Ken Ham is one of them. He has been invited to speak at a homeschooling conference in Calgary, because homeschooling is infested with the rot of religious bullshit (yes, I know, some homeschoolers are dedicated to teaching well, but if you’re in it because you don’t like that there sekyoolar sciencey stuff, you aren’t qualified). He knows nothing about education or science, but he pretends to in order to sell more lies, and then he gets the unwarranted respect of mobs of ignoramuses.
It should also discredit the homeschool organization, which is demonstrating no sense of discriminating judgment or respect for science standards.
Calgarian Paul Ens says he walked away from his Christian faith after reading Ham’s creationist literature and started a YouTube channel dedicated to debunking Ham’s teachings.
“As a citizen of Alberta and a father, I’m very concerned that Ken Ham is being brought in on multiple levels — primarily that he is a science denier. He denies evolution, he denies the age of the Earth,” Ens said.
He says the fact Alberta’s Home Education Association has booked Ham to speak raises questions.
“It signals to me that this homeschool group is not serious about following provincial curriculum or proper science education for their children,” he said.
I think this person has the right idea.
#KenHam invited to keynote speak for Alberta homeschooling convention in 2018. Hey #Alberta #Atheists maybe it's time for a demonstration at the convention. #ExChristian #atheist https://t.co/c8FGYwm3km
— ((Wendy McClelland)) (@wendyweb47) November 8, 2017
Yes, atheists of Calgary, get out there and protest. I think, though, that this is also the perfect opportunity to cooperate with Christians and other religious groups to protest — Ken Ham is doing a phenomenal job of tainting the entirety of Christianity, so I would hope there are a lot of mainstream religious groups who ought to be eager to distance themselves from him. This is a situation where a united front to oppose bullshit would be advantageous.
Alberta really seems to want to be a mini Amerikka.
Sadly, there are people here in Alberta that think “the Texas of Canada” is something to be proud of. There is a jacked up coal-rolling pickup with a confederate flag decal in my neighbourhood.
I wouldn’t get too worked up about Ken Ham coming to Alberta to spout his nonsense. A few years back this same home school organization invited the Duggar’s to come spread their folksy wisdom at their conference. There was such a backlash that they were canceled. I expect the same thing to happen to Ham. Some people think Alberta is full of bible thumping rubes. It’s not. It’s just the rubes make a lot of noise and tend to end up in the news.
But … but … think how much more competitive our home-schooled kids will be when they go out into the world against the Chinese and Indian scientists and engineers!
Although Alberta has always had a reputation of being the “bible belt” of Canada, I suspect it’s not quite as bad as some believe (possibly because of the influx of people from other parts of Canada, in search of jobs). I’m not sure how many Americans are aware that the provincial party in power (the NDP) has social-democratic origins or that the current mayor of Calgary is a Muslim.
Dave @ 2:
You have my sympathies. I live in nDakota, and thankfully, I haven’t seen any coal-rolling. Yet.
Yup, I don’t live there anymore, but I have cyclist friends in Edmonton who have been coal-rolled.
And never forget that this is the province that repeatedly elected Ralph Klein as premier. The guy who, while in office, got drunk, went to a homeless shelter to throw money at the clients and tell them to get jobs.
With the NDP in charge now something must have changed. Here’s hoping it’s indicative of a real and permanent shift. I’m not holding my breath though. Just a month ago one of my friends got death threats for posting a picture of himself with Prime Minister Trudeau.
The Canadian atheist activist Pat O’Brien is an atheist activist and the ex-president of Humanist Canada and British Columbia Humanist Association. Pat recently said,””The biggest problem is fundraising. It is difficult to get Humanists to part with their money.”(source: https://conatusnews.com/%E2%80%8Bpat-obrien-ex-president-humanist-canada/ ). So there may not be a strong commitment of Canadian humanists/atheists to the humanist/atheist cause.
USA Today reported that Canadians trust atheists as much as they trust rapists (source: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2011-12-10/religion-atheism/51777612/1 ).
So even if Canadian atheists are not apathetic (and it appears as if there is a lot of apathy), letting the public know that atheists are protesting Ken Ham is probably not going to be an effective tactic.
There’s actually a few controversies in Alberta right now related to school and religion. I haven’t been looking into these, but people have shared them on a facebook group:
Catholic school stuff:
Catholic school districts want their own sex-education curriculum
Red Deer public school board advocates elimination of Catholic school system
Paula Simons: Catholic sex-ed proposal puts church, NDP on collision course
Rachel Notley says if Catholic school sex-ed plan is as advertised, it won’t be taught (our Premier is great)
You Pay For Public & Catholic School Boards– You should Vote for Both!
Gay Straight Alliance stuff:
Braid: New gay-straight alliance law will give power to the students
Jason Kenney says UCP will oppose gay-straight alliance Bill 24
We oppose Bill 24 but don’t want GSA students outed: Alberta UCP
6 severely abnormal things new Alberta PC leader Jason Kenney says he believes
Ugh, this will be an awkward reunion. I hope the local crowd has forgotten about me. :P