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Cobourg Atheist - News and Resources from Canada
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Written by John Draper
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Thursday, 11 March 2010 13:28 |
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Richard Dawkins is in Australia to attend the Atheist Convention and to also promote his books. Interviews by Australians are different to those by the British or the Americans so Dawkins talks about different things. The interview by George Negus of the Australian SBS Television network "feeds" Dawkins some good questions and George seems to be either neutral or at least not strongly religious.
There are two versions available - this is the longer one at about 15 minutes with no introduction. Hosted on Cobourg Atheist.
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Written by John Draper
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Thursday, 11 March 2010 07:02 |
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Quebec is not only Canadian and French and has strong Catholic roots, it is also the most secular province. In some respects they lead Canada in their policies on keeping religion separate from the “state”. Recently they banned an immigrant woman wearing a burqa from classes teaching French and now they are banning Government subsidized day-care centres from teaching religion. Twenty centres are affected.
On Wednesday, March 10, Quebec Family Minister Tony Tomassi said that “religious education will no longer be tolerated in government-subsidized daycares”. Annie Turcot, spokesperson for a coalition of publicly funded daycares on the island of Montreal said "The mission of [early-childhood education centres] is really to help families integrate into Quebec culture.” And the unspoken thought is that integration does not mean perpetuating the religions and cultures (like Islam) that they bring with them.
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Written by John Draper
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Wednesday, 10 March 2010 06:00 |
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When a child is born, he/she comes with genes that determine many things - including race, appearance, personality, intelligence, sexual orientation and more. But children are not born with knowledge, beliefs, culture or religion. These come primarily from their parents and also from others they come in contact with. If their parents are smart, they will want to teach their children moral values such as the golden rule as well as tolerance and respect for the beliefs of others. They will usually want to also teach their culture and beliefs which might include a religion. It's unrealistic to expect parents to teach their children anything contrary to their beliefs. But if the parents' beliefs include tolerance and respect for others, they will teach that the beliefs and religion are "theirs" but that other people have other cultures and religions which must be respected. Lastly, they will teach their children to use their reason to decide about anything new they may come across.
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Written by John Draper
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Tuesday, 09 March 2010 08:28 |
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If there is a god, and if he wants us as humans to pray to him, to worship him, build churches for him and generally take notice of him, why did he not prove he exists? It's all very well to say that he is testing our faith but why did he then also give us intelligence and the ability to reason? Perhaps he wanted us to use our talents to prove his existence using science. Well he sure made it hard. Courtesy of Victor Stenger and his book God, the Failed Hypothesis, here is a list of eleven things he could have done to convince us that he exists.
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Written by John Draper
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Monday, 08 March 2010 13:46 |
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March 8th is International women's day and unfortunately the cause still needs to be promoted in much of the world - primarily in Muslim countries but also Hindu countries and other places with poor education such as Africa. There are a number of women who are fighting for their cause and there are several articles on Cobourg Atheist that are supportive (more below). Note that women still do not have equal rights in the Catholic Church nor are they considered equal by the Southern Baptists - Jimmy Carter made a public exit to protest the treatment of women by them. However, the biggest abuse of women worldwide occurs in Muslim countries.
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Written by Dagmar Gontard
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Monday, 08 March 2010 06:03 |
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Musings on the International Women's Day
Usually on March 8th, which is the International Women's Day, my thoughts go out to the women who still live under the barbaric medieval laws and are subject to such niceties as being stoned to death for adultery, having acid thrown in their faces for not wearing the veil or for going to school, being barred from many forms of employment, being murdered for so called honour reasons, etc. But this year, my thoughts go out to a man. A very important man. In fact, no less than the President of France himself, one Nicolas Sarkozy. Time and again, he falls victim to a woman's whim and his domestic imbroglios appear on the front pages of la belle France. When Cécilia left and the latest of his ladies, Carla, showed up, the media went so ballistic that he had to remind his countrymen of the laïcité, the secularism, that is the so important trait of the French nation, which boils down to this: what is private, should be left that way, and what is public can be in the public sphere. Being secularist myself, I am with him on this. I am heart and soul for the laïcité. But, back to Monsieur Sarkozy. Once again, a woman's anger is looming over his head, and this time the lady's name is Jeanne.
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Written by John Draper
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Sunday, 07 March 2010 19:40 |
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When Geert Wilders came to Britain last Friday (March 5) and showed his film Fitna at the House of Lords, he caused quite a stir. Exercising their right to free speech, groups demonstrated outside both for and against his views. Since he might well have a major role in the next Dutch Government, what he has to say is of interest and he also verbalizes what many others in the Western World think. I think his words are inflammatory but have some truth to them. The Qu’ran does in fact compare with the Bible’s Old Testament and does preach violent solutions. I wonder to what extent we can rely on moderate Muslims to “interpret” these teachings so they conform with western values of equal rights for women plus tolerance for other religions and apostasy. Although I would not ban the Qu’ran as he advocates, I would ban Sharia law and insist that immigrants follow local laws and adapt their culture so they fit in and don’t try to change the ways of their host. For example, head scarves are OK, niqabs are not.
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Copyright © 2010 Cobourg Atheist. All Rights Reserved.
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News Update
March 12, 2010
1. Calling for a 'change of vision', Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, leader of the Catholic Church in Austria, said the causes of sex abuse by priests could be found in 'priest celibacy' and 'priest training'. Daily Mail.
2. Egyptian Sheikh Tantawi has died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 81. He was a fierce critic of al-Qaeda and condemned the attacks of September 11 2001 so he will be missed. He featured in 2 articles on this site about niqabs. First and second.
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Books
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My most favourite book - ever:
The Heathen's Guide to World Religions by William Hopper. Web site here.
Also:
In Defense of Atheism by Michel Onfray
God the Failed Hypothesis by Victor Stenger
You'll see excerpts of these books and others on this site.
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