I was at Skeptics in the Pub at the Billy Bishop and was asked a question that took me off guard for a second.

After more thought, I finally have my answer.

The question was posed by someone I later learned was a Christian who was checking out the skeptics group. He asked me, “do you have to be an atheist to be a humanist?”

There is an ongoing debate in the wider, online, Freethought/secular/skeptic community.

While I don’t want to rehash the specifics, name names, or argue the semantics, it does highlight what I consider to be a divide between humanism and mere atheism.

Our recent release attracted some attention of local and national press. Below are some links.

While Humanism doesn’t technically qualify as a faith (i.e. a belief based on no evidence or in spite of the evidence), the BC Humanist Association was featured in yesterday’s edition of The Province on their Sunday Faith feature.

In my view of humanism, compassion and a desire to minimize harm serve as human moral foundations.

It is for this reason, I consider Gloria Taylor and the BC Civil Liberties Association’s victory in the BC Supreme Court to be a profoundly good thing. The ruling strikes down a ban on doctor-assisted dying.

On 30 May 2012, long-time local humanist Dr. Ernest Poser passed away. Glenn Hardie provided a few brief words in his honour at our June 3rd Sunday morning meeting.

In response to an extended article about a church meeting on Granville Island, Glenn Hardie wrote a letter to the Vancouver Courier that was published last week.

This past weekend, around 250 atheists, agnostics, humanists, heretics, freethinkers, and apostates gathered at the Kamloops Convention Centre for more than 2 days of heresy and community building. The entire event was a rousing success, thanks to the tireless efforts of Bill and Kathy Ligertwood of the Kamloops Centre for Rational Thought.

I’ll give a brief overview of each of the presentations below, in program order.

Last night was our Annual General Meeting. We had a good turnout and I want to thank everyone who came out and congratulate our new Board of Directors: Alan Byers, Crystal Catudal, Eric Damer, Mclean Edwards, Kathy Leavens, Heather McDonald, and myself.

Neuroscientist and End of Faith author Sam Harris has set off a flurry of criticism over his recent essay, “in defense of profiling.”

In light of recent terrorist threats and attacks, Harris argues that “We should profile Muslims, or anyone who looks like he or she could conceivably be Muslim, and we should be honest about it.”