Pat O’Brien and Robert French from the Vancouver branch of Centre for Inquiry Canada (CFIC) are profiled in a regular feature in the Vancouver Courier: Pacific Spirit. While O’Brien and French are too skeptical to believe in spirits, they are spirited supporters of CFIC.
Meet Pat O’Brien
When Pat O’Brien was eight or nine years old, his father told him that a watched pot never boils.
“So I got a pot, put it on the stove, never took my eyes off it and it boiled,” says O’Brien. “From that moment on I was a skeptic. I wouldn’t believe anything until I actually saw it for myself.” Pretty soon, he was applying the same criteria to religion. . . . [Pat] is a board member of the Centre for Inquiry Canada, whose mission is to advance “skeptical, secular, rational and humanistic inquiry.”
and Robert French
“My own personal concern is fuzzy thinking. I believe religion is fuzzy thinking. Pseudo-science is fuzzy thinking. Belief in aliens is fuzzy thinking.”
French was raised in the United Kingdom by atheist parents who wanted the best education for their son, despite their poverty. They got him into a Catholic school on scholarship. (He’s not active in the alumni association.)
French’s four children are all atheists, in the family tradition, but for them it is no big deal, he says. They fall into the category the two call “apatheists” — they’re not religious and they’re not actively non-religious. It’s not an issue. They’re just … apatheists.
The best quote in the article is
“I’d say for most Christians the Bible is like a software agreement,” O’Brien says. “You don’t read it, you just scroll to the bottom and click ‘agree.’”
“My own personal concern is fuzzy thinking. I believe religion is fuzzy thinking. Pseudo-science is fuzzy thinking. Belief in aliens is fuzzy thinking.”
French was raised in the United Kingdom by atheist parents who wanted the best education for their son, despite their poverty. They got him into a Catholic school on scholarship. (He’s not active in the alumni association.)
French’s four children are all atheists, in the family tradition, but for them it is no big deal, he says. They fall into the category the two call “apatheists” — they’re not religious and they’re not actively non-religious. It’s not an issue. They’re just … apatheists.
– See more at: http://www.vancourier.com/community/pacific-spirit-atheists-demand-proof-for-god-s-existence-1.1127233#sthash.rzUvR883.dpuf
When Pat O’Brien was eight or nine years old, his father told him that a watched pot never boils.
“So I got a pot, put it on the stove, never took my eyes off it and it boiled,” says O’Brien. “From that moment on I was a skeptic. I wouldn’t believe anything until I actually saw it for myself.” Pretty soon, he was applying the same criteria to religion.
– See more at: http://www.vancourier.com/community/pacific-spirit-atheists-demand-proof-for-god-s-existence-1.1127233#sthash.rzUvR883.dpuf
I share your admiration for the quip about the Bible being like a software agreement. It isn’t completely true – in my experience, serious Christians spend a lot of time reading certain parts of the Bible, and usually have an arsenal of scriptural quotes that they can deploy at the drop of a hat – but it contains an important kernel of truth in that those same Christians tend to skip the large parts of the Bible that are disagreeable or simply dull.