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April 17, 2014
Sorry about the site down time Wednesday - problem was with the server, not particularly this site.
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This site is the successor to Cobourg Atheist (more here) but now the focus is on news with opinion and not on blog essays. About 150 of the articles from Cobourg Atheist have been moved here. Coverage is world wide although it’s from a Canadian perspective. Comments are open but registration is recommended.
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New Survey on Religious attitudes
- Details
- Written by John Draper
- Category: Statistics
- Published: 17 April 2014
- Hits: 39
A new survey by WIN/Gallup International puts a different slant on how people view religion. Instead of asking about how strongly people believed or practised their religion, they asked whether Religion had a positive, negative or no role. They divided the results by country, by level of education and what their particular religion was. The survey was reported in the San Diego Jewish World, The UK Daily Telegraph and others.
The Religion of political leaders
- Details
- Written by John Draper
- Category: News from Europe
- Published: 14 April 2014
- Hits: 153
The three leaders in Britain: David Cameron, Conservative PM; Ed Millibrand – Labour; Nick Clegg – Liberal Coalition leader and Deputy PM are coming to grips with the mostly non-religious electorate (more below). The U.S. is almost a theocracy although Obama tries (a little) to keep it secular. Canada is mostly secular but the leaders are all openly religious. Australia had an atheist PM until she lost and the PM there now is a strong Catholic, Tony Abbott. So what’s new? What has changed recently? Not much but many are worried.
Hitchens Videos
- Details
- Written by John Draper
- Category: Favourites
- Published: 13 April 2014
- Hits: 175
Christopher Hitchens was born April 13, 1949 and died Dec 15, 2011. So today is his birthday - he would have been 65 but I doubt that would have meant retirement. I just read his last book Mortality - short but a good read. Lots of wisdom - even for religious folk. On the occasion of Christopher Hitchen's birthday, I thought I would follow the example of Hemant Mehta over at the Friendly Atheist and list three of my favourite Hitch videos. Below are 2 links to videos on my You-Tube channel and one to videos available only on Cobourg Atheist News.
Killing criminals still common
- Details
- Written by John Draper
- Category: U.S. News
- Published: 11 April 2014
- Hits: 126
One of the things that marks primitive morality is the use of Capital Punishment - that's a euphanism for "killing criminals". And although it's true that primitive countries have the worst record in executing people, the United States is one of the worst offenders. It's strange that killing someone as a punishment is still performed - it is actually a stronger punishment to imprison someone for life than to kill them. Just think about it - life imprisonment is a long lasting punishment. Of course with the slow American Justice system, a death sentence includes many years on death row which is arguably worse than simple life imprisonment.
Are Ontario Separate schools really any different?
- Details
- Written by John Draper
- Category: Canadian News
- Published: 09 April 2014
- Hits: 233
A few days ago, the Ontario Superior Court ruled that a student at a Catholic high school who is entitled to be excused from religious courses must also be excused, if they wish, from religious field trips and attending mass. (Toronto Star) This is causing reaction by critics both Catholic and secular. Catholics are understandably asking, "what now makes Catholic schools religious or different"? If they are not different, what's the point? And they are not different if students can go there and ask to be exempted from everything that makes them different!
Read more: Are Ontario Separate schools really any different?
Quebec Secularists defeated
- Details
- Written by John Draper
- Category: Canadian News
- Published: 07 April 2014
- Hits: 195
The Parti Quebecois (PQ) introduced the so-called "Quebec (Secular) Charter" but it had not yet been passed into law when an election was called - partly because of its popularity. Unfortunately the PQ lost badly in today's election and the opposition Liberals are now expected to form a majority government. For the last 18 months, Pauline Marois led a minority Government and was looking for a chance to call an election so she could win a majority. The popular charter seemed to give her that opportunity. But her party had another major agenda that had been on the back burner - sovereignty. That is, separation from Canada. The voters did not want that - big time.
Inquiry on abuse by Christian Brothers in W.A.
- Details
- Written by John Draper
- Category: News from Australia
- Published: 07 April 2014
- Hits: 216
As reported in an earlier post (Catholic Brothers also abusive), the Christian Brothers in Australia ran several institutions where they looked after boys - either orphanages or boarding schools - but not all the boys were well treated. The Government in Western Australia will now be holding a formal inquiry into complaints of abuse by boys at Institutions run by Christian Brothers in the state of Western Australia. (Perth Now News)