Niqabs not welcome in Quebec
- Details
- Created on Saturday, 06 March 2010 14:00
- Published on Saturday, 06 March 2010 14:00
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 4563
Quebec has a fairly large immigrant population from countries like Egypt and Libya and many are Muslim so it's not surprising that they bring the niqab with them. A girl from Egypt went to a class to learn French but she wore her niqab and disrupted the class. The teacher feels that teaching pronunciation requires that the face be visible but the girl wants to be protected from the prying eyes of the mostly male students. When she refused to remove the niqab during lessons, she was expelled and has now taken the case to the human rights commission.
Read more: Niqabs not welcome in Quebec
The Catholic Church seems to attract pedophiles
- Details
- Created on Saturday, 06 March 2010 06:35
- Published on Saturday, 06 March 2010 06:35
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 3644
Every day it seems there are more examples uncovered of Catholic priests and bishops committing sexual crimes. Last year we had the case of the bishop surfing for child pornography (Bishop Lahey) on the Internet and reports of many priests in Ireland (Report on Ireland) being guilty of abuse of boys in their care. Over the last few weeks there have been many cases of abuse in schools in Germany (report) and now there is a report of a gay prostitution ring involving Vatican VIPs. Yesterday, there were reports that Dutch Catholics are coming forward to report abuse (report). And there have been many cases in earlier years in Canada, US, Australia and other countries. The defence by Catholics is that there are no more cases than occurs in the rest of the population. If that's the case, then how can priests pretend to be an authority on morality? And since there are so many sex crimes, how can they pretend that celibacy is a good idea?
The Bible demands obedience to God and His Church
- Details
- Created on Friday, 05 March 2010 10:00
- Published on Friday, 05 March 2010 10:00
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 3608
Christian churches have only recently condemned slavery - in the nineteenth century most denominations bowed to the demands of the Southern slave owners by softening or removing any references to slavery from their statements. Although every church included some abolitionists, the most outspoken religious leaders of Abolitionism were Quakers, Unitarians and representatives of other "fringe" groups. Not only that but prominent theologians like Charles Hodge of Princeton, actually offered extensive theological justification for the institution of slavery. Hodge, in an article entitled The Bible Argument on Slavery, sums up his argument as follows:
Read more: The Bible demands obedience to God and His Church
The Ten Commandments - Christopher Hitchens
- Details
- Created on Thursday, 04 March 2010 13:55
- Published on Thursday, 04 March 2010 13:55
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 2719
Hitchens spoke about the ten commandments at a seminar sponsored by the ROM in Toronto last June (report here including audio of his talk) and he has now published an article in Vanity Fair (April Edition) and created a video based on this article.
The video tells it like it is on the original 10 commandments - although it's hard to be sure which version to talk about. Hitchens then makes a suggestion on what might be in the commandments if they were invented today. Classic Hitchens although no audience to react to.
Can god and atheism be defined?
- Details
- Created on Thursday, 04 March 2010 06:02
- Published on Thursday, 04 March 2010 06:02
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 2168
If you are not an atheist, you don't know what the word means. Have you ever told someone that you are an atheist and they ask: "Do you mean agnostic? How can you be so sure there is no god?" The word atheist does not mean an active belief that there is positively no god. It means an absence of a belief in god. Not quite the same. I don't say, I can't in conscience say, that there is no possible way that there could be a higher power that some might call a god. I simply act my life on the assumption that there is no god that I need concern myself with. I call that not being a theist or simply being an atheist.
Religion is in its Death Throes - AC Grayling
- Details
- Created on Tuesday, 02 March 2010 06:45
- Published on Tuesday, 02 March 2010 06:45
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 2372
AC Grayling is an atheist and Professor of Philosophy at the University of London, England. He is also the author of many books and is currently in Australia on a speaking tour - no doubt like Richard Dawkins his timing is to include the upcoming Atheist convention in Melbourne on 12-14 March. He gave an interview to ABC TV in Australia where he discusses a range of subjects including what the world will look like without religion - or as he admits, with less religion. Like many people (including me), he would expect less discord and a higher level of morality.
Predicting the future
- Details
- Created on Wednesday, 03 March 2010 13:55
- Published on Wednesday, 03 March 2010 13:55
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 1996
We know that for survival, the human brain has evolved to have an excellent ability to recognize patterns. But when we experience something that does not easily fit a known pattern, we try desperately to make it fit then eventually create a new one. Sometimes, our brain fools us and when we create a pattern - better described as an explanation - it is not right. For example, why does the sun rise in the east every day and set in the west. Maybe it's a sun-god? This is how religions got started. Unfortunately, when we learned more, we did not always create a new explanation - the old pattern/explanation just got modified.
Mini Debate - Sam Harris Faith vs Reason
- Details
- Created on Monday, 01 March 2010 06:46
- Published on Monday, 01 March 2010 06:46
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 4584
Here's a short debate between atheist, scientist and author Sam Harris and fundamentalist Christian, lawyer and author Hugh Hewitt that's worth looking at again. Sam feels that religion is used to justify evil while Hugh says that it's nothing to do with religion - it's just bad people. The two are fairly well matched but it is good to watch if you are interested in a healthy debate.
Sam's main point is that we should try to get away from using faith to justify our actions whereas Hugh thinks that faith is good - the problem being with bad people.
More Articles...
- Long, bloody road to Islam reform
- Does Teaching the bible in schools teach culture?
- Gods who cannot exist- that's all of them
- Half of Americans do not belong to a Church
- The Psychology of Fundamentalists and Atheists
- Philosophy and Science
- Unveiling the truth behind Shariah
- Membership in US Churches
