Category: atheism

Episode 169: Legislative Prayer

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem, Ashlyn, and Lauren speak with Dr. Teale Phelps Bondaroff, the Research Coordinator for the BC Humanist Association, about his research into unconstitutional governmental prayer in Canada.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Links: The Duty of Neutrality Beyond Saguenay (BC Humanist Association) | Legislative Prayer Across Canada (BC Humanist Association) | House of Prayers Report (BC Humanist Association) | Clergy residence deduction cost $1 billion over last decade (BC Humanist Association)

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Episode 154: New Religious Movements

Lauren hosts and Laura edits on this topsy-turvy episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else! The gang discusses New Religious Movements: Lauren relates their experience with Discordianism, Laura is over the moon for the Moonies, Gem expresses his disgust for the Internet’s own Cult of Kek, and Ashlyn provides a primer on Pastafarianism. Then the panelists end the show with some fun ways to pass the time under COVID-19 lockdown.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that delves into issues of science, critical thinking, and secular humanism.

New Religious Movements: New religious movement (Wikipedia) | Is Theosophy a Religion? (Wikipedia) | Academic study of new religious movements (Wikipedia) | Cult (Wikipedia) | Sociological classifications of religious movements (Wikipedia) | Theosophy and visual arts (Wikipedia) | List of new religious movements (Wikipedia) | Charismatic authority (Wikipedia) | Discordianism (Wikipedia) | Sect (Wikipedia) | Communitarianism (Wikipedia)

The Unification Church: Unification movement (Wikipedia) | Former member of the Unification Church describes life in a cult (Insider) | The Fall of the House of Moon (The New Republic) | The cultlike church behind a ceremony with AR-15s and bullet crowns, explained (Vox) | The Unification Church (ReligiousTolerance.org)

The Cult of Kek: Cult of Kek (Know Your Meme) | Savitri Devi: The strange story of how a Hindu Hitler worshipper became an alt-right icon (International Business Times) | Savitri Devi: The Woman Who Turned Nazism into a Religion: Part One, Part Two (Behind the Bastards) | Pepe the Frog (RationalWiki) | Pepe the Frog (Wikipedia) | Kek (mythology) (Wikipedia) | Western esotericism (Wikipedia) | Esoteric Nazism (Wikipedia) | Laughter Sounds in Korean (TalkToMeInKorean)

Pastafarianism: Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster | Pasta strainers and pirates: how the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was born (The Guardian) | Flying Spaghetti Monster Wiki | Flying Spaghetti Monster (Wikipedia)

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Episode 123: Heretics

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn talks heresy with Laura, Gem, and Lauren. Heretics discussed include Hypatia of Alexandria, Roger Bacon, Baruch Spinoza, Charles Darwin, and Giordano Bruno. Also on this episode, Gem drones on about ancient writing materials and the sizes of various libraries for some reason.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that delves into issues of science, critical thinking, and secular humanism.

Note: In preparation for the discussion of the Library of Alexandria, Gem reached out to Winnipeg’s Millennium Library to ask about the size of their collection. After we recorded the episode, he received a response informing us that the collection contains roughly 338,000 items, which is on the same order of magnitude as the Great Library of Alexandria—but at least some of the items in circulation are going to be non-canon Star Wars novels, so they don’t really count.

SkeptiCamp: If you’d like to present at SkeptiCamp, send an email to skepticamp@winnipegskeptics.com or skepticamp2017@gmail.com. Visit winnipegskeptics.com/skepticamp for more information!

Links: Heresy (Wikipedia) | Library of Alexandria (Wikipedia) | Hypatia (Wikipedia) | General Fact Sheet (New York Public Library) | The Encyclopaedia Britannica hits rock bottom (Quodlibeta) | Neoplatonism (Wikipedia) | Roger Bacon (Wikipedia) | Roger Bacon (Encyclopaedia Britannica) | Roger Bacon (Catholic Encyclopedia) | Bacon biography (History of Mathematics Archive) | Roger Bacon (British Heritage) | The Persecution of Philosophers (Bad News About Christianity) | Darwin’s Heretic | Charles Darwin: A heretic and a hero (The Globe and Mail) | Religious views of Charles Darwin (Wikipedia) | Are great scientists always heretics? (BBC Science) | Darwin on a Godless Creation: “It’s like confessing to a murder” (Scientific American) | Evolution and the Catholic Church (Wikipedia) | Reactions to On the Origin of Species (Wikipedia) | Giordano Bruno (Wikipedia) | Archimedes (Wikipedia) | Our Unknown Martyrs (The Scientist Magazine) | 7 Scientists Who Died Violently (FamousScientists.org) | Baruch Spinoza (Wikipedia) | Science and Religion (MarkHumphrys.com) | Michael Servetus (Wikipedia)

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Episode 114: Ray Comfort’s “Atheist Delusion”

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn, Lauren, Gem, and Laura review Ray Comfort’s new “documentary” with special guests Ash Burkowski and David Bonwick, and the panel bids farewell to evangelical cartoonist Jack Chick with a game of Jack or Fiction.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Links: Bad Science Watch | NHP Monograph Consultations (Bad Science Watch) | TRC #420: Origin of 420 + Gem Newman of Bad Science Watch + History Of Halloween (The Reality Check) | The Atheist Delusion (YouTube) | Checkmate, Atheists! (YouTube) | Jack Chick (RationalWiki) | Leonard Nimoy Gallery (NSFW)

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Episode 107: Solving Homelessness

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn, Lauren, Gem, and Laura discuss strategies aimed at ending homelessness with returning guest Brendan Curran-Johnson. This episode also features an interview with Greta Christina and Alex Gabriel discussing The Orbit, a new blog network focusing on atheism and social justice.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Links: The Orbit: Atheism, Activism, Culture | Help Launch The Orbit (Kickstarter) | Trends & Issues in Affordable Housing & Homelessness (Federation of Canadian Municipalities) | Better Off in a Shelter? (University of Toronto Centre for Urban and Community Studies) | Poor Housing, edited by Josh Brandon and Jim Silver | Cheating Welfare, by Kaaryn S. Gustafson | Hobos to Street People, by Art Hazelwood | Hand to Mouth, by Linda Tirado | Why We’re Shutting Off Our Comments (Popular Science) | Basic income (Wikipedia) | Guaranteed minimum income (Wikipedia) | Guaranteed Annual Income (CanadianSocialResearch.net) | Mincome (Wikipedia) | The Town with No Poverty (Evelyn Forget) | Welfare trap (Wikipedia) | Humans Need Not Apply (YouTube) | Silicon Valley’s Unchecked Arrogance (The Development Set) | Pathways to Housing: Supported Housing for Street-Dwelling Homeless Individuals With Psychiatric Disabilities (Pathways to Housing) | Substance Use Outcomes Among Homeless Clients with Serious Mental Illness: Comparing Housing First with Treatment First Programs (Pathways to Housing) | A multi-site comparison of supported housing for chronically homeless adults: “Housing first” versus “residential treatment first” (Tsai, Mares, Rosenheck) | Housing First for Homeless Persons with Active Addiction: Are We Overreaching? (Kertesz et al) | Outcasts on Main Street: Report of the Federal Task Force on Homelessness (Google Books) | The Plan to End Homelessness (Medicine Hat Community Housing Society) | Housing First (The Homeless Hub) | Housing First (Wikipedia) | Misandry Angie

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Episode 102: Apologetics & Counter-apologetics

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem runs through several arguments for the existence of God with Ashlyn, Ian, and Laura, and the panel ponders whether it’s worth talking about religious arguments at all.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Links: Selling Religion Door to Door (Startled Disbelief) | Ontological argument (Iron Chariots Wiki) | Miracle of the Sun (Wikipedia) | Sanal Edamaruku (Wikipedia) | The Argument from Miracles (Arguments for Atheism) | Thank You God (Tim Minchin) | Euthyphro dilemma (Wikipedia) | Euthyphro dilemma (Iron Chariots Wiki) | The Euthyphro Dilemma (Philosophy of Religion) | Episode 132: Euthyphro’s Revenge (Reasonable Doubts) | Argument from design (RationalWiki) | Occam’s razor (Wikipedia) | Cosmological argument (Iron Chariots Wiki) | Kalam (Iron Chariots Wiki) | Leibniz cosmological argument (Iron Chariots Wiki) | Ontological Girlfriend (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) | 20 Arguments For God’s Existence (Strange Notions) | Dietitian at Home

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Episode 97: Labels

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn is joined by Laura, Ian, Lauren, and Gem to discuss some of the advantages and shortcomings of using labels to describe ourselves.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Note: If you’re in Winnipeg for the Fringe Festival and are interested in coming out to see Of Blood and Ashes, written by Ian James and Adam Johnstone and featuring Gem Newman, we’re at Venue #3 (The Playhouse Studio) at 180 Market Avenue. Here are the showtimes:

Thursday, 16 July 2015, 9:00 pm
Saturday, 18 July 2015, 5:15 pm
Sunday, 19 July 2015, 7:00 pm
Tuesday, 21 July 2015, 12:00 pm
Wednesday, 22 July 2015, 5:15 pm
Thursday, 23 July 2015, 10:30 pm
Saturday, 25 July 2015, 3:30 pm

Links: The Power Of Categories: Invisibilia (NPR) | Ban Bossy. Encourage Girls to Lead | Let’s ban ‘bossy’ – and not just because Sheryl Sandberg and Beyoncé said so (The Guardian) | ‘Ban Bossy’ Campaign Misses the Mark Concerning Girls’ and Women’s Leadership Skills (Huffington Post) | Atheism (Wikipedia) | Agnosticism (Wikipedia) | Profiles of the Godless: Results from a Survey of the Nonreligious (Center for Inquiry) | Diagnostic attributions versus labeling: impact of Alzheimer’s disease and major depression diagnoses on emotions, beliefs, and helping intentions of family members (ResearchGate) | 5 Ups and Downs of Special Education Labels (Education.com) | The Fallaway Slam Podcast (The only podcast that matters!)

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SkeptiCamp Winnipeg: Humanist Giving and Philanthropy

Until now, several of the talks presented at SkeptiCamp Winnipeg 2013 have been missing from our SkeptiCamp archives. This omission has now been remedied.

Embedded below is Ashlyn Noble’s talk from SkeptiCamp Winnipeg 2013. In addition to heading up the Winnipeg Skeptics and a host of other volunteering responsibilities, in 2013 Ashlyn Noble was interning with the Foundation Beyond Belief. In her spare time, she sings with the Rainbow Harmony Project and spends too much time on the internet.

SkeptiCamp Winnipeg is a conference for the sharing of ideas. It is free and open to the public: anyone can attend and participate! Presentations and discussions focus on science and free inquiry, and the audience is encouraged to challenge presenters to defend their ideas. You can visit our SkeptiCamp page for information about upcoming events and links to past SkeptiCamp talks.

Episode 86: Interview with a Mariachi Ghost

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ian James sits down for a conversation with Rafael Reyes, guitarist for local Winnipeg band The Mariachi Ghost.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism presented by the Winnipeg Skeptics and the Humanists, Atheists & Agnostics of Manitoba.

Links: The Mariachi Ghost Website | The Mariachi Ghost on BandCamp | The Mariachi Ghost on Facebook | Conservative Leader Brian Pallister on “Infidel Atheists” Who “Celebrate Nothing”

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Episode 83: Live from the Calgary Secular Church

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Greg Christensen visits the Calgary Secular Church and interviews CSC minister Korey Peters.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism presented by the Winnipeg Skeptics and the Humanists, Atheists & Agnostics of Manitoba.

Links: Calgary Secular Church Website | Meetup Group

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