Here’s your Canadian Atheist Weekly Update for to .
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This is absolutely fascinating review of what looks to be an absolutely fascinating book. The piece’s title seems to have been changed after publication; the original title is much more provocative: “How cults corrected America”. The claim made in the book is that while the US was under the thumb of mainstream Protestant Christianity, it was cults that manifested the most radical expressions of progressive ideals. Of course, they weren’t without their own share of problems. It sounds like a brilliant, though flawed, book, so interesting that even this review stands on its own as a piece worth reading.
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The Centre for Inquiry–Canada is the latest Canadian SHAFT organization to come out with a statement about religious accessories bans. Like virtually everyone else, they’ve come out against a ban.
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[] The myth of rational thinking
It is a tenet of faith for too many atheists that our contemporary society is the result of a near-steady progression toward “rationalism”. Anyone who looks too deeply into that claim is quickly disillusioned of it. Likewise, the idea that rationality can be forced on a population (for example, stripping people of their religious accessories) is downright nutty. This interview touches on some of those ideas.
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[] Conservative Catholic group wants Pope Francis denounced as a heretic
Poor Pope Frankie just can’t catch a break. He’s always hounded by progressives on the left for not being as forward-thinking as the mainstream media likes to pretend he is. And at the same time, as we’ve noted here several times before, he’s being hounded by right-leaning factions within Catholicism because he’s even pretending to be forward-thinking.
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[] Our role in ending Bible readings in BC schools
Nice summary of the long process in British Columbia leading to the end of school prayers, and the BCHA’s role in it. It’s interesting what a messy, stutter-step process these things tend to be, not just in ending the privilege, but in how it came to be in the first place.
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[] Canadians struggle to distinguish between real and misinformation, says survey
On the one hand, this is a very serious problem. Journalism has always been political, but it’s becoming increasingly manipulative, and the worst actors are getting better at getting their bullshit to the most vulnerable, and at affecting their behaviours and beliefs. But on the other hand… well, I’m just going to quote the piece:
It found that respondents across all demographics were increasingly relying on social media for their news.
Yeah, see, there’s your problem right there. If you’re getting your news from social media, you’re an idiot, not because social media as a concept is flawed, but because what most people are talking about when they saysocial media
– namely Twitter, Facebook, Google, and the like – are the absolute worst places you should be getting any important information from. These are platforms specifically designed to rile you up and appeal to your worst emotions in order to get you more engaged (and ultimately sell you shit). Getting the majority of your political news from those platforms is as stupid as getting it from an angry, rambling, racist uncle. -
[] Royal Canadian Legion to investigate hate-group presence in local Alberta branch, ban them
The backstory here is that the Grand Prairie branch of the Royal Canadian Legion got in hot water when it came out that they were very cozy with the far-right, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, white supremacist hate group, the Soldiers of Odin. In fact, they even doubled down, claiming that the SoO are just another community group who want to do right and help out. When the provincial arm of the Legion was contacted by reporters, they shrugged and did nothing, saying that no rules were being broken, therefore no problems. There’s been a long history of Legions being wildly racist – all across Canada – and this just seemed par for the course. But just before Update publishing time, there was a new development… now the national body seems to be taking action… maybe? There’s tough talk, and promise of an
investigation
andrepercussions
. We’ll see if anything comes out of this.
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