Comments (10)

By Katie Kish, May 11, 2009 11:44 am

As some may, or may not, know I’ve recently moved from being the Vice President – Multi Media for the Freethought Association of Canada to being the president of it. It’s a long and twisted story about why I decided to do it, but with the new executive I really think we’ll make a little bit of a difference in the world while showing that secularists have it in them to be giving. The new campaign is more or less phase 2 of the Atheist Bus Campaign… read on to learn about it!

The Enjoy Your Life Campaign

Show the world that you can have a heart, even without a soul

The charity that brought you the controversial and highly successful Canadian Atheist Bus Campaign is proud to announce its follow up project: the Enjoy Your Life Campaign! This project will take up where the Bus campaign left off, providing charitable funding and volunteer work to a number of highly worthwhile causes.

How many times have you heard the lament that freethinkers of all kinds cannot possibly be good without god? Now is your chance to prove once and for all that not only can we be moral people, but we can put this morality to work in ways that will better humankind. We at the Freethought Association of Canada understand the importance of helping to improve the lives of as many people as our hands can reach. Knowing that this life is all we have, emphasizes its importance and motivates us to extend our moral consideration to all who share our world.

The Freethought Association of Canada will be looking for donations from anyone interested in helping spread the word that atheists are able and willing to do good deeds. Our outlook is global, and includes such worthwhile causes as:

• Expanding the supply of condoms in Africa
• Helping children’s literacy in Canada
• Participating in the development of critical thinking curriculum for pre-university students
• Building an online community to connect and support freethinkers around the world
• Organizing blood drives and food banks
• Taking YOUR suggestions for what you think the Canadian Freethought Community should support!

Over the next few months, the Freethought Association of Canada will be conducting extensive research into charitable causes around the world, and by the end of Summer 2009 we will be ready to begin a campaign that will impact lives forever. If you would like to be a part of this once in a lifetime opportunity, we would love to hear from you. Donations can be made on our site (freethoughtassociation.ca), and if you’d like to volunteer your time or expertise, you can contact: info@freethoughtassociation.ca or phone (647) 822-5474.

The Enjoy Your Life Campaign – Show the world that you can have a heart, even without a soul.

Comments (4)

By Katie Kish, January 30, 2009 11:11 am

Leave it to the United Church of Canada to come out and counter our ads. I think this is a really exciting new development. They’re hoping their ads have the same effect as ours – to spring up discussion in the public. I’ve been a member of their site wonder cafe for many years now because it’s proven time and again to be a really great place to have this exact discussion (and many others) with believers who have an open mind. (Although the EZ Answer Squirrel has always been a tad bit lame, in my opinion.) I’m just hoping they don’t pour a whole ton of money into their campaign making our ads way more obscure than theirs.

Although, the discussion surrounding the ad on their website is way ….below…what i’ve found their usual conversation to be. I expected the people there to actually talk about it instead of just saying it is a silly and useless comment. I’d love to hear their intelligent thoughts surrounding the message instead of them just assuming that we’re attacking them…and not only that…that our only purpose is to attack them.

With silly comments like “there’s probably no science” and “why aren’t they attacking moselms” it’s very easy to brush the entire thread off as more people who aren’t interested in opening their mind up to new ideas and actually talking to us about the meat of the issues. However, there are a couple people on there going against that statement. Such as:

Kappa

I’m with those who see this as an opening for discussion. To me the sign is not funny so much as it is a statement, “Hey, look, we really DO live in a country that supports free speech, if the exercise does not take away the fundamental rights of others.”

Posted on: 01/21/2009 15:50

Alas – Good on you, UCC!

Cross posted at Atheist Bus

Comments (10)

By Katie Kish, January 18, 2009 12:55 am

…So I did a quick search for the campaign…

and uh…. huh.

… CBC 6 oclock news mentioned it. I’m on 3 different radio shows on Monday morning and… etc. Phewph! Now I’ll consider it a real achievement if I get onto the Hour! *wink wink George!*

http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090116/090116_atheist_ads/20090116/?hub=CP24Home
http://www.cfrb.com/news/14/859338
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/01/16/8047631-cp.html
http://www.canadaeast.com/news/article/542271
http://news.guelphmercury.com/Wire/News_Wire/National/article/427750
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090116/national/20090116atheist_bus_ads
http://www.westislandchronicle.com/article-cp23101021-Group-wants-to-put-atheist-ads-on-Toronto-transit-buses-much-like-UK-campaign.html
http://www.lethbridgeherald.com/content/view/23294/27/
http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/2009/01/16/8048801.html
http://www.ottawasun.com/News/National/2009/01/16/8049426.html
http://www.cjfw.ca/news/14/859338
http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/canada/2009/01/16/8049416.html
http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/NationalNewsArticle.htm?src=n011632A.xml
http://www.topix.com/world/north-america/2009/01/group-wants-to-put-atheist-ads-on-toronto-buses
http://news.therecord.com/article/473043
http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/includes/datafiles/CP_print.php?id=158722&title=Group%20wants%20to%20put%20atheist%20ads%20on%20Toronto%20transit%20buses,%20much%20like%20U.K.%20campaign
http://www.680news.com/news/national/more.jsp?content=n011670A
http://www.daylife.com/article/06Zj2Wu6SreK1
http://www.cjad.com/news/14/859572
http://www.canadaeast.com/rss/article/542271
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/National/2009/01/17/8056171-sun.html
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090116/atheist_ads_090116/20090116?hub=Canada&s_name=
http://news.aol.ca/article/20090116-atheist-bus-ads-3rd-writethru-bgt/488615/
http://www.metronews.ca/halifax/canada/article/167825
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2009/01/17/3921973.htm
http://www.thesudburystar.com/PrintArticle.aspx?e=1392795
http://bayana.nl/newspaper/?p=9207
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/1101237.html
http://www.cjob.com/News/National/Article.aspx?id=79274
http://www.thewhig.com/PrintArticle.aspx?e=1392273
http://stephenrees.wordpress.com/2009/01/16/atheists-hope-dont-pray-to-bring-ads-to-toronto/
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/CanadaWorld/2009/01/16/8049956.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Urban+Transit+Systems/8
http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1392377&auth=THE%20CANADIAN%20PRESS
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/01/16/8047891.html
http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/index.php/t19/print_w_comments/19607/
http://www.mytelus.com/ncp_news/article.en.do?pn=canada&articleID=3062058
http://www.silobreaker.com/DocumentClusterReader.aspx?Item=16_948274178
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090116.watheist16/BNStory/National/home
http://www.straight.com/article-193983/toronto-atheists-step-out-shadows
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2009/01/16/8049406.html
http://www.ezrock.com/news/14/859572/atheist+transit+ads+proposed+for+toronto+could+roll+into+other+canadian+cities
http://news.sympatico.msn.ca/Canada/ContentPosting?newsitemid=23101021&feedname=CP-NATIONAL&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True
http://www.metronews.ca/edmonton/canada/article/167825
http://blog.thismagazine.ca/archives/2009/01/atheist_bus_ads.html
http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1392692&auth=
http://www.examiner.com/x-2044-Atheism-Examiner~y2009m1d16-Montreal-CFI-considering-atheist-bus-campaign–watches-Toronto
http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/canadaworld/article/542880

Comments (60)

By Katie Kish, January 8, 2009 1:06 pm

The Freethought Association of Canada, a Canadian charity, has decided to launch it’s own atheist bus campaign in Toronto, Ontario. The hardest part, we’ve found so far.., is coming up with a really good slogan that catches people’s attention without being confrontational or negative. Thus far we’ve been given the following ideas, (I will update as we are given more)… PLEASE leave your ideas in the comments! We need that perfect slogan.

1. Respect is for people not gods.

2. Superstitions just hold us back, the future is godless.

3. Religion is to humanity like oil is to water.

4. To bring about harmony we must remove religious segregation.

5. A religious mind is a constraint on science and creativity.

6. Think for yourself, don’t let one of the gods do it for you.

7. People come before ideas

8. people before ideas

9. put people before gods

10. Live Life Beyond Belief

11. Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world. – Voltaire

12. Examine religious principles, and you will scarcely be persuaded that they are anything but sick men’s dreams. – David Hume

13. I regard religion as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race. – Bertrand Russell

14. Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence.

15. A casual stroll through a lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. – Friedrich Nietzsche

16. The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.

17. don’t believe in god? you are not alone

18. god’s not great

19. no god, just love

20. atheists have faith in people

21. atheists have faith in YOU

22. There’s probably no God, now stop worrying and get on with your life

23. Since the Bible and the church are obviously mistaken in telling us where we came from, how can we trust them to tell us where we are going?

24.Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer.

25. On the first day, man created God.

26. Compassion is not religious business; it is human business.

27. Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

28. A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything – Friedrich Nietzsche

29. We are all atheists. Some just believe in one less god than you.

30. I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. – Stephen Roberts

Comments (3)

By Katie Kish, May 15, 2008 11:47 pm

That’s our picture from last year… I’ll be sure to get into the front this year….. as you can barely see me… tucked into the very back left hand corner… I think I was being all “i’m too cool for this” when now I’m like “aaaah! i wanna be in the front!”

So the leadership conference last year was amazing. That’s my coverage…here’s CFI’s actual write up on the weekend… with write ups by me, Tyler Handely, Jack Rivall and Elvia Nidia Gonzalez. Tyler is awesome and will be working at CFI this summer – which is totally awesome. We need a Canadian voice there! Jack is also all sorts of amazing… he’s hilarious and was definitely someone I kept in touch with after the conference was over.

The conference is what really pushed me full throttle into student activism in the secular world… (I was slightly involved previously, but after that conference I was like a weekly visitor to CFI and pretty insistent about taking over the Guelph group.) I thought about doing some “live blogging” of sorts this year – but then realized that I’d have to take a laptop… and not talk to all my USA friends as much as I’d be blogging. So … I won’t be live blogging, but I’ll bring lots or stories and goodness back with me to write about

Anyway – this year’s conference is in July! Yay! And anyone who is involved with on campus activism and what have yous of secular organizations should DEFINITELY go. I wasn’t 100% into all the speakers last year – although they were really interesting – it was FAR more productive and interesting to interact, network and toss ideas around with so many other student leaders from across North America.

So here’s the info for this year! I hope to see you ALL there! (yay Roy!)

CFI Student Leadership Conference 2008

The Center for Inquiry is pleased to announce our 2008 Student Leadership Conference, to be held July 18-20 at the Center for Inquiry Transnational in Amherst, NY. The conference will feature special keynote addresses by Paul Kurtz, Eddie Tabash, Robert Price, high school activist Matthew LaClair, and others.

The conference marks the 12th anniversary of our campus outreach program and will coincide with the opening weekend of the CFI Institute Summer Session and our annual CFI Community Leaders training weekend. The event brings together student and community activists from around North America for a blowout weekend of workshops, networking, lectures, and top-notch entertainment featuring some of the leading minds in the humanist and skeptic movements. You will not be disappointed!

We encourage every campus group to send at least one representative (if not more!) and we are keeping the costs down to make sure this is possible. Registration, room, and board for the entire three-day event cost only $35 for interested students. A limited number of travel and registration grants are available, based on need, to make sure every group can send a representative even if it lacks the resources to do so. The registration form and grant application can be found here.

So, what are you waiting for? Send in your registration today, or email Debbie Goddard at dgoddard@centerforinquiry.net for more information.

GO GO GO! If you’re going from ANY area that is moderately close by there will likely be a carpool. I know from Toronto we took two cars last year and paid very little for transportation. The whole weekend cost me tops $50… if that. It was such a good time.

So I hope everyone interested will attend! (for more info… although I dont know what else you’d need to know… just e-mail me!)