Welcome to the Society of Edmonton Atheists’ blog. If this is your first time visiting, click “Continue Reading” to get a quick summary of what’s here.
The Society of Edmonton Atheists are proud to be founding sponsors of the AB Secular Conference. The conference location varies each year as it travels the province. You can follow them on facebook or check out their website for the latest news.
Unfortunately, due to a forecast of rain and wind this weekend, we are postponing our highway cleanup originally scheduled May 13th and 14th. It’s not particularly safe to be out on the grass when it’s slippery and wet.
We will try again for next weekend, May 20th and 21st.
We do have a few people willing to do car pools from Century Park LRT, so if you are in need of a ride in order to help out with this event, drop us a message at info@edmontonatheists.ca and we’ll let the drivers know who to look for.
If you are able to offer rides, please let us know as well.
Thanks, see you all next weekend!
With all the information floating around lately about Catholic schools, religion classes, and funding, we thought we’d just remind everyone about the Alberta Act and the Northwest Territories Ordinances of 1901 that govern our school boards. Here’s what they say:
Alberta School Act
Religious and patriotic instruction
50(1) A board may
(a) prescribe religious instruction to be offered to its students;
(b) prescribe religious exercises for its students;
(c) prescribe patriotic instruction to be offered to its students;
(d) prescribe patriotic exercises for its students;
(e) permit persons other than teachers to provide religious instruction to its students.
(2) Where a teacher or other person providing religious or patriotic instruction receives a written request signed by a parent of a student that the student be excluded from religious or patriotic instruction or exercises, or both, the teacher or other person shall permit the student
(a) to leave the classroom or place where the instruction or exercises are taking place for the duration of the instruction or exercises, or
(b) to remain in the classroom or place without taking part in the instruction or exercises.
http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/Acts/s03.pdf
Ordinances of Northwest Territories, 1901
Religious instruction
137 No religious instruction except as hereinafter provided shall be permitted in the school of any district from the opening of such school until one half hour previous to its closing in the afternoon after which time any such instruction permitted or desired by the board may be given.
Time for the Lord’s prayer
(2) It shall however be permissible for the board of any district to direct that the school be opened by the recitation of the Lord’s prayer. C.O., c.75, s.110.
Attendance not compulsory during religious exercise
138 Any child shall have the privilege of leaving the school room at the time at which religious instruction is commenced as provided for in the next preceding
section or on remaining without taking part in any religious instruction that may be given if the parents or guardians do desire.
C.O., c.75, s.111.
With John Edwards (alleged psychic medium) in town today, we thought we ‘d remind everyone that it’s okay to question his abilities and wanted to give some tips on what things to look for to help you spot if he’s genuine or not. There is currently no concrete evidence that any psychic can truly speak to the dead. They are for entertainment value only. Don’t be afraid to question those that claim psychic mediumship.
We’ve also included a fun BINGO card you can print off if you are attending his event and take with you. Don’t forget to count the hits vs misses as well, it might surprise you!
A Court of Queen’s bench judgement out of Saskatchewan on April 20th regarding non-Catholics attending Catholic schools raised more questions for me than answers, so I phoned up Luke Fevin, one of our board directors but also founder of the secular rights education group APUPIL, to go over some things with me so I could understand it better.
Our Annual General Meeting was this month and we had a relatively good turn out this year. Thank you to all that made it out, your input helps shape the direction of the Society. General meetings are a requirement for us to remain a non-profit group so we appreciate your commitment to the group!
Our financial statements were reviewed and we had our biggest year yet for money raised via membership. We discussed some volunteer ideas, including donating towards the back to school campaigns that happen each September. Highway Clean-up, Habitat for Humanity, Pride Parade and other events were all on the list of discussion, as well as a suggestion for donations to the SEA with the idea of a ”Tenth of a Tithe”.
Anyone who wasn’t able to attend, but has bought a new membership recently, you can watch for your membership card in the mail this week.
BOARD ELECTIONS
The executive are on two year terms, so will be voted on next year. We did have a vacancy on the executive that was filled for the remainder of the term, as well as 4 director positions (which are one year terms) were filled. Your board for 2017 – 2018 is as follows:
Congratulations to our new board, looking forward to some new ideas and growth in the upcoming year.
Karen Lumley Kerr
President, Society of Edmonton Atheists
In response to the growing public pressure to examine the real cost & benefit of the duplicate Separate Catholic school system in Alberta, the President of the Alberta Catholic School Trustees Association recently wrote & widely distributed an opinion piece entitled “Catholic Education: Confronting Fiction with Facts.” – a delicious title given the subject matter at hand.
It transpires, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the “Fact versus Fiction” format wasn’t ACSTA’s core competency and ultimately the Coles Notes / tl;dr version is that what ACSTA is actually separate from is “reality”, and what they *should* be separate from is the millions and millions of public dollars that they take.
TUESDAY, April 4, 2017 will be this year’s SEA Annual General Meeting (AGM), formally starting at 7:00 pm, Edmonton Clinic Health Academy at the U of A, Room ECHA L1-430 (basement). We will be there from 6:30pm onwards for anyone that requires a membership or needs to renew.
Anyone interested is invited to attend; however, only paying members will be permitted to vote in the general election or on any other business.
If you are at all interested in running for the Board, please take a look at our explanation of the roles and responsibilities for each position, as well as some FAQs about joining the Board. Last year the Executive positions were voted in for two year terms but we will be voting in the four Director positions. Although the Executive positions are not up for election this year, please bear in mind in order to run for President you have to have served on the board for at least one year (throughout the history of the group), so if you intend on running for this position in the future it is worth thinking about joining the board. You can email us to let us know that you’d like to run for a Board position (even if you will not be present at the meeting), ask another member to nominate you at the appropriate point during the meeting, or you may also self-nominate at the meeting.
If you would like to see the current bylaws, they can be found on the website, under “About”. We are planning on updating some of the wording for our bylaws this year, which will have to be voted on to be passed. Please read the changes in red, on pages 3, 4, and 6: 2017 BYLAW change proposal
If you would like to propose changes for consideration at the AGM, they must be sent to the Board for distribution to the rest of the membership in advance of the meeting. Please try to have those into us before March 27th.
We hope to have a large turnout as we will also be discussing the direction of the SEA, what types of events you are interested in and fundraising ideas. As per usual we will head to the pub afterwards for sustenance. See you there!
Karen
President, SEA
You are invited to join us for GOD in the MODERN WORLD: A CHRISTIAN-ATHEIST DIALOGUE
Is there room for God in the modern world? Or is belief in God a relic of the past?
In this discussion, Christian theologian Randal Rauser and Atheist Justin Schieber share very different views about the meaning and relevance of God for the modern age.
This event is part of the “Crucial Conversations Series”, which aims to host uncommon discussion about challenging topics that are friendly, engaging and substantive. We hope you will join us for this free event to hear from our presenters, ask your own questions, and to engage other attendees in respectful dialogue.
This event is co-presented by the E P Wahl Centre, the continuing education ministry of Taylor, along with the Society for Edmonton Atheists. There is no charge to attend, and light refreshments will be offered following the event.
**REGISTRATION REQUIRED** Reserve your tickets today!
http://www.taylor-edu.ca/
Please join us on February 12th to celebrate the life and research of Charles Darwin! This is a Family Friendly event with a few interactive displays and a presentation by Dr. Philip Currie on evolution/dinosaurs. We will be taking donations to contribute towards Dr. Currie’s ongoing research.
Philip J. Currie, is a Canadian palaeontologist and museum curator who helped found the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller. You may also know his name from the newly opened dinosaur museum outside of Grande Prairie.
Currie is an important figure in dinosaur science, and has specialized in fossils from Alberta’s Dinosaur Provincial Park as well as other Cretaceous sites (dating from the latter part of the dinosaur age) around the world. He is particularly interested in the evolution and classification of carnivorous dinosaurs (theropods) and their living descendants, birds. He has painstakingly investigated the skeletal anatomy of many of these, including the recently discovered feathered theropods (Protarchaeopteryx and Caudipteryx) of China. The find was considered clear evidence of the relationship between birds and dinosaurs. Other research has focused on dinosaur footprints, as well as dinosaur growth and variation, including description of embryonic duck-billed dinosaur bones discovered inside their fossilized crushed eggshells at Devil’s Coulee in southern Alberta.
This is an event you won’t want to miss!
Feb 12th, 2pm-4pm, Edmonton Clinic Health Academy ROOM 1 – 490 (main floor) .
It’s that time of year again, membership renewals are due. If you bought your membership in the last few months of last year (carries over into 2017) or if you have an automatic 3 year renewal via paypal you will be listed as a current member with us, otherwise your membership needs to be renewed.
Purchasing or renewing a membership is easy. You can update your membership at any event with one of our board members. Or you can purchase/renew your membership online.
Memberships are $30 for the entire year, and allow you access to VIP members only events, give you discounts to events like the AB Secular Conference, access to our book library and shows your support for our organization. We have just received our new membership cards this week and will be handing them out at events (or mailing them if you can’t regularly attend) so you can be a ”card carrying atheist”!
If you purchase or renew your membership by February 22nd (so that’s four weeks from today) you’ll be entered to win a copy of ‘Flim Flam’ signed by James Randi himself! Any current 2017 members (purchased since the end of 2016/lifetime members/automatically renewing on paypal) will be automatically entered into this draw. If you are unsure if you are up to date with your membership drop us a line at info@edmontonatheists.ca and we’ll check for you.
Thanks for your continued support of the Society of Edmonton Atheists!
