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Fraser Health Authority Experiments With Modern Medicine

January 20, 2010 in Health & Medicine, Religion by askeptic | No comments

New strategy leads to the firing of 12 witch doctors

Naturally the Calgary Herald and its sister paper The Vancouver Sun are outraged. Imagine, the publicly funded Fraser Health Authority actually committing itself to modern medicine and tossing out its staff of witch doctors or spiritual care directors.

Vancouver Sun writer Douglass Todd is leading the charge against this outrage. His biography on the Vancouver Sun website states: Although he was raised in a family of staunch atheists, Douglas Todd has gone on to become one of the most decorated spirituality and ethics writers in North America. (Whew, that was close!)

His piece entitled, Spiritual care directors help keep Canada healthy, was published in the Sunday, January 17 edition of the Calgary Herald. This seemed to be a follow up piece to Fraser Health’s firing of spiritual-care directors a step backwards, published in the Vancouver Sun on December 21. Read the rest of this entry »

Made it Through the Holidays

January 16, 2010 in Religion, Uncategorized by askeptic | 3 comments

I feel great now that I am praying for Haiti

Thanks to all who wrote wondering where I was. I have been here, but taking a break over the holidays.

Outside of a piece concerning the Canadian Cancer Society’s recent endorsement and promotion of medical quackery, I haven’t written anything since mid December, despite having plenty to write about, courtesy of the Calgary Herald (Canada’s Largest Christian Daily). Fortunately, most of what the Calgary Herald had to say over the holidays of concern to skeptics came in the form of trivial remarks or minor pieces. Read the rest of this entry »

Foreign Gods at the Calgary Zoo

October 1, 2009 in Religion by askeptic | 1 comment

Well, you have probably heard the story by now.

A Christian group has complained that the Calgary Zoo is displaying a religious icon, specifically, a statue of a dancing elephant that represents the Hindu god Ganesh. Jim Blake, National Chair of Concerned Christians Canada, sent a letter to the Calgary Zoo calling for the sculpture to be removed. The letter states: Read the rest of this entry »

More Bill 44 nonsense from the Herald

September 13, 2009 in Education, Religion by askeptic | No comments

In a brief editorial published September 08, 2009 entitled: Quebec proves Bill 44 is right, the Calgary Herald once again demonstrated why its masthead should be changed to Canada’s Largest Christian Daily. Currently, the masthead reads Proudly Calgary Since 1883 and A Division of Canwest Publishing Inc. I assume 1883 represents the currency of the ideas that come from Canwest. Read the rest of this entry »

Strange ideas find friends in the media. Lies, on the other hand, find their way into the Calgary Herald

July 28, 2009 in General Science, Religion by askeptic | 2 comments

I’m no expert, but I think Susan Martinuk is going to hell

Well, I’m back from vacation. I needed a break. I like to kick back, drink too much tequila and play where it’s warm. Actually, I don’t know if I needed a break or not, but it sure felt good having one. (Note to alternative medicine flakes: there is a difference between something that makes you feel good and a medical cure. If not, I’ll have Alberta Health compensate me for my trip and my tequila. Really, I feel great.)

Speaking of breaks (from reality) I returned just in time to come across an article in the July 24, 2009 edition of my Calgary Herald (motto: Canada’s largest Christian daily) entitled: Strange ideas and friends in media, and Obama by Susan Martinuk. The focus of Susan’s piece is John Holden, Obama’s recent appointment as director of the Office of Science and Technology. Dr. Holden has come under a great deal of fire by conservatives concerning his co-authorship with Paul Elrichof of, Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment, published in 1977. Read the rest of this entry »

Speaking of Grades, Bishop Henry . . .

May 6, 2009 in Education, Evolution, Religion, Skeptic News by askeptic | No comments

Bill 44 has been producing quite a stir here in Alberta.

This is the bill that will either allow parents to remove their children from such controversial subjects as evolution or will not permit parents to remove their children from such subjects as evolution — depending upon who in the government you talk to. The Premier says parents will have that right, the Minister responsible says parents won’t. Half the Conservative caucus is speaking out in favour of the Government’s position (although they are split on which government position), while the other half of caucus is running for cover. The opposition is against it, although here again, just what ‘it’ is, isn’t clear. Read the rest of this entry »

Latest Update: Monkeys Are Back In Alberta Education

May 6, 2009 in Education, Evolution, Religion, Skeptic News by askeptic | No comments

Did ASkepticRTN cause the Alberta government’s turnaround?

It was on the weekend that AskepticRTN delivered its critique of the Alberta Government’s Bill 44 (see AskepticRTN, Education in Alberta: No Monkeys Please). Copies were sent to the politicians involved, as well as all the newspaper columnists mentioned in the post.

I guess we had an impact. First, we got flooded with e-mail. I love e-mail. It lets me know I actually have some readers out there and I like that. One regular reader, Ian, actually submitted a comment. That’s great too. Ian always gives me constructive criticism. Read the rest of this entry »

Education in Alberta: No Monkeys Please.

May 2, 2009 in Education, Evolution, Religion, Skeptic News by admin | 2 comments

You think the Alberta media is dumb about science? Just wait to you get a load of our politicians!

It’s called Bill 44. Last year the Alberta Provincial Government promised a review of human rights legislation in the province. Much of this review was driven by the actions of The Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship (AHRC) Commission with respect to Ezra Levant. A publisher of a local Alberta magazine, Mr. Levant, reproduced those infamous Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammad. A complaint was lodged and Mr. Lavant was hauled in front of the Commission for promoting hate or something like it. Read the rest of this entry »

Its Easter and I am out celebrating my values

April 12, 2009 in Religion by admin | No comments

I was going to leave it alone. I mean I am in my hotel, minding my own business, watching the Masters and cringing as Phil Mickelson misses another easy putt but it just keeps sitting there, taunting me. I can’t help myself. I have to write something of a response to the Easter Sunday April 12, 2009 Editorial in the Calgary Herald entitled, Easter celebrates values Canada was built on.

The editorial doesn’t really discuss these values as much as it spends time talking about how Christianity is under assault from sinister forces that believe: Anything that smacks of the Christian religion is oppressive, narrow and offensive. Nothing is offered to support the claim nor are the nefarious individuals or groups responsible identified. This is the all too familiar pattern in the Herald that prefers to indulge its delusions concerning attacks on Christianity by translating them into editorials that are extended exercises of exaggerated and self indulgent paranoia. Read the rest of this entry »

When Nigel Hannaford gets science, watch out!

March 31, 2009 in Education, Evolution, Religion by admin | No comments

You are into a whole new world of dumb

Sorry Nigel. I almost missed your latest desperate attempt at trying to look like you know what you are talking about in the Tuesday March 24, 2009 edition of the Calgary Herald.

The piece, entitled When science gets religious watch out, Nigel trots out the same tired argument so in vogue with the (nonthinking) members of the media. Specifically, that the question of how life evolved on earth is a religious, rather than scientific question. We addressed the lunacy of this argument earlier in (see ASkepticRTN: First Alberta science ) as have many others. Even the title of Nigel’s piece tries to turn truth on its head, implying that science is meddling into the affairs of religion when the Gary Goodyear affair, about which Nigel was writing, was about religion meddling in science.

So what does happen when religion, or in this case the religious, meddles in things scientific? The answer is to be found in Nigel’s column. Nigel tries to display his knowledge of science and ends up sounding as dumb as I would lecturing the Pope on Catholic interpretations on the holy trinity. I am not so dumb as to try. Nigel on the other hand . . . Read the rest of this entry »

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