religion – Dani Shaw

[This article was originally published as ‘Tipped Hands and Missed Opportunities’ in ‘The Cardus Daily’ Blog on June 11, 2012.]

The recent debate between the Ontario government and concerned Catholic parents and educators (over the McGuinty governme

nt’s anti-bullying bill, discussed here on the Cardus Daily Blog) highlights the need for a more robust understanding and public discourse about the interplay between freedom of conscience and religion, advancing public policy, and the role of government in a diverse society.

Bill 13 aims to promote positive, inclusive, and accepting school climates, and to prevent bullying. These are laudable goals. Children of all ages should be able to go school without fear of being bullied. And in our highly diverse society, learning with and from one another helps build understanding, compassion, and a sense of community.

Whatever the merits of Bill 13, it is lamentable that the reported public debate has been reduced to a putative clash between religion and “fundamental values” such as respect and tolerance, and to a dispute about the name of clubs designed to promote understanding between students of different sexual orientations. Freedom of conscience and religion is itself a fundamental value, one that legislators tend to ignore or curtail when there is an apparent clash with other fundamental values. A more robust understanding of the value of freedom of conscience and religion in a highly diverse society is long overdue.

Continue reading “Ontario’s Bill 13 is a Missed Opportunity”

[This book review was originally published here on ‘The Cardus Daily’ Blog on June 8, 2011.]

In his latest book, Beyond the Gods & Back: Religion’s Demise and Rise and Why it Matters, Reginald Bibby sets out to answer these questions: “What is the situation with religion today?” and “What does it mean for Canadian life and lives?”

Building upon his earlier work, Bibby notes the steady decline in religious identification, attendance, and belief between the 1960s and mid-1990s, followed by leveling off—and in some cases, an upswing in religiosity—that suggested signs of new religious life and led some to conclude that we were seeing a renaissance of religion. It prompted a re-evaluation and even abandonment of the secularization thesis postulated by prominent social scientists. Upon closer examination of the data and trends since the mid-1990s, Bibby suggests we are seeing neither the death nor the rebirth of religion in Canada, but rather an increasing polarization between the religious and non-religious, between theists and atheists.

Continue reading “Religious Inheritances: The Good, the Bad and the Apocryphal”