Join the gang!

by | February 3, 2017

Canadian Atheist is a collection of contributors from all walks of life, with a diversity of specialties and worldviews, and we’re always looking for new voices to join the team.

Just the other day I posted requesting reviewers for a independent, anti-religious, foreign film, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There is lots of room at CA for people with different interest and specialties to contribute.

Canadian Atheist is looking for people who are:

  • interested in or part of the secularist, humanist, atheist, or freethought movements;
  • able to come up with topics of interest to Canadian atheists, secularists, humanists, or freethinkers that they can write about on at least a semi-regular basis; and
  • able to write about those topics in a coherent and interesting way in clear English*.

It doesn’t matter what your views are; Canadian Atheist contributors are not required to subscribe to any particular ideology or set of ideologies. You don’t even need to be atheist; you can be a Christian or Muslim writer. You don’t even need to be Canadian, or living in Canada! Recent immigrants and Canadians living abroad are very welcome. So long as you remember that you are writing for a Canadian atheist audience, your personal beliefs and background are irrelevant, though you can certainly use them to inform or inspire your contributions.

Being a Canadian Atheist contributor really has no “requirements”. There is no minimum activity requirement – you don’t need to contribute a certain number of words per article or articles in a given period (although if you are completely inactive for a long enough time and don’t seem interested in contributing again, we will prune your account for security reasons). We don’t ask you to join anything or pay any dues. We do need your real name and contact info for legal reasons, but you get to choose how they’re publicized. You can contribute articles on whatever topic you please – assuming it’s relevant to the interests of Canadian atheists, our readers – whenever you get inspired. It’s a very low-pressure gig.

But there are perks! We get advance notice of interesting stuff, and sometimes even previewer packages if you’re going to be doing a review. We also get media requests, and other speaking requests. Some previous Canadian Atheist contributors have also gone on to bigger and better things, with CA being a noteworthy stepping stone on their path. Being a contributor at Canadian Atheist could be a great way to either get involved in the Canadian secular, humanist, atheist, or freethought communities, or to raise the profile of your group or organization.

If you can’t contribute yourself but you know someone who might be interested, either have them get in touch with us or pass us their contact info.

Canadian Atheist is particularly looking for:

  • representatives of Canadian secular, humanist, scientific, atheist, or freethought organizations, or science, environmental or other advocacy organizations that might be of interest to Canadian atheists – this could be an easy, relatively hassle-free way to extend the reach of your group;
  • representatives of communities that rarely get voiced, particularly in the freethought community – such as aboriginal communities, visible or ethnic minorities, people with disabilities (such as visual or mobility challenges), or people in areas of Canada that get little coverage;
  • people who have a particular interest or specialty related to secularism, humanism, atheism, or freethought in Canada – being interested in raising children without religion, experts in fields of related law, or people who study or write about religion or non-religion as a social or cultural phenomenon;
  • and just about anyone else who could make interesting contributions that Canadian atheists might find informative or inspiring.

If you’re interested in joining the team, please use the contact form to get in touch!

* Sorry non-English-speakers, but we’re only looking for anglophones right now. But stay tuned, because we will be looking for francophones and speakers of other Canadian languages in the not-too-distant future.

4 thoughts on “Join the gang!

  1. Tim Underwood

    This is a great idea.

    In a similar vein, I often mused about forming a secular federal political party. Since the Nones are the largest religious sector in our country, this would be a way to exert some political muscle.

    Running candidates take a lot of fund raising so an alternative would be to not run any secular party candidates. Instead the secular party would select whatever candidate in their particular district was the most “seeming to be” secular and then support him or her.

    This would be a step towards electoral reform in that the federal party who eventually won would owe a great deal to the Secular Party of Canada. Who needs Justin to enable a significant level of actual reform?

    Reply
  2. Indi Post author

    > This would be a step towards electoral reform in that the federal party who eventually won would owe a great deal to the Secular Party of Canada. Who needs Justin to enable a significant level of actual reform?

    We do, unfortunately.

    The math just doesn’t work out on your “secular party” plan. First, the Nones are not the largest religious group, by quite a bit. Second, the Nones are not at all unified – some estimates put the number of *actual* nonreligious Nones in Canada (as opposed to the “spiritual but not religious” Nones) at only around 10-15% of the Nones. In other words, only around 2-4% of the population. That’s not really going to impress any politician, especially when that 2-4% is watered down by being spread all over Canada.

    Don’t believe me? Well the high end of that percentage estimate is just about what the Green party got in the popular vote last election. How’d that work out for them? Ah, less than 0.3% of the seats. Literally 1 seat.

    On the other hand, if we had proportional representation, that 2-4% could translate into 7-14 seats. Not a majority by any stretch, but certainly enough to get noticed.

    So long as our current electoral system stays in place, because nonbelievers are spread out across the country, we are not going to have any measurable impact on government. It’s just not going to happen.

    We *need* electoral reform, and we need it badly. We have to get ready to fight on this. Now may be our best shot for at least a decade to come, or more.

    Reply
  3. Tim Underwood

    “Observers noted that among the survey’s most striking findings is that one in four Canadians, or 7.8 million people, reported they had no religious affiliation at all.” Huffington Post.

    Well, it looks like there is a lot of work ahead of us.

    Another interesting idea about the “no candidates” idea would be that it could expand to become international, just like the churches.

    Justin isn’t going to be helpful. I think the Pope has warned him.

    Reply

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