My second full day in Winnipeg began with the start of my actual, ostensible reason for being there: The first ever River City Reason Fest...a conference arranged by the Humanists, Atheists, & Agnostics of Manitoba (HA²M) and focused on secular issues and current events. I had learned about Reason Fest three months before, and was immediately interested: It featured several guest speakers who I knew from their blogging and advocacy work, and it gave me an excuse to visit a city that I've been interested in for years of my life.
All conference participants received a packet including a tourist book and downtown map...both of which could have been useful when I was getting lost sightseeing around the city the day before! HA²M leader Donna Harris welcomed the crowd, and kicked things off with an irreverent tribute to "International Talk Like a Pirate Day." The ice was broken, and the conference began.
My acquaintance Greta Christina was the first speaker to go on, and did so with a lengthy discussion about the very topic she recently devoted a new book to: "Comfortable thoughts about death that have nothing to do with God."
Death sucks, and nonreligious philosophies about it are hard to find. But are religious philosophies any better? Religious people go through the same bouts of grief that nonbelievers do, and the notions of heaven and hell simply add torment, terror, and guilt to survivors' lives. She also cited that people who actually believe in an afterlife are the very ones more likely to stay it off for as long as possible.
The topic occasionally took a turn into the amusing: "Heaven would be so monotonous that a few minutes of hell would be a relief...and eternity spent with friends and relatives would be hell!" Greta expressed that death was a deadline: An encouragement to go out, do things, and live life to the fullest. Meanwhile, the fundamental meaning of life is to participate in life, experience comfort and joy, make the world a better place, and create a legacy to leave behind. I can't argue with that.
Greta was followed by Eric Adriaans of CFI Canada. After beginning with a recount of his organization's history and objectives, he segued into a discussion of Canada's blasphemy law.
Yes, Canada has a blasphemy law, and it prescribes up to two years' imprisonment as punishment for "blasphemous libel." Few people are aware the law exists...even the head of the "Office of Religious Freedom" in the Canadian government didn't know until CFI prodded him about it. The law has rarely been enforced, most recently in the 1930s. Nevertheless it has a chilling effect as a threat on expression and was used as a charge in more recent years; notably to thwart a showing of Life of Brian in Sault Sainte Marie.
From there, he elaborated on a variety of related points. Blasphemy laws were spawned from heresy laws forged in an era where religion was tied to national identity. Canada's example is doubly hypocritical, as the country vocally supports the repeal of blasphemy laws in other countries on the international stage. The International Coalition Against Blasphemy Laws was formed in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shootings, and Iceland established precedent by repealing their law months later. With a federal election and the probability of a new government just weeks away, the time to lobby for change in Canada is now.
The third guest speaker of the morning was Tracie Harris of the Atheist Community of Austin, who touched on religious trends and gave a detailed recount of the harm of religious "family values." This conference was her first time in Canada.
Organizations like Focus on the Family and other fronts of the Christian Right commandeer families as a vehicle to promote Jesus worship at the expense of the family itself. Values are redefined as beginning with God (thus implying that atheists can't have them), and people are defined as being born twisted and practicing sin every moment unless they're "saved" from their sin. Religion becomes the sole means of family cohesion, and it repels people who don't conform...and people who deconvert in such situations often find themselves compelled to lie about religion rather than eliminate their place in their family by upsetting the status quo.
Harris' own work in the Atheist Community of Austin puts her into contact with uncountable people wriggling out of religion in toxic religious families, and they get more letters from children than anyone else. Her own pre-deconversion upbringing was in the fundamentalist Church of Christ, but she noted that the same perversion of "family" as a construct occurs in many virulent sects around the world...from Adventist to Islamic to non-denominational.
At this point the stage emptied, people mulled about, and everyone prepared to have a break for lunch. I did likewise, and got some fresh air and exercise by taking a walk down Ellice Avenue and back again. But there was plenty more to come.
Recent Comments