I have come to realize that secularism is a pre-requisite to communism.
Thinking back to the 2008-2016 when the atheist vs. creationist debates, they were planting seeds in the minds of young people to harvest later.
Oddly enough Christopher Hitchens, despite being an anti-theist recognized the call to arms against Western Civ. He was a unique specimen, being conservative and anti-theist all in one.
I agree, but to play devil's advocate, the tolerant virtues of Christianity are exploitable by the intolerant and dishonest. Judaism and Islam avoid this slippery slope with rigid reinforcement from tradition and rituals.
Don't forget: there is no reference to Christ in the founding documents of the US or Canada. God is mentioned a few times here and there, but Jews and Muslims worship the same God as Christians.
You're free to believe whatever you want. Don't forget that everyone else is too, and that - as I said - Christ is not mentioned is those documents, so Christians don't have any specific special status.
not sure where I said christians are entitled to a special status in society
It was the "No one comes to the Father except through Me" quote from Christ. For everyone on the planet who believes that - assuming all Christians actually do - there are more than three people who believe something else.
As for Canada, for about 15,000 years there was no Christianity. In 1604, when the First Nations population was somewhere between 200,000 and 2 million, a French Catholic colony was set up, and its population grew to about 70,000 by the time the English took over in 1763, bringing a flood of Anglican and Protestant Christians.
It looks like the European immigrant population grew larger than the First Nations sometime in the early 1800s, and certainly Christian sects were in the majority for about 200 years. They weren't particularly loving to the First Nations, were they?
Anyway, Canada is a multifaith country these days. Christianity is ahead by a few percentage points, but 45% of its citizens aren't Christian, so the government shouldn't tie itself explicitly to one faith.
No. I gave you one free pass for research already. If you are interested in why people think there was no Christianity in Canada for the 15,000 years prior to contact with Christians you'll have to do some reading on oral traditions in Canadian First Nations.
and were the first nations loving to the europeans?
They were at first. A lot of settlers would have died without them.
200k - 2 million. show me the records
An interesting request given that you haven't provided any sources for your statements. Five minutes on the Internet seems to confirm 200,000 as the low end of the estimates for Canada (sample link below). Just for interest I'll add that if you read the footnotes in Charles Mann's book "1491" the (much disputed by most academics) upper estimates for the indigenous population of the Americas prior to contact with European diseases is 200,000,000. It's almost guaranteed to be wrong, but just the fact that people who have spent a lifetime studying the subject can defend this statement against their colleagues. is food for thought.
Being free to believe what you want predates Christianity by thousands of years, but it's nice that a lot of Christians espouse it. Some of them, though, not so much.
I believe you are talking about freedom of belief. I'm not sure I agree. As I recall the God of the bible has some pretty specific limits on what I'm allowed to believe, and if I ignore those limits I'm looking at an eternity of pain.
" the Canadian constitution recognises special rights for Catholicism and Protestantism."
For schools.
Period.
It was a political deal, made in order to establish confederation, and was strictly about education. You can't turn an agreement on education into an unstated characteristic of the state.
There was a 200 year period where Christians signed legal documents with the people who lived here and then failed to honour those agreements. There was nothing in those treaties about stealing the native children, using them for slave labour, beating them for speaking their language, feeding and housing them poorly, letting them die by the thousands from treatable diseases, burying them in unmarked graves, and stonewalling in the present day when asked about it.
Did this happen to every single native child? No. Did it happen to thousands? Yes. Are First Nations still living in 3rd world conditions in Canada with limited access to education, healthcare, and job opportunities? Yes, to the point where China and North Korea can laugh at us when we talk about Human Rights.
If that's the Christian heritage you're proud of, well, the facts are there and whether you care to acknowledge them is up to you. If you don't you better start working on your defense at the Pearly Gates. "I didn't know" can no longer cut it. "I didn't believe" sounds kinda shaky to me. I wonder what St. Peter will say.
The Christian majority in Canada has been shrinking for decades and now, at 55%, barely qualifies as one. Soon it no longer will.
I have come to realize that secularism is a pre-requisite to communism.
Thinking back to the 2008-2016 when the atheist vs. creationist debates, they were planting seeds in the minds of young people to harvest later.
Oddly enough Christopher Hitchens, despite being an anti-theist recognized the call to arms against Western Civ. He was a unique specimen, being conservative and anti-theist all in one.
I agree, but to play devil's advocate, the tolerant virtues of Christianity are exploitable by the intolerant and dishonest. Judaism and Islam avoid this slippery slope with rigid reinforcement from tradition and rituals.
Don't forget: there is no reference to Christ in the founding documents of the US or Canada. God is mentioned a few times here and there, but Jews and Muslims worship the same God as Christians.
You're free to believe whatever you want. Don't forget that everyone else is too, and that - as I said - Christ is not mentioned is those documents, so Christians don't have any specific special status.
It was the "No one comes to the Father except through Me" quote from Christ. For everyone on the planet who believes that - assuming all Christians actually do - there are more than three people who believe something else.
As for Canada, for about 15,000 years there was no Christianity. In 1604, when the First Nations population was somewhere between 200,000 and 2 million, a French Catholic colony was set up, and its population grew to about 70,000 by the time the English took over in 1763, bringing a flood of Anglican and Protestant Christians.
It looks like the European immigrant population grew larger than the First Nations sometime in the early 1800s, and certainly Christian sects were in the majority for about 200 years. They weren't particularly loving to the First Nations, were they?
Anyway, Canada is a multifaith country these days. Christianity is ahead by a few percentage points, but 45% of its citizens aren't Christian, so the government shouldn't tie itself explicitly to one faith.
No. I gave you one free pass for research already. If you are interested in why people think there was no Christianity in Canada for the 15,000 years prior to contact with Christians you'll have to do some reading on oral traditions in Canadian First Nations.
They were at first. A lot of settlers would have died without them.
An interesting request given that you haven't provided any sources for your statements. Five minutes on the Internet seems to confirm 200,000 as the low end of the estimates for Canada (sample link below). Just for interest I'll add that if you read the footnotes in Charles Mann's book "1491" the (much disputed by most academics) upper estimates for the indigenous population of the Americas prior to contact with European diseases is 200,000,000. It's almost guaranteed to be wrong, but just the fact that people who have spent a lifetime studying the subject can defend this statement against their colleagues. is food for thought.
https://www.google.com/search?q=first+nations+population+in+16th+century
India
Google is our friend.
Being free to believe what you want predates Christianity by thousands of years, but it's nice that a lot of Christians espouse it. Some of them, though, not so much.
I believe you are talking about freedom of belief. I'm not sure I agree. As I recall the God of the bible has some pretty specific limits on what I'm allowed to believe, and if I ignore those limits I'm looking at an eternity of pain.
As for governments: there are 195 countries in the world. About 42% of them have an official religion or a preferred faith. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/10/03/key-facts-about-government-favored-religion-around-the-world/
No mention of Christ in the Magna Carta either.
The Magna Carta was drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton. If he mentioned Christ it didn't make it into the final draft.
For schools.
Period.
It was a political deal, made in order to establish confederation, and was strictly about education. You can't turn an agreement on education into an unstated characteristic of the state.
There was a 200 year period where Christians signed legal documents with the people who lived here and then failed to honour those agreements. There was nothing in those treaties about stealing the native children, using them for slave labour, beating them for speaking their language, feeding and housing them poorly, letting them die by the thousands from treatable diseases, burying them in unmarked graves, and stonewalling in the present day when asked about it.
Did this happen to every single native child? No. Did it happen to thousands? Yes. Are First Nations still living in 3rd world conditions in Canada with limited access to education, healthcare, and job opportunities? Yes, to the point where China and North Korea can laugh at us when we talk about Human Rights.
If that's the Christian heritage you're proud of, well, the facts are there and whether you care to acknowledge them is up to you. If you don't you better start working on your defense at the Pearly Gates. "I didn't know" can no longer cut it. "I didn't believe" sounds kinda shaky to me. I wonder what St. Peter will say.
The Christian majority in Canada has been shrinking for decades and now, at 55%, barely qualifies as one. Soon it no longer will.