Dec 222014
 

It’s December. Christmas decorations in stores have been up for 8 weeks already, you may be wishing you could target an EMP at speakers playing carols, and the annual charity season is in full swing. Salvation Army kettles are in the malls, and there are billboards up explaining that a goat is more than just a goat.

So, how do you decide which charities are worth giving to? Continue reading »

Dec 122014
 

Diversity (gender and racial) in speakers at atheist conferences has increased from 2003 to 2014, according to a paper written by Ian Bushfield and Chris Hassall.

Hassall, C and Bushfield, I 2014. Increasing Diversity in Emerging Non-religious Communities.Secularism and Nonreligion 3:7, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/snr.as

This is good to hear, and certainly follows my own impressions of the growth in the SEA’s membership. Back when we were getting organized in 2007 (which Ian had a large hand in) the group was overwhelmingly white males. Now, our Board of Directors is evenly split in terms of gender, and our racial diversity at events has been improving.

The SEA is working with some other Alberta groups for a conference in October 2015, keep your eyes open for details in the coming months.

 

 

Dec 082014
 

Does your school suffer from an STD (Standard Teaching of Dogma)? SEA member Kathy Dawson has put together some tips and resources for dealing with religious-based sexual education in your public school.

http://scathinglywrongrightwingnutz.blogspot.ca/2014/11/does-your-school-have-std-standard.html

If you aren’t familiar with Kathy’s current human rights complaint against the Edmonton Public School District, Paula Simons from the Edmonton Journal wrote a column about the topic in July. Edmonton’s Pregnancy Care Centre is explicitly Christ-based, and an affiliate of the Canadian Association of Pregnancy Support Services, whose Core Documents can be found on their website.