Reading Time: 7 minutes Many myths carry the modern world, and high on that list is the myth of international relationships. One country cannot “be” friends or enemies with another country, but its representatives can play out an illusion of fraternity or animosity for economic or ideological ends. Alternately, when the game no longer serves, world representatives can take […]
Canada
Posted inEconomics
The oil god delusion: What ancient pantheists got right
Reading Time: 7 minutes Long, long ago, humans tried to make sense of the world by imagining whole pantheons of self-absorbed jerks with outsized power: so-called “gods” whose family quarrels, personal tantrums, dysregulated sexual behaviors, and violent insecurity about others doing anything even close to as well as them shaped the fate of all consigned to suffer in their […]
Posted inLatest research
Canadians are less religious than ever before, census reveals
Reading Time: 2 minutes More than a third of Canadians have no religious affiliation, according to new census data released by Statistics Canada, the nation’s statistical agency. The 34.6% of Canadian “Nones” more than doubles the 16.5% who fell into the same category in 2001, revealing a trend that has yet to plateau. The agency says the change cannot […]
Posted inSociology
Indigenous atheism and the spiritual stereotype
Reading Time: 5 minutes Although nonreligion is now an established area of scholarship in North America and Western Europe, most nonreligion research focuses on white atheists. Little is known about non-white people who self-identify as atheists, leaving research in this area glaringly incomplete. To address this issue, I chose to examine the experiences of Indigenous people in Canada. I […]
Posted inPolitics
Disinviting bigoted campus speakers blocks bigotry, not free speech
Reading Time: 6 minutes When American university and college students try to deny “free speech” platforms to arch-conservative opinion leaders they consider dangerous purveyors of bigotry, or just shout them down, right-wing complaints of suppression are swift and virulent. The constant trope is that American higher education institutions are controlled by “woke,” “liberal” academics and students who want to […]
Posted inLaw
Canada’s government rejects motion to end daily prayer in House of Commons
Reading Time: 5 minutes An attempt to get rid of the ritualistic prayer that opens up House of Commons sessions in Canada’s Parliament was voted down yesterday despite strong arguments against the tradition. The history of the House of Commons prayer The 30-second prayer that opens up those sessions has been around since 1877. It was only minimally modified […]
Posted inPolitics
How God was wedged into secular Canada’s constitution
Reading Time: 4 minutes A new poll has some Canadians looking askance at their own constitution. Canada has a long, conflicted relationship between God and country. Like our neighbor to the south, our government is ostensibly secular, our history is rooted in religion, and our people are at the moment rapidly turning away from the church. Recent polling shows […]
Posted inWar and Peace
Breaking down Western myths of peace
Reading Time: 7 minutes I’ll never forget my confusion, as a Canadian in Colombia in 2018, when I first visited Museo Casa de la Memoria. In Medellín’s “memory house”, a video explained that Colombia had more history with peace than any other country. I’d been raised to believe in Canada’s strong commitment to “peace, order, and good government.” Surely […]
Posted inPolitics
Why are Canadian trucker protesters raising money on a Christian fundraising site?
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canadian truckers protesting vaccine mandates have paralyzed Ottawa, blocking streets throughout the Canadian capital and setting up tents and other rough shelters. The truckers have also blocked key US border crossings across states such as Michigan and Montana. The truckers share a number of characteristics with right-wing populists in the United States: they are furious […]
Posted inGeneral
After Decades in a Cult-like Church, This Couple is Finally Enjoying Freedom
Reading Time: 3 minutes Breanna and Peter Phipps are ready to help others leave their religious bubbles.