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. This year the conference is being held October 15 & 16, in Edmonton. Check out more information about guests and tickets on their website:
Dying With Dignity Edmonton are hosting an event of interest to many of our members, with discussions surrounding the new legislation and how there is still work to be done. Join us there!
Medical Assistance in Dying: An Alberta Perspective
An informative discussion on the implementation, challenges and future implications of Canada’s new assisted dying law.
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Presentation and Q & A: 7 p.m. to 9 pm.
**Strathcona Community Centre, 401 Festival Lane, Sherwood Park**
RSVP (preferred) to Val at valwhitehead@shaw.ca 780-458-9208. Suggested donation of $10 at the door.
Speakers will include:
Dr. Michael Caffaro, Assistant Registrar (Professional Conduct),
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta
Shanaaz Gokool, CEO, Dying With Diginity Canada
Dr. Own Heisler Vice President (Medicine), Covenant Health
The Hon. Brandy Payne, Alberta’s Associate Minister of Health
Lisa Peters-Schmidt Edmonton Chapter Member, Dying With Dignity Canada
Dr. James Silvius, Medical Director of Community, Seniors, Addictions and Mental Health, Alberta Health Services
Moderator: Rev. Brian Kiely
For some reason there seems to be a lot of crossover between atheists/freethinkers/agnostics and geeks (and I mean that in the most loving of ways) so we are trying out a new ”Godless Gamers” event to see what kind of interest there will be. We already hit up new sci-fi and pop culture movies as a group so this seemed like another event there will be interest in.
Members, Lynne and Paul, have graciously offered their place (and their plethora of board games) for our first event of this kind, please contact us for the address as we will not be posting that publicly. If you are on facebook you may want to RSVP so we know how many to expect.
Happy Gaming!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1719136631683320/
The terrible events of Orlando, followed immediately by the detention of a heavily armed James Howell en route to the LA Pride celebration have once again catapulted the discussion of homophobia and it’s origins to the fore.
Two key questions appear to be;
Does homophobia occur naturally?
What role if any, does religion have to play?
Why would atheists march in the Pride Parade?
Most of the reasons for being against equality are rooted in religious doctrine and dogmas. No Gods, No Dogmas, No Problems!
Thanks to everyone that came out and marched with us today, helped at the booth, or stopped by the booth to say hello. We’d also like to send a big thank you to the Edmonton Pride Center and Pride Parade teams for all their organizing. Happy Pride everyone!
Hey NDP government!!
The Society of Edmonton Atheists would like to make you aware that we do not agree with the provincial decision to allow an entire health care facility to speak on behalf of all it’s doctors and staff.
The news from the province today is that Covenant Health will not have to follow the ruling of the Supreme Court. We understand and support an individual right to conscientious refusal, however when we allow an entire publicly funded organization that right, it is an overstep.
Covenant Health own 90% of the palliative care beds in Edmonton and those patients are the most likely to ask for assisted death. You do not have a choice of which palliative care bed you are placed into, so this seems a rather cruel decision. Moving a patient in a fragile medical state is an insensitive suggestion, why not allow for the doctors and nurses that are willing to help come to them, regardless of where they are placed?
Shanaaz Gokool, the CEO of Dying With Dignity Canada in a news release today stated: ”Though physicians, as individuals, have a right to conscientious refusal, taxpayer-funded institutions have no such right. Instead, they have a duty to provide a full range of compassionate healthcare options for patients at end of life.”
We fully agree with Dying With Dignity’s statement and hope the wants of the entire Canadian population (not just the Catholic demographic) will be taken into consideration.
Society of Edmonton Atheists: ‘We’re interested in having a booth at your expo. We feel it’s a fun atmosphere where sci-fi fans (which for some reason have a crossover with atheism) can find out about our group, therefore we’re applying under your non-profit section’
Reply: NO – you violate our policy of promoting religious doctrine
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Society of Edmonton Atheists: ‘We’re interested in joining the displays at City Hall that are aimed at celebrating the diversity of faith groups in our city and making everyone feel like they belong’
Reply: You might not qualify under the guidelines as you aren’t considered religious
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For those of you who know me, you know I’m a huge Doctor Who and Star Trek fan. So much so that I have spent a small fortune to attend both the Calgary and Edmonton Expos over the years to get photos and autographs of my favourite celebrity stars. Just this past month I was down in Calgary for my usual pilgrimage to have a Doctor Who related photo taken. Along with the celebrity signings and photo ops, there is a large presence of comic books, sci-fi and general geek products for sale at every turn, along with some non-profit booths encouraging you to help rescued pets or buy girl guide cookies.
During my travels through the non-profit area of the expo this year I stumbled across gamechurch, who cleverly had a picture of Jesus with a video game controller in his hands. Gamechurch are an evangelical group, who use entertainment expos as a way to spread the word of Jesus, and hand out bibles and stickers along the way.
Continue reading »
If you don’t drive, but have items you want to donate, please email Karen, our current SEA president, and she’ll arrange to pick them up. Email Karen at president@edmontonatheists.ca
Items that the Edmonton Emergency Relief Services are asking for are as follows:
– diapers
– baby wipes
– feminine hygiene products
– soap
– shampoo
– NEW towels
– NEW Underwear and socks
– NEW pillows
– toothbrushes and toothpaste
While not listed, unopened cat and dog food have been mentioned online as items they would accept, so if you want you can also donate those.
We took cash donations during the Aron Ra event on Tuesday evening and have donated $300 to the Red Cross on behalf of the Society of Edmonton Atheists.
The Society of Edmonton Atheists are happy to announce that Aron Ra will be spending the evening with us on Tuesday May 3rd. Held at the University of Alberta, we will be in the Education building in room 129
Aron Ra is one of the “YouTube atheists” and an advocate for rationalism in science classrooms. He grew up in an exclusively creationist environment where he felt like a lonely outcast just for understanding evolution, let alone accepting it. Being raised in a mostly-Mormon family encouraged him to explore other denominations and eventually non-Abrahamic spiritualism before rejecting faith-based beliefs altogether. He was drawn into activism when the Religious Right dominated his state’s Board of Education, and began undermining education in history, health, science, and social studies. His videos often focus on evolution and the evidence indicating an interrelated tree of life. His series summarizing the ‘Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism’ and his subsequent series, ‘Falsifying Phylogeny’ (including the Phylogeny Challenge’) have been mirrored, featured, referenced, and recommended by many professional scientists, secularists, and educators, and has attracted more than 100,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/
TICKETS available now: https://
(Aron incurs some costs, venue hire, flight, hotel and food, so the SEA would appreciate a $20 donation as ticket price. If you can’t afford this price please contact president@edmontonatheists
**You may also donate towards a ticket at a SEA event via one of the board members. Valid email address required. **
We have added a special VIP dinner event on May 2nd. Event details can be found here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pastafarian-night-with-aron-ra-sea-members-only-tickets-24247451781
Hello everyone!
Our Annual General Meeting was Tuesday night, and although the attendance was down a bit from usual, we still met quorum requirements. Annual General meetings are a requirement for us to remain a non-profit group so I would encourage you all to get involved next year, we do spend a bit of time talking about the focus of the Society and what kind of events you are interested in, so all input is greatly appreciated.