double meeting has something to do with quantum entanglement. How the hell did he get a degree in physics being that stupid. Quantum entanglement deals with particle pairings, not whole people pairings. Entanglement ends when the wave function is collapsed, and a human being is a large quantum wave collapse. If this was a 'new age' guy I probably would not have written this, but a physicist. What a joke.

In my opinion the statistician is the one who is right. Most people don't know stats well enough to factor in everything. They figure "Wow, that's crazy man" as equal to highly improbable. With 6.7 billion people on the planet and rising, weird things are more probable than most think.

Benoit Mandelbrot dead at 85

2010-10-16T21:19:00.000-05:00

Benoit Mandelbrot, the mathematician who developed the beautiful field of fractal geometry has died of pancreatic cancer in Cambridge Massachusetts. I did some self study of the subject back in the 80's, even wrote some simple code to draw a Mandelbrot set (picture above) on an early computer of mine.

Ahhh, if only the great minds could live on forever :(

Another Joke

2010-09-22T20:54:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm still building my garage, should be done in another month. For now I will post this little joke I was sent. The little kid is wise beyond his years, but he should be careful considering who he is talking to :)

A little boy got on the bus, sat next to a man reading a book, and noticed he had his collar on backwards. The little boy asked why he wore his collar backwards. The man, who was a priest, said, 'I am a Father..'

The little boy replied, 'My Daddy doesn't wear his collar like that.' The priest looked up from his book and answered, ''I am the Father of many.' The boy said, ''My Dad has 4 boys, 4 girls and two grandchildren and he doesn't wear his collar that way!' The priest, getting impatient, said. 'I am the Father of hundreds', and went back to reading his book.

The little boy sat quietly thinking for a while, then leaned over and said, "Maybe you should wear a condom, and put your pants on backwards instead of your collar."

9/11 - Burn Baby Burn

2010-09-11T06:09:00.000-05:00

I have been bothered lately by some hypocrisy surrounding Islam lately. Some high ranking people have come out to support the building of an Islamic center in New York. This is good. Then some of these same people have now condemned Terry Jones for wanting to burn a Koran, this is hypocrisy. There is no fundamental difference between the two. Muslims in New York bought some property and, provided they meet zoning bylaws, are free to do with their private property whatever they want. It is a free country after all. Pastor Terry Jones has some Korans in his possession, I will assume they were not stolen. That makes them his private property, and if he wants to burn them that is his right in a free country. Of course the more troubling thing is...

Why is this news!!!!!

This is a small town pastor of a congregation of 50 people in a country of 300 million people.

Why is this news!!!!!

It is news because news agencies are not content to just report news but now also want to make it. They feel that the tabloids have had their niche market to themselves long enough. How do Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan find out about the goings on of small town USA. They find out because the news media have blown this all out of proportion. The news media, especially in the west, want to have footage of Muslims protesting and burning flags and effigies. It makes it that much easier to sell the message that all Muslims are childish, insecure and barbaric people that need to be feared. In reality it is only a handful of men from these backwards countries that are like that ( funny how they have no problem burning the American flag, something some Americans feel is sacred, but are all up in arms about a Koran burning. Turnabout is fair play.)

Both issues have really been media fabricated news. The art of reporting has been lost to the art of story telling.

And the insanity continues...

Weird or What?

2010-09-01T22:26:00.000-05:00

There is a new show on the History Channel called 'Weird or What?' It weird events and tries to explain them in scientific ways. I think it is a fantastic show. A good companion to 'Mythbusters'. I even learned something new on it's first show, megacryometeors.

But of course the best part of the show is the choice of host. It is William Shatner! I think he is super cool awesome and a great choice for the show.

"Mosque" at ground zero

2010-08-19T21:05:00.000-05:00

Now I know this is not a Canadian story, but I felt that I not only have enough information to weigh in on this now, but that I should.

My first intro to this topic was Pat Condell’s scathing video criticizing the decision to build “a mosque at ground zero”. I could see where he was coming from and I agreed with him. We’ve all seen the news footage of Muslims in Europe, especially in the UK, in massive protests denouncing western values like free speech, trying to bring in Sharia law and encouraging terrorism. All of this is organized through the mosques and the imam’s running them. I could see this as the Islamic community thumbing their noses at the West, and I could see this as being very insensitive to the families of 9/11 victims.

That said, as I have continued reading about this I have learned much more about the situation. First and foremost … This is not a mosque!!! It is going to be more like an Islamic community center. Yes it will have a couple of floors for prayer space, but it will also have a gym facility amongst other things. Not only that, but this will be replacing an already existing facility that is only four blocks away from “ground zero”.

The thing that finally changed my mind on this, however, has been the rhetoric from the right wing of America. They have not only come out against it, but now some are calling for a complete ban on building mosques in the US. In fact the attacks are so severe sometimes and the facts so distorted that it is beginning to remind me of another event that happened some 70 odd years ago. I just hope this Islamic center won’t have glass windows; it will make it less hazardous when the US decides to have its own Kristallnacht. I can not agree to let history repeat itself, even if the intended target is different.

Christopher Hitchens and Death.

2010-08-06T22:07:00.000-05:00

Christopher Hitchens was on Anderson Cooper's 360 recently talking about his fight with cancer.

I think the thing that I agreed with the most is his statement that if we hear of a deathbed conversion to religion that it was because he was not lucid anymore, succumbing to the pain or the drugs.

My Uncle was in WWII on the Russian front. He was 'drafted' by the Germans. He ended up spending a large amount of time in a Russian POW camp, not getting out until the '50s. When he returned home he claimed not to believe in god anymore. After seeing what he saw, what people did to each other, he could no longer believe in a loving god. I don't know how strong his conviction was as later in life, when he was dying of prostate cancer, he had a deathbed conversion. I do not know whether he was just hedging his bets or if he was delirious from the pain or drugs. I know this won't happen to me.

My deconversion was not an emotional one like my uncle's. Mine was a thought out rational deconversion. I would like to think that I would not succumb to a deathbed conversion myself, but that's where another thing Christopher said comes in to play. He said

I can’t say that the entity that by then wouldn’t be me wouldn’t do such a pathetic thing, but I can tell you that, not while I’m lucid, no.

This of course brings in to question the whole mind/brain argument and what it means to be "Me" (another post or three). I totally agree with him that if my brain is so addled by pain or drugs, I would cease to be "Me" and would be someone else. "Me" is definitely an atheist for life.

Construction Season

2010-08-06T22:06:00.000-05:00

As you can see, I haven't been posting lately. This is because it is construction season in Winnipeg. We commonly complain that we have only two seasons here, winter and construction. Well, I am building a new garage and am trying to get it done before our next season, so I will probably be posting even less than I usually do for the next couple of months. I apologize for any inconvenience.

The Galaxy Song

2010-07-15T19:37:00.000-05:00

Well, my Mom sent me another email with this video. This is the first time I heard this song and I think it is absolutely brilliant. So now, for some light entertainment here is Eric Idle.

Alberta prisoners decode the bible.

2010-07-13T19:56:00.000-05:00

Bible used to sell hash in prison - Winnipeg Free Press

Well it seems that an inmate at a prison near Red Deer Alberta soaked a bible in hash oil and was selling pages of it to the other inmates. I guess they found a different type of salvation in the bible. Or we could say that they found some true meaning in the bible; that it doesn't say that we should stone sinners, but that sinners should get stoned.

More on Hate Speech

2010-07-12T22:04:00.000-05:00

To silence the hate, speak out against it - Winnipeg Free Press

Dan Lett talks about hate speech and how the law against it is being applied unevenly. Based on the examples he gives I would have to agree with him that it is being applied in an uneven manner. Unlike him, though, I think it should be more vigorously enforced.

One could say that the law on first degree murder is being enforced unevenly, thanks in most part to plea bargains. This does no mean that we scrap the law. It is needed for a reason. In the same way I think the hate law in Canada is needed. I truly believe that, if Germany had hate laws like ours, the holocaust might not have happened. Instead of preaching hatred, Hitler would have been in jail. Likewise, the Rwandan genocide would not have happened. In the days leading up to the massacre hatred was built up on the radio. If they had properly enforced hate laws, these people would have been in jail instead of running around with machetes.

Having a different opinion is one thing, inciting hatred of a group is quite the other. If you combine one part hate speech, one charismatic speaker, and the urban legend that "if one person dares to speak it there are 10 others who silently believe it" and you end up with a bloody mess. I have agreed with Karl Popper's statement on tolerance long before I read about him. To silence hate, you not only have to speak out against it, you have to enforce the law.

Book Review - American Fascists

2010-07-08T21:18:00.000-05:00

If you are looking for a good horror book put away Stephen King and pick up this book by Chris Hedges. This book is an incredible look at fundamentalist Christians in America and their growing influence in American politics.

Chapter one starts off with a quote from philosopher Karl Popper,

Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.

I so agree with this statement and will now have to read up on Karl Popper.

The rest of the book outlines how America is slowly becoming a fascist state by using Chris's experience as a foreign correspondent to compare how fascism has built up in other areas. He details how these "Christians" are using nationalism and the 'unassailable' figure of Jesus Christ to slowly turn public opinion to where they need it. All they need now is some big national crisis, like a depression or another major terrorist attack. They have infiltrated the military, politics and broadcast media. Be very afraid.

Of course, not living in the States I have no real idea how much of this book is straight forward and how much is inflated hype to get more book sales. Chris has had some controversial views as of late which might make him seem as a bit of a scare monger. That said, I am continuously reading tidbits of the same stuff in atheist blogs all the time.

After reading this book I get the feeling that we are like 1930's Germany. I think it is high time that we take a more serious look at these "funamentalist" organizations.

The Copenhagen Declaration on Religion in Public Life

2010-06-29T19:22:00.001-05:00

The following was posted on Pharyngula. It comes from the World Atheist Conference in Copenhagen from June 18-20th this year.

We, at the World Atheist Conference: "Gods and Politics", held in Copenhagen from 18 to 20 June 2010, hereby declare as follows:

We recognize the unlimited right to freedom of conscience, religion and belief, and that freedom to practice one's religion should be limited only by the need to respect the rights of others.
We submit that public policy should be informed by evidence and reason, not by dogma.
We assert the need for a society based on democracy, human rights and the rule of law. History has shown that the most successful societies are the most secular.
We assert that the only equitable system of government in a democratic society is based on secularism: state neutrality in matters of religion or belief, favoring none and discriminating against none.
We assert that private conduct, which respects the rights of others should not be the subject of legal sanction or government concern.
We affirm the right of believers and non-believers alike to participate in public life and their right to equality of treatment in the democratic process.
We affirm the right to freedom of expression for all, subject to limitations only as prescribed in international law - laws which all governments should respect and enforce. We reject all blasphemy laws and restrictions on the right to criticize religion or nonreligious life stances.
We assert the principle of one law for all, with no special treatment for minority communities, and no jurisdiction for religious courts for the settlement of civil matters or family disputes.
We reject all discrimination in employment (other than for religious leaders) and the provision of social services on the grounds of race, religion or belief, gender, class, caste or sexual orientation.
We reject any special consideration for religion in politics and public life, and oppose charitable, tax-free status and state grants for the promotion of any religion as inimical to the interests of non-believers and those of other faiths. We oppose state funding for faith schools.
We support the right to secular education, and assert the need for education in critical thinking and the distinction between faith and reason as a guide to knowledge, and in the diversity of religious beliefs. We support the spirit of free inquiry and the teaching of science free from religious interference, and are opposed to indoctrination, religious or otherwise.

Adopted by the conference, Copenhagen, 20 June 2010.

Please circulate this as widely as you can among people and groups who advocate a secular society.

I fully agree with the above and post it here to show my support for the statements.

World Religions Summit in Winnipeg

2010-06-22T21:03:00.000-05:00

Summit puts Winnipeg in big leagues - Winnipeg Free Press

the Winnipeg summit is the largest since the world's religious leaders began meeting in 2005, with over 200 delegates and observers from 21 countries and seven major faith traditions.

Wow, so many religious people here in Winnipeg. What are they here for?

Their goal is to issue a statement calling on the G8 to fulfill the Millennium Development Goals affecting the world’s most poor and vulnerable; to ensure concrete and sustainable progress is made in the areas of eradicating poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and global partnership for development.

Unfortunately they don't seem to have any atheist there, I guess we are not religious enough. So I am going to give an atheist's view on what can solve these problems, just before I get cynical.

There are just three key steps, well maybe two and a half, to obtaining most of the goals in their mission statement.

Step 1) I saw on the news Muslims exchanging business cards with Jews. I see all of these different religions gathering in the same place peaceably. They would seem to be moderates, not radicals. They describe their religions as being of peace and of love (yes I am focusing mostly on Muslims and Christians as their religions combined form the majority on Earth and their religions also seem to be at the heart of most of the trouble as well.) Well, no more silent majority. They have to become vocal. Every time someone uses their religion as an excuse for violence or hatred, they need to very publicly speak out and condemn these acts and the people behind them. When a Muslim straps on a bomb and commits suicide, Muslim leaders must be very vocal in saying "No paradise for him". When Pat Robertson spews forth statements about acts of nature being a punishment from god, Christians must speak out against him, not just on some local news station, but on national news, or even better on FOX.

Step 2) Enable women's rights. Religion has to first embrace women as equals, not as sub-human baby making machines. I know this will be hardest for Muslims, as the most vile of misogyny exists in the Muslim world, but it is a required step, without which nothing will change. Once religion embraces this it must then go forward and supplant these values over that of local cultures.

Step 3) Birth control and abortion. All forms of birth control, including abortion, must be made available. At 6.7 billion people on the Earth we are headed for disaster. With an ever growing population, combined with global warming (natural or man-made) we are headed for a disaster. We will first run low on potable water, then food. Spread of disease will be next. The results of not controlling the population are in direct conflict with their supposed goals.

Now the cynical part.

Everyone knows that when people are poor, hungry, desperate, they turn to religion. In countries where there is low poverty, gender equality, plenty of food and social services religion finds itself in recession. You have no further to look than Canada or Western Europe to see this. I sincerly doubt that they want to do anything meaningful towards these problems. Much better for religious institutions to help poor 'souls' than to help the poor.

Book Review - The Fabric of the Cosmos

2010-06-20T11:38:00.000-05:00

The first thing I must say about this book is that it is not a sequel to 'The Elegant Universe'. It is not even a companion to it. 'The Elegant Universe' is a book about string theory, 'The Fabric of the Cosmos' is a book about the dimensional structure of the universe. They are both written with the same audience in mind, that of the layman who knows nothing of physics. As such, they both start from the beginning, with Newton and Einstein and work their way through 20th century physics.

'The Fabric of the Cosmos' diverges from his previous book in that it concentrates on describing the nature of the dimentions of space and time. Indeed one of the underlying threads in the book is that of the arrow of time and why it points forward all the time. It does a good take on the big bang and inflation theory, goes into the multi-dimensions of string theory and even toughes on quantum-loop gravity. He ends with a fanciful look at time travel and teleportation, and explains why they are not as possible as sci-fi seems to think.

Even though the book is slow in places, I would recommend it. I would really recommend it to creationists out there. Not in an effort to convert them, but in an effort to bring their arguments up to date. Many times you hear them arguing about the implications of the big bang theory. These arguments are right out of the 1960's. Cosmology has advanced since then. We have inflation theory which makes many of their points moot. One of the many reasons why science is not a religion, we are able to change with the times.

Just what we need, C.R.A.P TV in Canada

2010-06-19T19:01:00.000-05:00

Tory insiders and behind-scenes lobbying pave path to new 'Fox North' launch - Winnipeg Free Press

Oh great, a 'FOX' news channel in Canada. Well, I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later with Harper in power. Hell, he was even attending meetings with the station big wigs in the States, no doubt to get pointers.

All is not lost, however, as Canada is not as bi-polar as the US is. We have left and right like they do, but we also have East vs West (or French vs English if you will). This should continue to prevent a Reform majority.

If nothing else, it should provide me with more to write about, provided my TV survives the experience.

Hope for peace??

2010-06-12T22:19:00.000-05:00

Methodist theology school in Calif. to add Muslim, Jewish faiths to seminary curriculum - Winnipeg Free Press

As an atheist I don't usually support religious education. I do realize, however, that religion is not going to get wiped of the face of the earth anytime soon. That said, I can only hope that this approach catches on. I know from growing up in the North End of Winnipeg that being exposed to other cultures and other people helps to build tolerance.

The imam in this story actually says that it would be better for American imams to be able to complete their studies in America because the conservative approach in the Middle East isn't compatible. Unfortunately the conservative element amongst the Methodists don't seem to like this approach. I can only hope that funding for this can be found. This could be a first step in ending the 'my way or the cemetary' rhetoric. Anything that takes the conservative bite out of religion is a good thing.

Niqabs on the witness stand

2010-06-09T20:09:00.000-05:00

Appeal court judges deride niqab ruling - Globe and Mail

Give the Ontario Appeals court a fail on this one.

A certain N S was sexually assaulted in Ontario. Now she wants to testify against the man while wearing her face covering niqab. The trial judge said no. It has gone to the Ontario Court of Appeals. Judge Doherty of the Appeals Court is now on record with some statements that are so incredible you really wonder how he got to be a judge in the first place.

“I remember that when I was a lawyer, I had nuns testify and nobody said we should go and make them change,” Judge Doherty said. “And kids wear really baggy clothes now, don’t they?”

What!!??!! Baggy clothes, habits, yarmulkes and turbans do not cover the face and hide your identity and facial expresions. There is no comparison.

“Why are we getting all bent out of shape about this?” asked Mr. Justice David Doherty. “This isn’t about somebody coming into court saying: ‘I need to wear a bag over my head because of my religious beliefs.’

Excuse me!!! have you ever seen a niqab? This is exactly what they are doing. He goes on to say that a trial judge can 'read' the witness even if their face is not showing. Well what if it is a jury trial. Do you honestly think an inexperienced jury can do this too?

This has got to stop. The niqab is NOT a part of Islam but just an arab custom. It is quite common for even Islamic countries to require their women to take off the niqab for situations that they are trying to keep it on over here.

If I were to give testimony against the Hells Angels, would I be given the ability to hide my face too? After all, it wouldn't be my religious sensibilities in danger but my very life.

Galileo's Fingers?

2010-06-08T19:50:00.000-05:00

Centuries after vanishing, Galileo's fingers go on display in Florence science museum - Winnipeg Free Press

This one made me do a double take. Someone in the 18th century removed a few fingers, a tooth and a vertebra from Galileo's corpse as keepsakes. A couple of the fingers went missing over the years but now they are found.

What the hell!!!

I have heard of this sort of thing done with body parts of the saints, but Galileo was no saint. He was condemned by the church for saying the Earth went around the Sun. He might be a hero amongst the atheists for going against the church and advancing modern science, but atheists don't need relics. Really now, just put them back with the rest of his corpse. This is macabre.

What is in a Word (... continued)

2010-05-31T21:43:00.002-05:00

As I was saying in the previous post, to be understood you need to use words in the correct context. Many words in the English language have multiple definitions. ‘Set’ for example has 52 different meanings (and if my trivia memory serves me, it is the record holder.) Fortunately for us, ‘set’ is a very context sensitive word, we have no problems figuring out which definition is being used based on the context of the rest of the sentence. Other words, however, are not so context sensitive.

Words like religion, science, philosophy are also context sensitive, but the context doesn’t come from the sentence, it comes from the audience. If you are talking to an elementary school class, science can have a pretty loose definition. When talking to an audience of particle physicists, science has a much more narrow and rigid definition. It is when we use these words without regard for our audience that we get confusing and provide fodder for the religious apologists.

I write this blog specifically for the general Canadian audience and generally for the Western world (helooooo, any one out there? Is this thing on?). I therefore use the following words only in the context that will bring the most understanding to my audience.

God – A sky fairy of various names that people worship and believe intervenes in our lives. It can have various powers, some of which are logically incompatible.
Satan – A fairy that personifies evil in the world. Likes to tempt people, punish people for all eternity, and buy souls.
Religion – A system of worshiping one or many fairies. Usually has written material believed to be authored by said fairy and is deemed as ‘The Truth’. This leaves out Taoism, Confucianism and some forms of Buddhism.
Soul – Has three main definitions. The first two are fairly obvious from the context of the sentence. 1) An ethereal separate part of us that survives death. 2) As an adjective to describe deep emotion like in soul music. 3) Consciousness, the apparent ‘little me’ inside my head. I will not use this definition as it is too easily confused with number one.
Science – The system of investigating and understanding the universe using the principles of scientific method.
Fundamentalist – Someone who reduces their religion down to what they feel are the fundamentals of it and then persecutes people who do not follow their lead.
Atheist – Someone who does not believe in god. If needed I will distinguish between strong and weak atheism.
Philosophy – There are two main definitions here. One is the formal definition of philosophy being a rational study of truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct. The other is the looser definition of a system of principles used in daily life. There should be no confusion in which one I am using, but if there could be I would capitalize the first one.

This is all I can think of for now. Stay tuned for part two where I go after word usage.

What's in a Word

2010-05-28T09:36:00.002-05:00

I have been watching some of the videos made by Evid3nc3. He was a Christian but has deconverted. He is very well spoken and has obviously put a lot of thought in getting to this point in his life. He apparently calls himself an atheist, but in this video he also calls himself a pantheist. I would have to disagree on this point. Atheists and pantheists are two very different people.

Near the beginning of the video he defines theism. I would like to take that a step farther. Theism comes from the Greek ‘theos’ which means god. The ‘a’ in atheism means ‘without’, so atheism is literally ‘without god’. ‘Pan’ on the other hand means ‘all’, so pantheism means ‘all god’ or ‘all is god’. While both would agree that there is no Abrahamic god, or even a personal god, pantheism anthropomorphizes nature by calling it ‘god’, sort of like the term ‘mother nature’.

Why am I against personifying nature? It is because this is exactly one of the paths humans took to start up religion in the first place (Dennett, Breaking the Spell). First all nature is personified, then we break off pieces, like weather, the oceans, the stars etc. In this way I equate pantheism with prototheism.

The other problem I have with pantheists is that they use the word god to represent the universe. This is confusing. We already have the word god and it has a meaning, a supernatural being that interacts with us in one form or another. Now I know some people might complain that there are many definitions for the word god and that I can’t just limit it to this one definition. I counter that by saying; you can go up to anyone in the western world and start talking about god and this is the definition that they will default to. To successfully communicate you must be understood. To be understood your words need well defined definitions. To use definitions that are uncommon just serves to spread confusion. Many religious people still believe that Einstein was a religious person because he used the pantheistic version of god. Anton LeVey’s Church of Satan is likewise confusing for the exact same reasons. He used the word Satan to represent “Man’s inherent nature”. Again, Satan is already used and well defined. Find your own damn word. Stop confusing people. It makes it harder for all of us.

I can only hope that Evid3nc3 has a 3.1 in his series where he moves away from pantheism. After all, he admits that for four days he thought that he was Jesus, so it is not impossible that this is just a phase as well.

Ontario education is a mess

2010-05-24T11:43:00.000-05:00

Sinning for job security? Educators taking up Catholicism to get teaching jobs - Winnipeg Free Press

Well, let’s start with a little background on the story first. Canada had two major forces in its development, the protestant English in Ontario and the catholic French in Quebec. As can be expected, there were pockets of the minority religion in each community. At the time the way they decided to handle this was to create two separate school boards. As most things change with time so too has the education systems. Manitoba opted out of this plan way back in 1890 and just kept a secular public system. Ontario’s protestant system evolved into a secular public system and in Quebec they went from catholic/protestant to French/English. This leaves us with the current situation in which Ontario still has a publicly funded catholic school system.

Add to this the fact that Ontario universities have been churning out many more teachers than are needed; according to the article 12,000 when 5,000 would have done. These teachers are all desperate to get jobs, no doubt to pay off huge debts. So when they can find no work in the secular system they find that the catholic system is hiring. The only problem with this is that this school division is allowed to discriminate; you have to be catholic to get a job.

My first take on this is that it is illegal to discriminate based on religion when hiring someone. As a matter of fact, the UN Human Rights Committee condemned this back in 1999 and restated their comments in 2005. It is discriminatory, it is wrong and it needs to be changed.

My second take on this is one of humor. When you read the comments of the prospective teachers it really turns Catholicism into a joke.

Unemployed, non-religious educators are turning to Catholicism in an attempt to secure a coveted teaching position, even it means lying in confession about whether they've had pre-marital sex, some have revealed.

"I don't particularly like going (to mass) every Sunday, but if this is what I have to do, then I'll do it," said a Toronto-area woman, who didn't want to be identified.

"I haven't gone for my, um, what do you call it the bread thing yet...Communion. I'm nervous about it," she added.

"I know what I believe in. I support abortion. I support gay marriage," she added.

"I'm going through what I have to go through to get a job. I know it sounds bad."

And of course when this prospect went to confession, all the priest really wanted to hear about is if she had pre-marital sex. Poor sick desperate bastard, the priest that is.

I wonder what will happen if people like this actually get in. Will their church attendance continue to be monitored? Do they have to go through all the rituals, baptism, communion and confirmation?

Ontario, it is time to get out of the 19th century and move into the 21st.

Comedy night in Winnipeg

2010-05-18T19:26:00.000-05:00

Lecture tonight examines exorcism and devil - Winnipeg Free Press

Welcome to the 21st century, I think??

A Roman Catholic priest will be giving a lecture tonight on the devil and exorcism. People who display "demonic possession" don't need an exorcist, they need a mental health provider. What is it about the 12th century that so many religions want to take us back to that time?

If I wasn't so busy I would go just to heckle.

Statistical analysys proves evolution

2010-05-13T22:08:00.000-05:00

A new article in Nature magazine shows how advanced genetic and statistical analyisis proves that we all came from a common ancestor. Now that we have proof, one can only hope that creationism dies the painful death it so richly deserves.

Here is a little sample of the Scientific American review

Despite the difficulties of formally testing evolution—especially back across the eons to the emergence of life itself—Theobald was able to run rigorous statistical analyses on the amino acid sequences in 23 universally conserved proteins across the three major divisions of life (eukaryotes, bacteria and archaea). By plugging these sequences into various relational and evolutionary models, he found that a universal common ancestor is at least 10^2,860 more likely to have produced the modern-day protein sequence variances than even the next most probable scenario (involving multiple separate ancestors).

Strong Atheism part II

2010-05-09T09:19:00.001-05:00

I have been having an ongoing discussion with a Facebook friend on atheism, religion and science. He has a very loose definition of religion, almost to the point that anyone who takes a strong stand on anything is being religious. Here is an example...

“Once you have decided that God doesn't exist, you have either found evidence (which doesn't exist) or you have made it on the basis of a fundamental belief (religion).”

My reply to this was as follows.

Well, I guess we first need a concise definition of god before we can really discuss it’s existence. This definition, whatever it may be, must fit three criteria.

It must be ‘of this universe’. If it is not ‘of this universe’ then it cannot interact with this universe, it cannot answer prayers, perform miracles or intervene in any way. This means that it is no different from non-existing. So it must be ‘of this universe’.
It must be logically possible. Some definitions of god claim it to be omniscient and omnipotent. Omniscient is to know everything, including the future. Omnipotent is to be all powerful, to be able to do anything. If you know the future, you cannot change it and are therefore not omnipotent. If you can change the future you cannot know it and are therefore not omniscient.
It must have features that distinguish it from just being a non-earth species with greater intellectual/technological abilities.

The first two criteria I have read about many times in science and atheist writings. The third one I added in myself. One and two basically eliminate any of the gods that humans have ever worshiped. They basically have defined gods that are not of this universe, and therefore have no power here and/or they have defined god in a logically impossible way. As a matter of fact, if you were to take down all of the characteristics of god as outlined in the bible and Koran, the only conclusion you could come to is that the god of Abraham has bipolar or schizoid problems. Definitely not a being I would want to worship.

Number three I added in as I would not consider an alien species a god, no matter how advanced it was. While I would be a very willing student of anything it might want to teach us, I would not bow down and worship it. To do so would reduce humanity to practicing a cargo cult.

So my denial of god’s existence comes not only from the reasons I have given before, but also due to the fact that no one has come up with a definition of god that fits within the three criteria. Give me a definition of god that fits the criteria and you may weaken my atheism. I would still argue that there is no evidence that such a being has ever interfered with humankind and thus no reason to worship it.

And all this fuss about keeping their head covered!!

2010-05-04T20:45:00.001-05:00

Another one from dear old Mom.

If only

2010-04-27T19:21:00.002-05:00

From Non-Sequitur

Sex Ed in Ontario, a model for all.

2010-04-21T19:50:00.003-05:00

Ontario accused of corrupting young minds - Winnipeg Free Press

We have a winner when it comes to progressive sex ed in schools and it is right beside us in Ontario. Of course what would sex ed be without controversy. There are a number of "conservative" groups (read religious groups) that are opposed to the new curriculum. They accuse the government of “corrupting young minds with sexually explicit material.” This, of course, is complete bullshit. The government is only doing what these people, if they were good parents, should be doing for the next generation. Let’s see what the program looks like.

Lessons will start in grade 1. Of course they would. You ease in to the subject. You don’t teach calculus in grade school, you build up their knowledge to that point.
Eight year olds will get instruction on gender identity, sexual orientation and same-sex marriage. Excellent! Teach them about this when they are young and end the ignorance that leads to hatred. We all want less hatred in the world, right? Well maybe not the conservative types, they seem to thrive on hatred, especially on FOX news. This will hopefully also reduce teen suicide by all those confused kids struggling because they were born different.
Sixth graders will be taught about masturbation and lubrication. That’s about the same time they start experimenting with it anyways, so good timing.
Twelve year olds will get lessons in oral and anal sex. This one I think could probably wait till they are 14 or 15, but then I’m not an expert in this stuff.

This is very badly needed in this day and age. We have artificially extended childhood and treat young adults as little children. We don’t teach this stuff when they need it because we mistakenly think we have time to teach it to them when they are older.

In most primitive tribes of the world there is a celebration welcoming the child into adulthood. This usually happens around puberty, 13 years old. By that time, in these cultures, the parents made sure that the children knew everything they would need to know to be an adult by that time. This was easier in hunter/gatherer times. With the advent of job specialization there was more training needed to take on a job. So childhood was extended to 16. Add in advancing technology and we had to extend childhood to 18. We can even see future milestones at 21 and 24. This has not changed our biology though. We still need to know about sex before we can make babies so we can make informed decisions about when they get made. Surveys have shown that teenage pregnancies are higher in areas with out comprehensive sex ed.

Abortion Battle in Canada again

2010-04-19T10:04:00.001-05:00

Abortion pressure target of bill - Winnipeg Free Press

From Wikipedia:

In the minutes after it was announced that the Order of Canada was being presented to abortionist Henry Morgentaler on Canada day 2008, Rod Bruinooge called the award "Reprehensible".

In a letter he submitted to National Post, he made this statement: "I have no choice but to advocate for the unborn and seek to have their value restored in my Canada. Our collective future depends on it."

In December 2008, Rod Bruinooge was elected Chair of the Parliamentary Pro Life Caucus and was reported by the Canadian Press as stating that unborn children had less legal value in Canada than a human kidney.

As we can clearly see, Rod Bruinooge is clearly on the side of anti-choice, anti-abortion. So when he introduces a bill aimed at “protecting women against abortion intimidation”, one has to be suspicious. He wants to make it a criminal offence to coerce a woman into terminating her pregnancy. He is calling it “Roxanne’s Law” after a Winnipeg woman that was murdered by her partner when she refused to have an abortion. There are a number of reasons this “law” stinks.

Anytime you put a name to a law you are trying to personalize it, a shrewd political move to try and get it passed.
This law would not have saved Roxanne. We have laws against domestic abuse and domestic violence, if a woman doesn’t use the power of those laws, this one will go unused as well. It is redundant.
How do we define “coercion?” If we use the common dictionary definition of “use of force or intimidation to obtain compliance” well, like I have said we have those types of laws already in the form of domestic abuse laws.
It is such an obviously shallow ploy to get around Canadian abortion laws. If it were to become law, a pregnant anti-choicer could go to an abortion clinic and falsely claim that she was being “coerced”, thus shutting it down or disrupting operations.
It is entirely one-sided. Women are also being “coerced” into keeping pregnancies they don’t want. Let’s make it even and consider it criminal for coercion one way or the other.

I truly dread the idea of them getting a majority in the House of Commons. We’ll be a southern state in no time.

More Stats

2010-04-15T19:41:00.000-05:00

In March I posted that the people of Canada that would count themselves as non-religious would grow to 21%. Well today the Winnipeg Free Press had an article about a mosque being shipped up to Inuvik. Apparently the Muslim population is growing up there. It also adds to the previous stats by saying that in Canada the Muslim population is expected to grow from 2.8% in 2006 to 7% in 2031. That's a whopping 250% increase. Well, at least we will still outnumber them 3-1. We can also hope that by then some of them will become non-religious as well.

Catholic Church could use lesson from politicians and celebrities

2010-04-09T19:27:00.000-05:00

Vatican, Canadian church officials tried to keep sex scandal secret - The Globe and Mail

Letter shows future Pope Benedict resisted defrocking molester priest - Winnipeg Free Press

As we can see, the Catholic Church is still trying to deny and distance itself from the ever widening child sex scandal among it's clergy. It could take a page from the many politicains and celebrities that have fallen from grace. Admit it, take responsibility for what happened, offer a no holds barred appology and make a serious plan to prevent it from happening again. Then of course, if they don't learn this, it could lead to their loss of power. One can only hope.

The thing that really gets me is the following from the Free Press article

Another spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said the letter showed no attempt at a coverup. "The then-Cardinal Ratzinger didn't cover up the case, but as the letter clearly shows, made clear the need to study the case with more attention, taking into account the good of all involved."

Nope, sorry. The only 'good' that has to be considered is of the children involved. The molestors don't get consideration. And for trying to cover it all up, the church doesn't get consideration either.

Banning the Burqa

2010-04-03T15:42:00.001-05:00

The swastika is an ancient symbol whose origins seems to be Indo-European. It has since been used around the world, often as a symbol of good luck. Then, in the 1930’s, some asshole from Austria decided to use it as his political party’s symbol. Since then, at least in the Western world, it has become a symbol of evil. In some countries it is illegal; in most others it is shunned. If you display it on your clothing or on your skin you will find it very difficult to get a job, impossible if applying for a job with the government.

The niqab/burqa is just a piece of fabric covering the face. One might say that it is a very good thing to be wearing in Canada’s cold and blustery winters. Unfortunately, the countries that require their women to wear these garments are highly misogynistic and trample women’s rights at every opportunity. The niqab/burqa have become symbols just as disturbing to Western women as the swastika is to the Jewish community worldwide.

Now we have the province of Quebec introducing a law that will refuse all government services to women wearing the niqab or burqa. We have Shahina Siddiqui (a woman!) opposed to the bill

Islamophobia: Robbing women of rights in Canada - Winnipeg Free Press

and Tarek Fatah (a man) in favour of it.

Pull off the veil - Winnipeg Free Press

Talk about Muslim role reversals. I come down on Tarek’s side of the argument. I would also add something that has not come up in the article.

A few years ago there was an uproar in the Canadian Muslim community when soccer officials would not let a Muslim girl play while wearing her hijab. What we later found out is that in a soccer tournament in Egypt, a Muslim country, the girls were not allowed to wear their hijabs either. Well what do you know, when looking up the niqab on Wikipedia I found the following reference;

“In Turkey today, niqabi women, just like women wearing hijab, cannot work as public servants, neither can they continue studies at schools, including the private schools. Although there is no single law banning niqab at private companies, it would be nearly impossible for a niqabi woman to find work.”

So why is Canada always being called on to support extremist views? While I wish that Islam would go away altogether, I know it won’t. As such I am all in favour of following the lead of moderate Muslim countries when it comes to Islamic issues.

Good Friday

2010-04-02T13:02:00.000-05:00

Recently a proposal went through an Iowa town council to change Good Friday to Spring Holiday. After all, Good Friday is a Christian religious holiday and government is supposed to be secular. As an atheist, though, I don't mind the name at all. Good, as much as theists would like to own it, is not religious. Friday is the day of Frigg, the old Germanic goddess. This is also not offensive as it helps me celebrate my Germanic heritage.

Most Fridays are good as they are the last day of the work week. We all thank goodness for Fridays. This Friday is particularly good because;

It's the first long weekend of spring
I don't have to work
I get paid for not working
As nothing is open, I can stay home and be lazy all day without guilt

If anything it should be named Great Friday.

'A' week on Facebook

2010-03-29T19:25:00.000-05:00

That's right folks, it's 'A' week on Facebook. If you have a facebook profile and are an atheist then change your Facebook profile pic to the large red 'A' from Dawkins out campaign. The instructions can be found at the 'A' week Facebook page.

I have done it. I did it not to try and convert anyone, but to bring awareness to my friends that they actually know an atheist. One of the problems with being non-religious is that there are not that many ways to identify yourself. When the religious types describe atheists as immoral, hatefilled and hedonistic many people would think that they might be right. If they knew how many people around them are atheists, though, they would be able to see through the lies and realize that we are good people too.

Book Review - god is not Great

2010-03-28T20:16:00.000-05:00

Any of you who have seen Christopher Hitchens on YouTube will know that he comes across as a pompous Englishman. Well, he writes the same way too. He would make Roget very happy as an editor of his thesaurus. Despite his propensity for uncommon words, the book is a very easy read.

That said this book is not for people who are already atheists. He has nothing really new, that is, nothing new if you have been reading the various atheist blogs and watching the videos. This is more a book for someone who doubts their faith and needs a push in the right direction. He touches on a vast array of crimes, omissions and other moral failings of religion. If he seems particularly bent on Christianity and Islam, it is only because they are the two biggest offenders in the world today.

All-in-all it is a good book to have in my library. I can use it as a handy reference if I ever need ammunition against a theist.

The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father!!

2010-03-26T20:58:00.000-05:00

Psychic kids invited to weekend conference - The Winnipeg Free Press

Yes that's right, if your child channeling energy from unknown entities, speaking to spirits, don't take them to a psycologist, take them to a 'psi'cologist.

This should be seen as child abuse. The parents who take their kids to these types of things are either teaching them to be con artists or are neglecting their mental health. It's really sad to see parents so desperate to see their kids excel in anything that they would delude themselves at this level, but then these same parents are willing to pay $45 a pop for admission, $18 per lecture and who knows how much more for all the new age paraphenalia that will likely be there.

Now where the hell is my tin foil hat when I need it!!!

Why I am not a Humanist

2010-03-21T20:54:00.000-05:00

Ebonmusing recently wrote on his blog, Daylight Atheism, what I would consider to be a very good definition of humanism. It is because of this that I am now able to better tell why I am not a humanist. The definition starts with the following statement;

Most concisely stated, humanism is the worldview which treats human beings - our lives, our needs, and our concerns - as of supreme importance. Humanism recognizes our deep and profound interconnection with the natural world and with all living things on Earth, yet it values human beings above all else - not because of unjustified bias, but because that humans are the only living beings who are moral agents: the only ones who are able to reason out the consequences of their actions and choose to act based on that evaluation. Other animals lack that moral competence, and so regardless of what considerations we owe them, they are not of equal importance with us.

Now this is far too close to Genesis 1:28 for my comfort.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

This is exactly the reasoning behind our current ecological nightmare. Every time we place ourselves and our interests above what nature would give us, we dig ourselves a little deeper. I am not suggesting that we move ourselves back to cave man days, however, but that we have to put the considerations of animals and the environment above our own considerations more often. Some might say that recognizing “our deep and profound interconnection with the natural world and with all living things on Earth,” would mean that our considerations are one with the considerations of the environment, but most people don’t bother to think that deeply.

As well, the statement that;

Humanism is strongly ethical. The most fundamental principle of humanism is that all human beings are equal in moral worth and dignity.

I find quite offensive. For someone to consider that the likes of a Paul Bernardo or a Clifford Olson are equal in moral worth and dignity to me just burns me up. I feel that a persons moral worth and dignity should be based on their actions. If they do not treat others with dignity, then they deserve none of their own.

Finally, the last statement;

Humanists recognize that the improvement of society's attitudes benefits all people who live in it, and only through this means can we end poverty, war, climate change and other global threats that demand collective effort to solve.

is a non sequiter, it ignores basic biology. As long as humans reproduce by sexual means, we will always be in competition with each other. This means that poverty and war will always be with us. We may strive to lessen the amount of war and poverty, but it will never be ended.

All in all, humanism comes across to me as an attempt at an atheist religion. Perhaps it even seems to strive for a utopian ideal. I do not consider myself a humanist for these reasons and remain skeptical of the movement itself.

A Little Joke

2010-03-20T16:12:00.004-05:00

Something I got from my Mom

The light turned yellow, just in front of Jim. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

Unfortunately, tailgating, Barbara was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as Barbara missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up.

He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, so naturally..... I assumed you had stolen the car."

While the actions of the police officer are extreme, the actions of the christian are totally believable.

Free will, or not free will. That is the question

2010-03-14T20:29:00.000-05:00

It's all an act of God, Americans believe - Winnipeg Free Press

Now I'm confused. Two thirds of Americans believe god is in control of their lives. I thought god gave us free will so that we could have control of our lives. If we choose correctly we go to heaven, if we choose wrong, well its eternal gnashing of teeth for us then.

If I go on to kill people for no reason, well god made me do it. They must have been sinners and it was god's plan to get rid of them. I was just an instrument of his plan.

The author of the study, Scott Schieman, suggests the 32 per cent of people who behave this way do so because it relieves anxiety in desperate circumstances, shifting the pressure skyward. This is another way of saying that they are avoiding personal responsibility, shifting it skyward. But then Americans do seem to be very good at avoiding personal responsibility, that's why their lawyers are so well fed. Fortunately for us, when people do blame criminal behaviour on god, we do lock them up, even if it is only at a psych ward.

Eight in ten Americans say they depend on god for decision-making guidance. Another strange idea, but one that is quite obvious. In light of the current economic turmoil we can see how well that worked for them. I think they need a second opinion, maybe from someone non-ethereal.

As I said, I'm confused. Do we have free will or is our life mapped out by god. It seems that these people just make it up as they go, whatever fits the situation. No wonder I'm an atheist.

An encouraging statistic

2010-03-10T21:37:00.001-06:00

An article in today's Winnipeg Free Press talked about how visible minorities in Canada are increasing. It also offered up this little gem;

The changing demographics will affect religion, with the number of non-Christians growing from eight per cent in 2006 to 14 per cent in 2031, and the number of Christians shrinking from 75 per cent to 65 per cent. The number without a religious affiliation will grow from 17 per cent to 21 per cent.

It is encouraging to see that by 2031 just over a fifth of Canadians will be without religion. We can only hope that reason will prevail and better the numbers predicted by Stats Can.

Nigerian massacre not really about religion - NOT!!!

2010-03-08T19:26:00.001-06:00

Hundreds slaughtered in Nigeria including infants in latest religious violence flare-up - Winnipeg Free Press

Ahh yes, Nigeria, that hot spot of moderation and culture in Africa. Let's see what's happening there now.

The killers showed no mercy: They didn't spare women and children, or even a 4-day-old baby, from their machetes.

At least 200 people, most of them Christians, were slaughtered on Sunday, according to residents, aid groups and journalists.

Oh my, those horrible Nigerian Muslims. Killing the peaceful, innocent Christians. How could they do such a thing? They must be monsters. No morality whatsoever! But wait, what is this.

The horrific violence comes after sectarian killings in this region in January left more than 300 dead, most of them Muslim. Some victims were shoved into sewer pits and communal wells.

So much for that idea. The Christians are just as monstrous and immoral as the Muslims there. Can someone please tell me how some people still can insist that we get our morals from god? Here we have followers of two "peaceful" religions hacking each other to death. Religion is the root of all evil. But is it really religions fault?

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, condemned the violence and said Monday that the conflict must be interpreted in the light of social, economic, ethnic and cultural factors rather than religious hatred.

I call BULLSHIT!! They all seem to be from the same economic background. The article also indicates that this sort of thing has been going on since at least 2001, all divided along religious lines. Coincidence? I think not.

There are some Christians in North America that would love to have us become a theocracy. This is a prime example of why we can never let this happen here. It is divisive and dangerous. It does not bring peace, only chaos.

A Manitoba tax break for the rich

2010-03-07T19:44:00.002-06:00

A degree of faith - Winnipeg Free Press

Opening the door? - Winnipeg Free Press

Well, the Manitoba Government got kudos for not contributing any money for the Youth for Christ center that the city and fed’s did, but they are not with out sin. According to a recent Free Press article, the province gives around $50 million away to private schools every year. This is so very wrong. The public system badly needs more money; this is where my tax dollars should be going.

As a single guy with no kids, why should I have to pay any school tax? The answer, of course, is that I am a resident of Manitoba. As such, I agree to pay my share to provide an education system for the children of Manitoba. I don’t get any tax breaks or tax credits because of my no child status. Neither do the elderly that have put their kids through the system already.

Now we have some people in the province that are to “hoity toity” to send their kids to a public school. They pay extra to send them to a private school, but they don’t pay the full fare. The province covers part of the cost. Is it really fair that they get an effective “tax break”? Some might argue that they aren’t using the public system so they should get some of that money back, but then neither I nor seniors are using it. Why shouldn’t we get some tax dollars back as well?

The funding of private schools is wrong and needs to be stopped. It is a tax break for the rich and is unfair for the rest of us.

Now as an atheist I could also have used the argument that most private schools are also faith based and my tax dollars shouldn’t go to organizations that I don’t support. But as you can see, I didn’t have to. It is wrong on many levels.

Alberta Hutterites driven mad.

2010-02-28T19:04:00.002-06:00

Hutterites to drive without licences - Winnipeg Free Press

It would seem that some Hutterites in Alberta don't like modern technology. They are refusing to have their pictures taken for drivers licences. And why don't they want their pictures taken. Not because it will "steal their soul" as some primitive tribes believe, but because it is apparently against one of the ten commandments.

Now while their might be some disagreement about whether it is the first or second commandment, they do say in Deut 5: 6-9

6 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 7 you shall have no other gods before me. 8 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me,

This is from Wikipedia. Other sources use graven image instead of idol while others leave out graven and just use the word image.

Can someone please give these people a history lesson! Back in the day the commandments were created there was a widespread practice of carving (graven) a figure out of wood or stone. These dolls would then be used as a "house god", something to be worshiped in your home. Now when you consider this and the "jealous" god that was trying to indoctrinate you to only his way, the commandment makes sense. It had nothing to do with making a picture for identification purposes, only worship purposes.

Fortunately the Alberta government is not backing down on this. Muslim women have been forced to unveil for id photos, so why should the Hutterites get any special consideration. If they don't like it, stay home. Probably lower carbon emissions as they usually only drive big assed trucks.

A strong atheist

2010-02-22T19:43:00.000-06:00

I consider myself a strong atheist. What exactly does this mean? Well, atheism can be divided into two main camps. Those who simply do not believe in a god are called weak atheists. Indeed, all atheists are weak atheists. Strong atheists take the position that there are no gods.

Some people don’t like the strong position. They say it is impossible to prove that no god exists and is therefore an irresponsible statement to make. I disagree with the assumption that we have to disprove the existence of god. All I feel I need to do is to show how humans created the idea of god, how all religions are man made, to show that no “god” exists. If there is a supreme being, or beings as is more likely, they are nothing more than an alien species with superior technology. Have they interfered with life on earth? Highly unlikely. Have they even visited earth? Doubtful.

So let us look at the evidence. Most of the evidence comes from studying the brain, neurology and psychology. We also have contributions from archaeology and history.

Schizophrenia is characterized by the hearing of voices and hallucinations. We now know that this is the result of increased dopamine activity in the brain. Years ago this may have been interpreted as hearing voices from god (a talking, burning bush anyone).

Epilepsy is characterized by abnormal, excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. This causes seizures as well as visions/voices. We now know that the seizures are not signs of demonic possession and that the visions/voices are not coming from the gods.

Daniel Dennett’s book “Breaking the Spell” is full of other examples.

As hunters, we need to understand what our prey will do next so as to be better hunters. We developed a “theory of mind” to do this. We pretend the prey has a mind like ours and try to think of it’s responses to our approach. We have unfortunately extended this ability onto inanimate objects as well, like rocks, trees, wind etc. They have eventually taken a life of their own and become sprits and then gods.

We are also very susceptible to the placebo effect. This is an evolutionary adaption as those who fell for the placebo were more likely to survive and reproduce than those who did not. This has had the effect that anyone who can wave a wand and call you better comes off as a miracle worker.

Studying our past is also quite illuminating. If you study the mythologies and religions of the past you can see how they sort of blend together. Ancient Mesopotamian mythology can be found in the bible as Noah’s ark with some phrases closely matching in Ecclesiastes. Ancient Greek mythology also has some comparisons with Babylon. The word “devil” comes from the Zoroastrian term for evil god. Zoroastrian’s pray 5 times daily as do Muslims. Jewish and Muslim dietary laws are similar. Some scholars think that Christianity might have a Buddhist influence. Then there are all of the rituals that the Christians absorbed from pagan Europe, Easter and Christmas to name the big ones.

With all of this sharing of rituals and ideas going on you really can’t take the claim that this or that is “the one true religion” seriously. It becomes very obvious how humans made it all up and are continuing to change/make it up.

This is why I call myself a strong atheist. There is no god, no devil, no heaven or hell. There are no ghosts, goblins or demons. We have one life to live and it is up to us to live it well.

Church and State in bed in Winnipeg

2010-02-18T20:05:00.000-06:00

MP takes aim at youth centre - Winnipeg Free Press

MP may regret taking aim at Christian youth centre: Mayor Katz - Winnipeg Free Press

The city of Winnipeg is planning on giving Youth for Christ $2.6 million to develop a youth center at the North edge of downtown. Pat Martin, a federal MP, is against government money flowing to an openly evangelical religious organization. Now, while he doesn't go far enough (no religious organization should get public money), I do support him on this one.

First off, as an atheist, I don't want my hard earned tax money going to support a religious institution. They have their membership to raise funds from. There are also a lot of other things the $225,000 a year can go to that would also greatly help the community. This would have included keeping the Elmwood community center open. Funny how they couldn't find money for Elmwood, but could find money for this.

Secondly, location, location, location. As I said, this is at the northern edge of downtown. It is also at the southern edge of the North End. It is near two very busy roads, but is not heavily populated. There is an aboriginal health and wellness center right across the road in the old CP Rail station. As well, there are a variety of other youth services located closer to where the kids actually live.

Thirdly, while they say they don't proselytize, one look at their web site says otherwise. They are trying to get troubled youth at their most vulnerable. This is no different than many of the religious charities seen milling about after a disater, getting in the way of real aid in their effort to proselytize.

Finally, do the aboriginals of Winnipeg really need to get screwed around by yet another Christian group. After all, we have just gone through a long battle to get compensation for the abuse handed out at the hands of religious residential schools. They should also stand up and tell them to take their religion elsewhere.

Unfortunately Winnipeg has had a lot of small crime, drug dealing, car theft, car jacking and some gang violence. This has led many people to comment that they would rather see these youths join a religion than join a gang. They do not see the long term picture. They ignore what is happening in the US. You convert them when they are young, then tell them their politics when they ar older.

Canada, like Britain tends to do many things by tradition rather than by law. This has left us with a tradition of separating church and state. We do not have it in law like they do in the US. This leaves us open to forgoing the "tradition". The more "evangelicals" Canada gets, the worse this tradition will be abused. We must stand up for the separation of church and state now while we still can.

Happy Darwin Day

2010-02-12T18:57:00.000-06:00

Once again it is time to celebrate the birthday of a truly great man, Charles Darwin. He would have been 201 this year and his book, On the Origin of the Species, is 150 years old.

Charles Darwin, with his theory of evolution, was the biggest blow to literal interpretation of the bible there has ever been. Sure we may have got there eventually, and yes there were others who had ideas the church found blasphemous. Most of those ideas dealt with things far above in the sky, far removed from everyday life.

Evolution cut the first couple of chapters of the bible right out in one fell swoop. While many Christians still desperately cling to the creation story, they have never been able to successfully disprove evolution.

Yes to free speech, No to hate speech!

2010-02-11T21:08:00.002-06:00

CFS gets custody of two children of accused white supremacists – Winnipeg Free Press

This was a good decision and the best possible outcome. I know that racism was downplayed as the reason the children were apprehended, but I do not believe that it should be discounted. Not only did the girl in the story get sent to school with neo-Nazi slogans and symbols drawn on her, but she was also taught that black people should be killed. This is child abuse in my eyes.

The girl’s step-dad tried to gain custody of her and her brother, citing that his freedom of expression was violated, but the judge dismissed this. I totally agree with the judge. Not only that, I would go on to say that this case clearly showed the parents to be in violation of Canada’s hate speech law. That would be the hate speech law in the criminal code of Canada, sections 318-320, not section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Now why Canada needs two sets of hate speech laws I don’t know. The criminal code law is all we really need. The one in the Human Rights Act really only seems to be there to allow lawsuits for damages. This is far too American for this Canadian. The Human Rights Act is really there to prevent discrimination. If you encounter something that is hateful, you are not being discriminated against; the person doing the hating is breaking the law and should be prosecuted accordingly.

As you can see, I totally feel that the Canadian hate speech laws are a necessary limitation to freedom of speech/expression. And hey, any law that keeps the Westboro Baptists out of Canada has got to be a good law!

Book Review – The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas

2010-02-06T12:28:00.000-06:00

Yes, I know, it’s February, but in my defense I didn’t get the book till after Christmas and only finished reading it recently. It is a book of 42 short stories written by atheists from England.

Many of the stories are from atheists who enjoy Christmas time and tell how they go about celebrating it in a secular fashion. Some are stories of Christmases gone badly. There is even a story of someone (Andrew Mueller) who manages to escape Christmas all together by flying on Dec 24 to Australia and not landing there till early on the 26th. There are a few stories that go into the origins of life, the universe and Christmas. There are even a couple of authors that try to bring in new Christmas fiction, most notably the earnest Richard Dawkins who seems to think he is a modern day Oscar Wilde.

Overall I thought the book was an excellent read, especially the stories of atheists who enjoy Christmas. I think it is a wonderful time and I love to celebrate it in the secular manner that is so common. I was beginning to think that celebrating it as an atheist was in very bad taste (memo to self – expand blogroll). If there is one complaint I have about the book, it would be that it was written from an English perspective and some of it doesn’t travel well. For instance, many of the stories mention mince pie. I have no idea what a mince pie is. Blueberry pie is made with blueberries, apple pie is made with apples, chocolate cream pie is made with chocolate cream, but what is mince? As far as I can tell, mince is a verb not a noun. Maybe this is what they refer to as the “Mystery of Christmas.”

Found Religion???

2010-02-01T19:59:00.000-06:00

Drunk cop crashes motorbike, gets fined - Winnipeg Free Press

This is the story of a Winnipeg cop that was driving a motorcycle with almost three times the legal limit of alcohol in his system. There are a couple of things wrong with this article. I will start with the obvious one first.

"He has no excuse for being on that bike having consumed alcohol. He feels absolutely horrible for what he's done. He has learned an unbelievable lesson," defence lawyer Richard Wolson told court.

Aminot has not had a sip of alcohol since that day and has come to grips with the fact he had a serious drinking problem, said Wolson.

He has also found religion, attending weekly church services, and has started doing volunteer work with groups such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

So just what the fuck is being implied here? Is Mr Wolson trying to imply that only people that are without religion drive drunk? Or maybe that people who find religion deserve more sympathy/forgiveness than those who don't? How about that people who find religion become better people than those of us who don't? I might remind him that Adolf Hitler was a Catholic, Osama Bin Laden is a Muslim and there are quite a few alter boys out there that have a less than stellar view of "men of religion." Finding religion and attending church services are meaningless. Dennis Rader, the BTK killer was a devout Lutheran, president of his congregation council. I could go on.

The other big problem I see is his punishment.

And he walked away with a $1,500 fine, a one-year licence suspension and continued employment as a Winnipeg police officer.

A few years ago there was the thought that maybe someone who kills a cop should not automatically get charged with first degree murder. The police service was up in arms about this. They argued that criminals that try to harm them should get harsher treatment as a deterent. I think the pendulum swings both ways here. I think that if a cop, someone trained to know and uphold the law, breaks the law, then they should get a harsher sentence. They should also get fired from their job.

Combine this with the Harvey-Zenk case and all I have to say is "watch out when on Winnipeg streets, the cops have had a few."

Speaking of open minded Jews...

2010-01-30T18:03:00.000-06:00

Synagogue offers same-sex blessings - Winnipeg Free Press

Wow, only in Canada, Eh! I don't see any headlines like this from the States. One can hope though. While many atheist blogs like to slam religion any chance they get, I like to give recognition when they do the right thing. That said, they still don't perform same-sex marriages, but they are moving in the right direction. It is always nice to see a religious group update their practices to take into account what we have learned about humans in the last 2500 years or so.

One ritual down, many many more to go.

Ultra-Orthodox losing their grip.

2010-01-27T21:41:00.000-06:00

CTV News Ultra-Orthodox seek boycott of their own websites

Boy, did I laugh hard when I saw this headline. They are not only hiding their members from the outside world but are now tring to hide their members from themselves. It seems that some of their members have web sites that allow anonymous postings. This is exposing their community to comments of disatisfaction and descent. Of course in traditional religious manner they call it

"gossip, slander ... filth and abominations."

They can run, but they can't hide. Technology will open their minds, if only a little bit.

A reverend said this? WOW!

2010-01-25T19:27:00.000-06:00

Does God play favourites? Letter of the day - Winnipeg Free Press
Posted using ShareThis

If there is a god, does it cause earthquakes? Does it play favourites, destroying thousands of lives while keeping a baby alive in the rubble for over a week?

One does not need a god-concept to explain how earthquakes happen. Science does that just fine.

One doesn't even need a god-notion to motivate altruistic (unselfish) acts of kindness and humanitarian response to a tragedy. Atheists and agnostics are people of goodwill and generosity, as are most believers.

Mahatma Gandhi used the word truth for god. The words justice, service and love have sacred qualities, too. But I cannot accept the idea that "my boss, God" kept one person from death while thousands perished and millions are hungry and homeless. Thousands likely were praying for help as they died waiting.

Rev. John Wesley Oldham
Winnipeg

Well, I've just been impressed. A very well written letter. After a little research the reverend in question was a United Church reverend until him and the church got into a squabble about services. Seems he wanted to include some native rituals in the church he ran on a reserve in Ontario. Very progressive for a Christian.

U.S. fighter almost gets Darwin Award

2010-01-22T20:41:00.000-06:00

U.S. fighter slams Canada's 'Third World' health system - Winnipeg Free Press
Posted using ShareThis

Wow, how stupid is this guy. He says he hasn't felt well for a month, so of course the logical thing to do is go hunting in the boonies in a foreign country. Yea, that's good thinking. So what does he do when it hits him hard, he blames the Canadian health care system for not making him instantly better and gets his wife to "drive 100 miles per hour" over Manitoba roads in the winter. That's real safe, not! The worst part of all of this is that it was self inflicted.

The condition came about, says Lesnar, from an all-protein diet.

I think I am getting what all happened here. Conservation of mass combined with steroids means bigger muscles - smaller brain. No surprise that he considers himself a republican and is against Obama's health care plan.

Bible quotes placed on troops' weapons

2010-01-22T20:11:00.001-06:00

Bible quotes placed on troops' weapons - Winnipeg Free Press
Posted using ShareThis

Well, it looks like the US wasn't the only country to fall victim to this outrageous shenaniganry. Fortunatly
I will probably never buy a gun, but if I did I would double check anything on it made by Trijicon of Michigan. Good thing they are being forced to remove all of this garbage. If they want to talk about "light" they can put on Maxwell's equations.

Book review – Moral Minds

2010-01-21T16:41:00.000-06:00

I just finished reading “Moral Minds” by Marc D. Hauser. Its big theory is that humans have a moral instinct much like we have a language instinct, that we have an innate ability to learn a moral code.

The language instinct shows us that our brains are hard wired to learn a language, any language, as long as it follows certain grammatical patterns. Marc Hauser puts forward the theory that morality is the same way; that we are hard wired to learn a moral code. Not only that but the way we are wired, while leaving us open to many different moral codes, has some boundaries.

He walks us through a large number of experiments, and lets us do some thought experiments on ourselves. These experiments show us how similar animals are to us, how we are different from animals, how our moral perceptions change with age and how there is some universality across cultures. In fact in his P.S. section he states

“thus far we have found little evidence for the role of religious background in moral judgments. Whether you are raised a Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Muslim, or atheist, your judgments of right or wrong are similar across a host of dilemmas involving helping and harming others.”

Now of course this is a new idea and much more research needs to be done with it. One question I would very much like answered is if the moral instinct has age limits to it. The language instinct allows children to learn languages easily, up until about 13 years of age. After this age it becomes much harder to learn another language. Is there an age limit in learning a moral code? How hard is it to learn another one later in life? This is probably best studied amongst immigrant populations. This research could then be used to help the immigrants better adjust to their new home.

Overall a very good book. I would definitely recommend it.

Haiti Relief

2010-01-15T21:45:00.002-06:00

By now everyone knows about the earthquake disaster in Haiti. It also happens that I saw on Daylight Atheism that the Red Cross is a secular agency. I would not have known this as there is a Red Crescent in the Islamic countries. So after work I went to the Canadian Red Cross and donated for the relief effort.

What made me feel like contributing to charity? Well, I saw on the morning news footage of hundreds of dead bodies lined up in the streets and did some imagining. I could have imagined being there and seeing this for myself, which would be gruesome enough. But I did more than that. I imagined what it would be like if it happened here where I live. Thousands of bodies lining the streets, and as I pass by them I recognize people. Friends, family, co-workers, acquaintances, the person I buy my newspaper from, the owner of the restaurant that I frequent. This is the horror that the people of Haiti are living through right now. Unlike other countries, though, Haiti does not have the means to help itself. My heart goes out to them.

There are a few references of secular charities at Daylight Atheism and The Friendly Atheist. Please give.

More hope ..... maybe.

2010-01-12T21:18:00.001-06:00

Just read a report on the CBC website that 20 Imams from Canada (ok, one seems to be from Houston) have issued a fatwa against terrorism on Canada and the U.S., equating the attack on the two countries as an attack on Muslims.

Now this statement would seem to be a step in the right direction. Muslims denouncing Islamic terrorism is what many have been calling on for a while now. Sort of a "proof" that they are about peace after all. I do have a couple of problems with this statement however.

The first is how it seems to have brought me into the Muslim faith without my asking. An attack on our countries is not just an attack on Muslims, but on a wide variety of people. The statement seems to indicate that if there were no Muslims here, attacks would be OK. It says that they still don't get the concept, sort of like the Terminator,

Connor: You can't just go around killing non-muslims!

Terminator: Why?

Connor: Because you just can't!

The second problem comes after reading some of the comments telling us about Imam Syed Soharwardy and past statements from him. This tells me that the biggest reason he and his associates issued this statement is that they are feeling the heat when they travel. They don't like the extra scrutiny. They probably also don't like the idea that their wives will be "virtually de-burka'd" by the body scanners. They realize that all of this has been brought about by some of their fellow Muslims.

Not all Muslims are without hope, though. Just look at Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's dad. When he thought that his son was becoming dangerous (and he was, trying to blow up the plane near Detriot), he not only reported a fellow Muslim to the CIA, but his own son. This, to me, is heroic and gives me hope. If only there were more like him.

Sarah Palin on FOX News

2010-01-12T20:26:00.000-06:00

Well here is some hopeful news. Sarah Palin is going to be a regular commentator on FOX News. One might suggest that having her on FOX will only serve to enhance her public exposure, making it easier for her to run for the White House. I disagree. I think that having her in the public eye on a regular basis will only bolster her support among those already on the religious right. Everyone else will be constantly reminded of the ditz she is. I really hope this is a long term contract, say to at least 2013. Only then can we say for sure that the world won't end in 2012 ;)

PZ Myers in Winnipeg

2010-01-10T21:12:00.000-06:00

Well, I saw PZ Myers and thought he gave an excellent lecture. He was very knowledgeable and was able to answer all of the questions, even from the creationist. Heck, he even knew something about us middle of the road Canadians.

The creationist asked the question “How did we get from molecules to morals?” A really poorly worded question that was entirely unanswerable in the time allotted. I would have answered it by suggesting the gentleman go back to school and take a four year B Sc in chemistry, followed by a four year B Sc in biology followed by a four year BA in psychology.

I have visited the Pharyngula blog to see what the others thought of his speech and was disappointed to find the creationist dominated the talk while his main message has gone ignored. Dr. Myers’ main message was that as atheists, we have to be more vocal, more visible, more militant (but in a peaceful sort of way). We also have to get more organized and more politically involved. The US is very close to becoming a theocracy.

PZ pointed out that while we have been winning court cases, we are loosing the popular opinion (I use “we” but this applies mostly to the Americans.) All it would take is for someone like Sarah Palin to become president, put a few fellow creationists in the Supreme Court and not only will creationism be in schools, but prayer and the cross too.

The biggest objection I have heard so far, as to getting organized, is that atheists left organizations and don’t want to leave one for another. Well, bad news people. There is strength in numbers, and the other side seems to be winning the numbers game. If you don’t get organized as atheists, you run the very real risk of getting dragged back into the very organization you left.

I am reminded of a quote by John Philpot Curran “It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt." It is often misattributed and misquoted to Thomas Jefferson as “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” Of course the second sentence can be slightly updated to read “The condition upon which man has gained liberty is eternal vigilance;” This applies to atheists right now. If we sit on our asses and do nothing, we could lose the very freedoms that we currently take for granted. We need to stop being silent and stand up for ourselves. An idea that has been making the rounds of the blog sphere is an atheist’s unity conference. This is a very good idea and I would go.

My Lucky Day

2010-01-04T21:38:00.000-06:00

It must be my lucky day today. Not only did I find a copy of "The Atheist's Guide to Christmas" in a local bookstore that I don't usually frequent, but I also got word that I am now registered to see PZ Myers when he comes to Winnipeg on the 9th. I am so excited. This will be my first encounter with a large group of like minded people.

I believe

2010-01-03T21:49:00.003-06:00

One of the more challenging aspects of writing artificial intelligence code is writing a good speech comprehension program. The difficulty lies in the fact that much of our speech relies on context. The speaker, the intended audience, the objects being discussed, and general facts of the world we live in all play a role in understanding a sentence. For example, lets say that I said

"I love my wife,"

and got the program to comprehend this statement. If I then said

"I love my daughter"

the program might call the police on me, or a psychiatrist if I said

"I love my mother or sister."

Saying that

"I love chocolate"

does not mean that I stare lovingly at it for hours, the chocolate wouldn’t last that long.

That speech can be taken out of context has been used by the likes of Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll to humorous effect. It has, however, also been used maliciously to attack and belittle others. If I say

“I (1)believe in god.”

Most people will know what I mean. Saying that

“I (2)believe in god’s existence, but I don’t (1)believe in god.”

Might confuse some people. If I were to rephrase it to say

“I (2)believe in god’s existence, but I (1)believe in Satan.”

Most people will then get the contextual difference. (1) could be replaced with the word worship and (2) could be replaced with the word acknowledge. Most people, not in the vicinity of Area 51, who say they believe in UFO’s, are using (2) to simply acknowledge their existence. When I say that

"I (3)believe I will have another drink,"

(3) can be replaced with the word think. Now if I had a friend that was down on them self or unsure of their actions I could say to them

"I (4)believe in you."

I am not telling them that I worship them, or that I merely acknowledge them. I am telling them that I have confidence in them. Confidence is a word substitute for (4).

Now when a theist says that I don’t (1)believe in anything, they are 100% right. However, I am also right when I say that I (4)believe in science. I (3)believe that should clarify things, wouldn’t you (2)believe.

Uuuggghhh

2010-01-01T20:01:00.000-06:00

This is my first post of the year, and really my first post ever. All I have to say right now is that if there is a god that created the universe and everything in it, I'm going to have to give him a serious shit-kicking for creating viruses.