Unfortunately our scheduled speaker was unwell this week so on Sunday, February 7, 2016, a group of 36 of us watched a video of Jared Diamond speaking about the ideas in his new book, The World Until Yesterday. Diamond (who was just named the 2016 Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association) argues that there is a lot we can learn about risk, raising children and more by studying traditional societies.

We hope to reschedule Dr Samir Gandesha's talk on terrorism and nihilism at a later date when he's recovered.

By Andrew Jackson, Newcastle University

In a 1978 essay, titled Where Am I?, the philosopher Daniel Dennett suggested that the brain was the only organ of which it’s better to be a transplant donor than recipient. Now Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero wants to turn philosophical thought experiments into reality by transplanting the head of Valery Spiridonov, who suffers from a debilitating muscle wasting disease, onto the healthy body of a dead donor.

Beside posing questions about personal identity, there are more prosaic challenges that must first be overcome. The brain would have to be kept alive during surgery by cooling it to 10-15°C, and the immune system would need to be powerfully suppressed to prevent transplant rejection. But the greatest hurdle may be how to restore connections to the spinal cord. Without this connection the brain would have no control of its new body.

On Sunday, January 31, 2016, Cherise Louie of Canadian Blood Services spoke to 35 of us on the value of donating blood, as well as their new initiatives, One Match for bone marrow and stem cell donations and cord blood donations. Read more about how, starting in February, we will be hosting regular blood donation sessions in Vancouver.

Take god out of anthem

Today the BC Humanist Association and Centre for Inquiry Canada wrote to Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger asking for God to be taken out of O Canada. Last week Bélanger tabled a private member's bill to make the national anthem gender neutral. Read the letter.

Symbols like the national anthem may not have a great effect on the day to day lives of most atheists but they matter nonetheless.

Two groups representing atheists and Humanists are asking for God to be taken out of O Canada in a letter to Liberal MP Mauril Béllanger.

Last week Bélanger tabled Bill C-210, which would make the national anthem gender neutral. The BC Humanist Association and Centre for Inquiry Canada praised this symbolic move toward gender equality and asked the MP to amend his bill to also replace the line “God keep our land” with a secular alternative.

People have asked me why, as a Humanist, I'm involved in the interfaith events and why I think the BC Humanists should be involved in the interfaith movement in general. After all, what are a bunch of non-believers doing associating with religionists?

There are a few reasons why I believe it is important that we take part in interfaith activities. It helps to boost our name in the larger community. It allows people of faith to learn about us. And it is one way of showing the world and each other that we care for our fellow humans and are able to put differences of worldview aside in order to accomplish a greater good.

By Ronald W. Pies, SUNY Upstate Medical University

Spanking, or, as it’s formally known, “corporal punishment,” has been much in the news of late.

Out on the presidential campaign trail there was Senator Ted Cruz’s revelation that

If my daughter Catherine, the five-year-old, says something she knows to be false, she gets a spanking.

And recently, in Canada, following a call by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to prohibit spanking, the Liberal government has promised to abolish a parent’s right to physically discipline children. Along similar legal lines, in June 2015, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled that the state was justified in denying foster parenting privileges to a couple who practised corporal punishment and supported spanking or paddling children. The couple in the case had argued, unsuccessfully, that physical discipline was an integral aspect of their Christian faith.

On Sunday, January 24, 2016, Nader Abdullah of the Syrian Canadian Council spoke to 37 of us on the history behind the Syrian Refugee Crisis and the challenges facing Syrian refugees in Canada. A lively discussion followed.  Read more about our own effort to sponsor a refugee family.

Our Executive Director Ian Bushfield was on the Left at the Valley podcast yesterday speaking about some of our work. You can hear about how we plan to challenge the distribution of Gideon Bibles in Abbotsford public schools. You can listen to the podcast here.

The Fraser Valley Atheists, Skeptics and Humanists meets every Sunday at Legal Grounds Coffee in Abbotsford. Check them out on Meetup.

The BC Humanist Association submitted a brief today to the Parliamentary committee studying physician-assisted dying. Its brief argues that a physician-assisted death should be available to all who freely choose it and that so-called "conscientious objection" clauses pose a threat to universal access.

The expert panel established by the federal government last summer has delivered its final report on its consultations on physician-assisted dying, citing the BC Humanist Association's response.

After months of inaction, the previous Conservative government established the External Panel on Options for a Legislative Response to Carter v Canada in July 2015. The report does not make specific recommendations but discusses the different responses the panel received.

The BC Humanist Association was in the news last week, challenging the tax exemptions religious groups are entitled to by many municipalities. Spencer Anderson's great front page story for the Nanaimo Daily News showed that city alone awarded over $170K in property tax exemptions to church properties such as parking lots. Let's hope this is the start of a dialogue about whether it's time to stop subsidizing megachurches.

Also last week, the Supreme Court of Canada decided to partially grant the federal government's request for a further delay before assisted dying becomes decriminalized. While this means four more months of suffering for Canadians who have made that decision, the justices did rule that they could apply to a judge to hasten their death in the meantime. We will continue to make the case for compassion and choice and will be writing to the MPs and Senators who are studying this issue.

Yesterday, January 17, 2016, John Ince spoke to 36 of us on happiness and how to maximize it. We're hoping to have the recording online later this week. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes so you can listen to the speakers at our meetings.