Here’s your Canadian Atheist Weekly Update for to .
![[The first two panels from the Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comic “Cucurbits”. In panel 1, an angel approaches God and asks, “Hey God, whatcha doin’?” In panel two, God shows a work bench with a melon, a gourd, and a squash, and replies: “Making a new family of plants. I call it “cucurbitaceae”.]](https://www.canadianatheist.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/saturday-morning-breakfast-cereal-2017-12-13-cucurbits-1-2-200x94.png)
It should be totally unsurprising that the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil was about “knowing” in the Biblical sense.
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[] Newfoundland and Labrador ends Operation Christmas Child in its schools
In last week’s Update, one item mentioned a dodgy Christian “charity” called Samaritan’s Purse. Happily, some school boards are realizing how unpleasant they are.
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[] “World’s top Islamophobe,” Pamela Geller, to speak at Jewish Defence League event in Toronto
Anti-Muslim hate is finding fertile ground in Toronto, but look closely at the venues of these events. The pattern is hard to miss.
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I can’t help but wonder why this kind of thing is never considered in definitions of “barbaric cultural practices”.
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[] Islamophobia in Québec: An ideology rooted in 20th century imperialism
Among Canadian provinces, Québec stands out as the most virulently anti-Muslim by far. Most people, myself included, assume those attitudes are imported from the European far right. But the reality may be that Québec has always been intolerant of Muslims, and the only thing “new” is that rather than trying to convert Muslims to Catholicism, they are being brow-beaten by Québec’s warped understanding of “secularism”.
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Nice review of the situation right now in Québec, regarding the child abuse lawsuits.
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[] De-radicalization can work for former ISIS fighters
De-radicalization programs became the latest fabricated controversy in Canadian politics a couple weeks ago. This piece gives some more perspective on the programs.
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[] David Saint-Jacques, Canadian Astronaut, To Head To Space Station In 2018
It’s been four years since Chris Hadfield came back from space, and no Canadians have been since. That will change next year.
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[] “Cucurbits” by Zach Weinersmith (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal)
In the Bible according to Zach Weinersmith, the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil is why the Garden of Eden was paradise.
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[] Charterpedia
Okay, this is really cool. I’ve been loudly critical of the Trudeau administration (and will not be voting Liberal in the next election primarily due to their failed electoral reform promise), but in the last couple of weeks they have really been living up to some of their promise. Now they have published the Charterpedia, which is a collection of case law relating to each of the sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that the government actually uses when preparing for court challenges. I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface – this will be my holiday reading for sure – but if you’re interested in your Charter rights, this should be a magnificent resource.
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[] This Is The Daily Stormer’s Playbook
In recent months we have seen some damning leaks from the alt-right, which pull the wool off the wolf and reveal that the critics were right all along: they are racist, they are neo-Nazi, and the whole “free speech” thing is just a ploy. This latest reveal continues the trend. It is a style guide for contributors to an alt-right, white nationalist website, and it reveals that their jokey, memey tone is just a put-on to hide extreme antisemitic and misogynist views. Personally, I am amused by the stark contrasts between their style guide and the Canadian Atheist documents – theirs has lists of slurs and recommendations to read Mein Kampf, ours has advice about password safety and spotting tracking tags.
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[] The war on Christmas past and how the holiday tree came to be
This piece gives a neat historical recap of the “war on Christmas” in Canada, but with an amusing snarky tone that makes proponents of the “war” look a little silly.
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It’s important to clarify that none of the allegations have been proven… and some have already been shown to be false. The article characterizes this as a
turf war
between the Church and the community group that has been going on for decades. -
Canada’s security services agencies are long overdue for a serious house-cleaning.
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[] Daphne Bramham: Legal rights, not religion, may result in polygamy convictions being stayed
This story really infuriates me, not for what Winston Blackmore has done – he’s a creep, and creeps gonna creep – but for the way BC’s attorney-generals behaved. For decades they refused to charge Blackmore with polygamy – not because they didn’t think they had the evidence to get a conviction – because they were afraid the courts would find the polygamy law unconstitutional. That is why shitty laws like the blasphemy law stay on the books! What should happen is the attorney general should do their fucking job and make the case… and if the court strikes down the law, so be it; justice would be done either way. And because several attorney-generals failed to do their damn job for decades, there is a chance Blackmore might walk free.
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This is a bit depressing. While a plurality wants absolutely no funding of religious schools, it’s a slim plurality. And worse, younger Canadians are more supportive of funding religious schools. Clearly we need more education on the topic.
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[] Canada: Liberals are becoming an ‘anti-Christian hate group’
As usual, it’s not atheists who are defining Christianity as a hateful ideology; it’s Christians themselves.
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[] Rushed bill to erase past convictions for consensual gay sex is flawed, critics say
As noted last week, Justin Trudeau’s apology to LGBT Canadians for past injustices was not only historic, it was internationally historic, and the accompanying legislation to purge past convictions was something Canadians could be proud of. Except… does it go far enough?
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[] Quebec Mandatory Sex Education Leaves Some Parents Ready To Fight
It’s the usual suspects who are opposed to this.
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