Melanie_

If you're from Manitoba, this might be interesting to you... The Winnipeg Foundation is sponsoring a project called On the Same Page: Manitoba Reads I haven't read April Raintree yet, but I'm planning to read it by the end of April. (Yes, I'm a lemming.)

CBC wants to know how much people are paying for child care across the country. If you have a child in care, you can let them know your story, and if the current child care solutions are working for you. Daycare Questionnaire

I'd like to see abortions being performed in hospitals, personally.

I don't see any reference to this in this thread, so here's today's update on Bishop Williamson... Bishop ordered to recant Holocaust denial Why would he be reinstated in the church when he was still denying the Holocaust three days previously? And was he really a bishop - is sounds like JPII didn't think so - he was excommunicated because he was ordained without the papal blessing. Man, there's more politics in religion than there is religion in politics (and that's saying a lot)!

I have a better idea. Lets not have Christians or Muslims deciding what will be law in Canada. Remove religion from the public sphere completely.

How convenient!

A great article in the Winnipeg Free Press today. Abortion Debate is Over and Done For those who are all in a fluster about late term abortions: For those who think abortions are on the rise, and banning them will stop them: For those who think abortions are too easy to come by: Women have the right to control their own bodies, and decide if and when they want to become mothers. That is far too personal a choice to be decided by anyone else.

Then it shouldn't be hard for you to find some citations to show us.

You are perpetually looking for something to slander Muslims with. Do you really think that Canada is about to say, "Oh, ok, you can go ahead and beat and stone women to death, we don't mind"? Regardless of their religion, they are Canadian women, and Canadian law applies. If there is something within their culture that they want to use as a guide for their behaviour, and it doesn't contravene any Canadian laws, I have no problem with them doing it. This goes for any religion, including Christianity. But don't try to apply it to the rest of us.

Can you read? I said within Canada's laws. I even put it in bold, for your benefit. Is it within Canada's laws for a woman to be beaten or stoned to death? Sometimes I think you are stoned when you are posting!

I wasn't really offended by the church's sign so much as it made me think. It seemed to me that the church had no problem expressing intolerance towards atheism, when they could never get away with expressing such intolerance towards other groups. Yes, Muslims would call me an infidel. I may not have spent time opposing them in this thread, but that was because it was a church who had the sign out front, not a mosque. Don't worry, I have an equal disbelief in Allah as in God (and Zeus, and Odin, and Osiris, and.....)

Canada has laws that we all must abide by, regardless of religion. Canada's laws must be based on reason, not religion of any type (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Aboriginal spirituality). Within the universal laws that Canada has passed, if a cultural or religious group wants to arbitrate their disputes using a form of restitution that makes sense to them, fine. Just don't expect to apply that form of restitution to people who are not part of that cultural group.

Thanks for coming back to the original post, Chris, and welcome to the forum. I’m not an atheist because of the bad things I see in Christianity, or any other religion. Religion is mythology, and mythology has a purpose – it can teach morals and values, or inspire great acts of kindness, or give comfort to people in need. Or, mythology can promote hatred, violence, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia…. And on it goes. That isn’t what makes me an atheist, though. I’m an atheist because of the illogic of religion. It just seems silly (or perhaps cruel) to me to think that somewhere in the vastness of the universe there is a being who created this world, pretty much on a whim, and is using it as some sort of social experiment. “I’m going to make a world and tell everyone on it they have to try their best to please me, but I’m not going to tell them how to do that. I’ll give contradictory and misleading information so that everyone thinks they know what I want, which will cause them all to hate each other and fight in my name every day – which will be really funny because it will be against all the teachings they actually do agree on! And, I will tell them that the few years they have on that planet, and how they spend them, will determine whether they are blessed with happiness or cursed with pain for the rest of eternity. Ok, that was fun… what’s next?” Of course, that isn’t the only version of religion out there; each person defines their relationship with their personal god in their own way. You have stated you are a Christian; Canadien has stated he/she is a Christian; Mr. Canada has stated he is a Christian. Yet the beliefs you are declaring are so widely divergent, I have to ask… what is a Christian? Whose reality (see poem) would actually please the god you each claim to believe in? How do you know? Now, having said all of that, I don’t really have a problem with people having religion in their lives. It can be a positive thing as long as it is a personal belief, sort of what you have said about your own Christianity. But when someone tries to impose their version of religion on me, or tell me that I need to run my life based on their belief system, I will stand up and say no. Maybe that gets interpreted as slander, I don’t know – I see it more as being true to my own version of reality.

These are priceless, Chuck! Thanks for sharing.

Cite. Just one little cite. Show some sort of relevent data to support this. Otherwise, its just something your toaster told you.

Oleg, for a few wild moments I actually thought you were coherent, and was starting to agree with you: and then this happened... Blueblood, you need to add a "nana nana booboo" to this: Try extending a helping hand to those in need. Someday you might need a bit of help yourself.

Bingo! But he never answers questions directly, so don't expect any kind of answer from him. Instead, he will accuse you of supporting murder...

I'm in my bubble. Don't poke at my bubble.

Nope, education just can't be trusted. So we should educate people about how dangerous and evil education is. ~~~~~ Aww, now you've gone and edited it. I think you said it just fine the first time.

Cybercoma, I've been wanting to get back to this, but I was thinking it through. The problem with "truth" is that, even if there is some absolute truth out there, we have no way of knowing what it is. That's why I said in this context, "truth" is in the eye of the beholder - there is nothing objective to go by. In the absence of objectivity, everyone defines their own subjective truths, and bases their lives on what they hold to be true. We each see the world through our own lens, which shapes the world to fit our preconceptions. Here's a poem that sums it up far better than I can: from Zukav & Finkelstein (1979) The Dancing Wu Li Masters, An Overview of the New Physics

Ok, Mr. Canada, I'll agree with you 100% that this Imam is a nutbar, and raping and beating wives is a horrible thing. I'm glad to see you joining the feminist movement, and will welcome your support of women's rights in all future threads. So, having said that, you post such drivel sometimes it is hard to even continue reading. Some examples: The most vocal people trying to make polygamy legal in Canada are the Christians in Bountiful BC. Also, statements taken out of context, like this, just make you sound like an idiot.

Well, despite having three teenage kids, I don't know where to get drugs in this city, so I'm still a committed atheist.

How incredibly sad. You are willing to turn your back on your own children if they don't conform to your beliefs. You don't want them to think critically, examine what they believe and decide if it is meaningful to them. Instead, you insist that they follow like lemmings, or be pushed out of your life. Maybe that isn't sad at all.... maybe it is the best thing that could happen to them.

Count me in! I'm all for a Gay Canada if there are fruity drinks with umbrellas involved!

We can all pick up a Bible and see the words on the page, so of course it is a statement of fact that the Bible condemns many things. Just because it is written in the Bible, though, doesn't mean it should have meaning for anyone other than a Christian.