After recovering from a Denial of Service (DoS) attack, the Atheist Survey is up and running again, at http://www.atheistcensus.com/

You can also see the results so far. Interesting to note* that the gender breakdown shows 25.3% female for the entire survey, and 29.5 for Canada. (Also maybe worth noting that the # of respondents for Canada is >2000, which puts us ahead (per capita) of the US, at ~15000).

* H/T to MrPopularSentiment

Eugenie Scott, Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) is a speaker and panelist at the upcoming CFI Canada conference, Eschaton 2012

Here’s a video of Scott’s recent talk at Westminster College: In the Beginning: on science, origins, and religion

Or at least the end of the advance registration discount for Eschaton2012,  the first atheist/skeptic/freethought conference in Eastern Canada.

Buy your tickets before 21 September to take advantage of a $25 discount (and an additional $50 discount for CFI members).

Also, we are offering free childcare, but the daycare centre (The Children’s Place) requires advance registration – the deadline for this is also September 21.

Check out the programme and speaker list, and our new promo video.  Follow us on twitter: @eschaton2012.   If you already have your tickets, pass the word along to your friends, family, and associates, and please consider donating to sponsor a student to attend the conference.

Of course, the world is no more likely to end on December 21, 2012 than any other day, and the fact that a bunch of misinformed and misguided people are preparing for the last days may not be that significant in the long list of things wrong with the world. But this and other apocalyptic silliness highlights people’s lack of rationalism, critical thinking, and skepticism. So we are taking the opportunity to gather a dynamic group of speakers, panelists, and conference participants to celebrate reason, skepticism, and freethought.

For more information, or to register visit our website: eschaton2012.ca

Follow us on twitter: @eschaton2012

About 1000 scientists and friends of science, many clad in lab coats, marched on Parliament Hill, in protest against the Harper government’s ideologically motivated and short-sighted attitude towards science. This government has systematically suppressed and/or disregarded the value of science, as they cancelled the long form census, cut funding for numerous research programs, closed the world-renowned Experimental Lakes Area, The Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory, etc (more examples here)

Here is Evidence’s obituary:

The scientific community is sad to report the death of evidence, which passed away June 18th, 2012, after an over six year battle with Harper government policies. Objective and honest, evidence was heavily involved in all aspects of Canadian prosperity and will be sorely missed by all Canadians, whether they currently realize it or not.

As one speaker said, “Evidence is what adults use to navigate the world”.

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 CFI Ottawa and friends at the march:

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….or maybe twice, if you happened to be in the right place in 2004. The planet Venus, as seen from the Earth, is passing in front of the sun for several hours tonight — an event which occurs in pairs about eight years apart, less than once per century. The next one is in 2117.

The first hour and a half of the transit was conveniently visible from our front porch this evening:

It's over: the sun slips behind the tree across the street.

The safest way to do solar astronomy is to project the image on a surface, such as this sheet of paper taped to the wall:

The Sun at 7:22pm EDT. Venus is the small disk at upper right. Also visible are several sunspots.

CFI Canada is lending critical scientific support in a $30 million lawsuit against Shoppers Drug Mart and Boiron Canada.

Click here to watch the video; read the rest of the press release below the fold.

The suit alleges sales of Oscillococcinum, a homeopathic product marketed for flu-like symptoms, violate consumer protection laws.

“Oscillococcinum is overpriced sugar,” said Iain Martel, Chair of CFI’s Committee for the Advancement of scientific Skepticism. “The extreme dilutions used to make it ensure there is not a single molecule left of its supposed medicinal ingredient.”

CFI sent letters to Shoppers in January and March 2012, calling for the pharmacy giant to stop stocking products like Oscillo that make false and misleading claims about their contents and effectiveness.

“Shoppers Drug Mart had the opportunity for voluntary compliance, but chose not to respond,” said Justin Trottier, CFI’s National Communications Director. “Their silence gave us no choice but to support a legal approach.”

CFI entered a partner-solicitor relationship with Roy Elliott O’Connor LLP, recognized as one of the best class action law firms in Canada, and famous for charter cases on provocative issues including same-sex marriage, euthanasia, privacy, and censorship.

Boiron recently agreed to spend up to $12 million to resolve similar accusations in the United States. Consumers there sought refunds for Boiron products, including Oscillococcinum, that do not work as claimed.

“We hope everyone who profits from homeopathic products watches closely,” said Trottier. “These may prove to be landmark cases that revoke the free pass held by those making misleading, unfounded and unscientific claims about homeopathic products.”

Learn more at http://www.scientificskepticism.ca

This is very promising:

Religion is not important to Canadians

Is God weeping at the sight of so many atheists?

The Horde rallies around their banner.

 
Hemant found Waldo

Rainy Day Randi

The End

A’ Week is an online event that runs 18-24 March 2012. The idea of ‘A’ Week is simple – to raise awareness of how many people are ‘Good without Gods’ and don’t need religions to influence their lives.

As explained by CFI Ottawa member Ania:

This week is Good without God awareness week and I want to make some things very clear:

I am an Atheist. I don’t “not believe in anything” or “have faith in nothing”. I don’t have faith in a god(s) or believe in God(s). That is all.

I have faith is what matters: love, friendship, the power of people to do good and be good, human ingenuity and intelligence.

I am not “without wonder”. I find wonder in this incredible world we live in. I find inspiration that something so incredible, so beautiful, came about through natural processes. I find transcendence in my relative insignificance and confidence in my belief in my own ability to have an impact on the here and now.

I am given hope by my incredible luck that a series of circumstances, mutations, and otherwise unlikely events took place in such a way as to bring about my existence. I am a 1 in a billion chance; isn’t that just so very flattering!?

I have faith, and I believe, that this isn’t all just some test thought up by a bored, sadistic, megalomaniac with an inferiority complex somehow superimposed with a superiority complex.

I don’t need the threat of an afterlife to keep me working towards the greater good. I don’t fear death, but acknowledge it as motivation to live my life to the absolute. I make my own decisions about what is right and what is wrong based on experience and observation, and not because some ancient and irrelevant text told me what to think.

I am Good without God, because I don’t look to a god to make me good. I am good just because it is a good idea, and being good makes the world the place I want it to be.

I am an Atheist, and I am Proud.