Here’s your Canadian Atheist Weekly Update for to .
![[Two panels of a comic. In the first panel, a woman is praying, and asks God: “God, if you did something evil, would it be ethical to reject you?” God answers: “Absolutely.” In the second panel, the woman asks: “Would I still go to Hell?” God answers: “Bigtime.”]](https://www.canadianatheist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/saturday-morning-breakfast-cereal-2021-02-16-law-panels-1-and-2.png)
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[] “Law” by Zach Weinersmith (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal)
Given the incoherence of the theology, it makes perfect sense that there’s an ulterior motive.
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[] QAnon Canada: quieter, subtler
So QAnon is trying to rewrite its image in Canada as “pastel QAnon”, which tries to tone down the batshittery of QAnon by burying it in more socially-acceptable batshittery: goop crap, basically, along with a smattering of
religious devotees, New Agers, and UFO-believers
. But, as the article pointedly says: they stillexpress pro-Trump, racist and anti-Semitic views
. I doubt this whitewashing (and I use that term deliberately) of QAnon could actually work, but in any case, it’s fascinating to watch a dangerous cult desperately try to disguise its true nature so it can continue to exist. -
There are Muslims involved, so you know you’re about to see people demonstrating a complete and utter lack of any empathy, or humanity (or intelligence, generally). But even so, I was surprised that there are actually people who blithely say that people who have
pledged allegiance to a foreign power
have[given] up all rights
… … … about children, most of whom are under the age of seven. And even if you want to pointedly ignore the—again, mostly under-7—children being abandoned by our government, and focus only on the adults, even in that case there are people who were tricked or coerced into travelling to Daesh territory. And even if you want to ignore them, too, and focus only on the people who were fully aware of where they going, and actively “pledged allegiance” to the Islamic State, even then it’s still incredibly idiotic to just… pretend those people no longer exist, and hope the problem they present will magically go away. That’s the level of thinking of a slow-witted child, and yet it’s what you’ll hear some people seriously barf up in these discussions. No, you do not “give up” your rights. That never happens… under any circumstances. Every Canadian currently being held in Syria or Turkey or wherever should be brought home, and if there is any suspicion that they actually “pledged allegiance” to Daesh and took part in any atrocities, they should be investigated and tried for it. That logic doesn’t even require any particular application of empathy or humanist principles… that’s just thinking like an adult, and taking responsibility for our own. -
[] No court injunction for 3 Fraser Valley churches defying COVID health order
I had a couple people ask about this, so I included this item as a way to explain things. All provinces have generally been lackadaisical in the enforcement of their COVID-19 lockdown bylaws when it’s religious groups defying them. However, there are a couple of cases that got so bad, that the province’s hand was kinda forced; they had to do something. This is what happened in BC, where a handful of churches were defying the lockdown bylaws so flagrantly, that authorities felt compelled to step in and fine them. But that, unsurprisingly, accomplished nothing; the churches simply refused to pay the fines, started a court challenge, and continued holding huge in-person services. What happened here is that Dr. Henry tried to both avoid the looming court challenge while also avoiding taking any more personal (or governmental) responsibility. That is why her injunction request failed: the Court basically said: “No, if you seriously want to shut down these churches, take some fucking responsibility and shut them down yourself, no matter the political cost to you… otherwise, we’re going to wait to hear the churches’ challenge next month.” So the churches didn’t really “win” anything much; they just got a temporary reprieve, and their chance to make their case in court wasn’t pulled out from under them. I’d say their chances in court are still very small… except that the lackadaisical and inconsistent enforcement of lockdown bylaws may be a major strike against the province. We’ll see, next month.
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That was my take on the violations of lockdowns by BC churches (and churches in general), unwilling to use existing legislation to do what needs to be done.
To be fair to Dr. Henry, based on her public appearances, if she had her druthers they would all be charged and awaiting their day in court, but she works at the pleasure of her political bosses.
That’s how I read Dr. Henry, too, but I don’t think that’s a good thing at all. It makes me respect her less. I don’t know about you, but when I vote for a government representative, I’m not voting for a party sycophant, and I’m certainly not voting to give power to someone who will refuse to use it when necessary out of fear of political backlash. The fact that that’s what we all seem to accept is disheartening.
In this case, it looks like she ran into a judge that feels roughly the same… which doesn’t bode well for the actual cases coming up in a few weeks. If we’re lucky, those judges will give Henry and the government (and the other provincial governments in the cases in other provinces) a pass for their cravenness… which is a sad thing to be hoping for, but, here we are.