By Richard Flory, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

A recent survey of the religious profile of the 115th Congress revealed that despite the increase in the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation, members of Congress are overwhelmingly religious, with only one member identifying as having no religion.

Yet, despite whom they vote for, Americans are increasingly choosing not to identify with a religious tradition. Between 2007 and 2014, this “none of the above” category has increased from 16 to 23 percent. Among young adults, one-third say that they have no religious affiliation.

Most of the public conversation about religious disaffiliation tends to emphasize the idea that with the rise of the religious “nones,” a categorization that goes back to the 1960s, America is becoming more secular and less religious.

However, in my view as a scholar of American religion, this misses the diversity within the nones.

Who really are the nones?

The country is reeling from the news out of Quebec City, where yesterday a man opened fire in a mosque, killing six people and leaving others in critical condition.

As Humanists and secularists, we must categorically condemn this attack on people practising their religion in peace.

This attack comes at a time of increasing tension south of the border, where President Trump has signed an executive order that's widely viewed as a Muslim ban, but our own country is hardly free from anti-Muslim prejudice.

A lot is still unknown about this attacker or his motivations but we do know that this mosque has been repeatedly targeted by anti-Muslim vandals. A number of Canadian politicians have spoken about vague "Canadian values" tests and hate crimes against Muslim Canadians have been on the rise.

Now more than ever the world needs an impassioned defence of compassion, human rights and secularism. The world needs Humanism.

Editor's note: The BC Humanist Association joins Humanist groups in the USA, including the Center for Inquiry and Secular Coalition for America, in condemning this executive order.

By Geoff Gilbert, University of Essex

With an irony that hasn’t gone unnoticed, US President Donald Trump signed his executive order Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the US on January 27, Holocaust Memorial Day.

The order’s instructions are harsh and shocking. Not only does it suspend the US Refugee Admissions Programme for 120 days and all refugee arrivals from Syria indefinitely, it suspends all new arrivals from designated countries, which, apart from Syria and Iraq, are reportedly Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen – all predominantly Muslim.

The executive order is highly problematic on several levels, and it’s good to see the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration issue a joint statement expressing their concern. As the order came into effect, several foreign and dual nationals were detained by US authorities and others barred from boarding inbound flights from other countries. Protests sprang up at major US airports and two members of Congress went to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to secure the release of an Iraqi refugee who had worked for the US government in his home country.

In the face of Trump's Muslim ban, all academics have a responsibility to act

By Sari Hanfi, American University of Beirut

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order preventing nationals of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and Somalia from entering the US. Syrian refugees are indefinitely banned, and other refugees are banned for 120 days. It’s not clear what comes next.

During his campaign, Trump also stated his intention to remove all 11 million “illegal immigrants” from the country. The nation is waiting to see what will happen to them.

In migration studies, there is a general lamentation about the eroding of the “politics of compassion” and the development of what Hannah Arendt and Rony Brauman called “politics of pity” that has replaced compassion, empathy and justice. Compassion takes place when the person suffering is in front of the person who is not; pity occurs at a distance.

Last year we received two major bequests.

The first - for $100,000 - was announced at a recent Sunday meeting and we have a committee currently looking to advise the board on how to best use it to fulfill our mission. The committee will be taking into consideration the feedback many of you gave to our survey in the fall and will also be reaching out to some members to generate some ideas.

The board has decided that part of other gift - for $5000 - should be used to help make our podcasts more regular and more professional by hiring a Vancouver Meetings Technical Assistant.

This will mean that the content at our Vancouver meetings will be more accessible to our supporters across BC and around the world!

Please feel free to share the job description with anyone you think might be interested.

These gifts show how valuable it can be to include us in your will. Please consider us in your estate plans.

On Friday, the Victoria Times Columnist published Noreen Campbell's story.

In August, Noreen received approval for medical assistance in dying and she exercised that right last week. Before she died, she spoke out in a video with Dying With Dignity Canada and to the media.

"The idea that suffering is always worthwhile, it’s just beyond me," says Noreen.

Similarly, doctors are starting to speak out about their concerns with the vagueness of the current law.

Dr James Downar spoke to Dying With Dignity after another physician, who had performed an assisted death, started passing patients' requests to him.

"The access issues are extreme," says Dr Downar.

These perspectives are important and we'll undoubtedly hear more over the coming months as we continue to fight for individuals' right to choose.

By Mona Abdel Fatil, University of Oslo

On Christmas Day, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg used his website to tell the world that he was not an atheist any more. In this way, the billionaire used Facebook to express his feelings about religion, like many social media users before him.

My research shows how debates about religion on social networks bring out passionate emotions in users. I found that conservative Christians who discuss contentious issues about religion on Facebook debates often do so in emotionally charged ways.

It seems that simply being religious may sometimes trigger particular emotions and reactions to the topic of religion. But it is not only devoutly religious media users who get pulled into debating religion online or feel very strongly about it: hardcore atheists may also harbour strong emotions about religion, or rather, anti-religion. Discussing topics of faith can strike very close to home for those who strongly identify as either religious or anti-religious.

It's been over a decade since Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris (and to a lesser extent, Dan Dennett) launched what's been nicknamed the New Atheism.

Their books repackaged a lot of old arguments against faith into a challenge against the unquestioned assumptions that blind faith is a virtue.

Since then, an atheist and humanist movement has grown in a number of directions both on and offline.

In his latest column for The Huffington Post, American Humanist Association executive director Roy Speckhardt looks at this growing secular movement in the USA and asks the question of who will be part of the humanist movement going forward.

It's an interesting time to be involved in the effort to promote progressive and secular values and we're glad you're a part of our efforts.

By Joshua Duclos, Boston University

Every year as daylight dwindles and trees go bare, debates arise over the morality of hunting. Hunters see the act of stalking and killing deer, ducks, moose and other quarry as humane, necessary and natural, and thus as ethical. Critics respond that hunting is a cruel and useless act that one should be ashamed to carry out.

As a nonhunter, I cannot say anything about what it feels like to shoot or trap an animal. But as a student of philosophy and ethics, I think philosophy can help us clarify, systematize and evaluate the arguments on both sides. And a better sense of the arguments can help us talk to people with whom we disagree.

It's with sadness that we report that on December 22, 2016, longtime BCHA member Andy Serink died. Andy was a regular attendee at our Sunday meetings and will be missed. You can read his obituary in The Province.

A celebration of life will be held on Friday, January 6, 2017 at 2:00 PM at First Memorial Boal Chapel in North Vancouver.

You're also likely aware that actress Carrie Fisher died over the holidays. Fisher was famous for her role as Princess Leia in Star Wars but she was also awarded the Lifetime Acheivement Award in Cultural Humansim by the Harvard Humanists. Read their obituary of her here.