This recalls some of Dennett’s thoughts on religion from “Breaking the Spell”. He wonders if there is something in religion that can’t be replaced by secular institutions, and whether those are on net more helpful than the harms that seem to come along with it.
My intuition is that many newly converted atheists are just guilty of applying reversed stupidity to their social lives, and that a bit more practice in things like luminosity might go a long way once they start to get over their initial disillusionment.
I am not from the southern US (I presume you are, given the content of your post), but I would think this is especially true there, where a very huge majority of the atheists will be “new” ones.
My experience has been that many people consider Ottawa to be Eastern Canada and Nova Scotia/New Brunswick/Newfoundland “Atlantic Canada”. I just tend to forget that, since all that stuff is so far “west” to me.
When tourists come in to town off of the American cruise ships, they tend to pour into town asking how much a cab to Montreal and back will cost, and if they’ll get there in time for lunch in half an hour.
I checked, and Ontario is in the Eastern time zone. The Maritime provinces are in the ‘Atlantic’ time zone. The ‘Central’ time zone is mostly Manitoba, which is probably why it doesn’t sound right to say that Ottawa is ‘Central Canada’ either.
This recalls some of Dennett’s thoughts on religion from “Breaking the Spell”. He wonders if there is something in religion that can’t be replaced by secular institutions, and whether those are on net more helpful than the harms that seem to come along with it.
My intuition is that many newly converted atheists are just guilty of applying reversed stupidity to their social lives, and that a bit more practice in things like luminosity might go a long way once they start to get over their initial disillusionment.
I am not from the southern US (I presume you are, given the content of your post), but I would think this is especially true there, where a very huge majority of the atheists will be “new” ones.
I am not from the southern U.S. either. I’m actually from eastern Canada.
No way! Me too! Are you in Halifax (per chance)?
No… Ottawa. Which come to think of it is not usually referred to as “Eastern” Canada, despite being east of most of the provinces.
My experience has been that many people consider Ottawa to be Eastern Canada and Nova Scotia/New Brunswick/Newfoundland “Atlantic Canada”. I just tend to forget that, since all that stuff is so far “west” to me.
When tourists come in to town off of the American cruise ships, they tend to pour into town asking how much a cab to Montreal and back will cost, and if they’ll get there in time for lunch in half an hour.
I checked, and Ontario is in the Eastern time zone. The Maritime provinces are in the ‘Atlantic’ time zone. The ‘Central’ time zone is mostly Manitoba, which is probably why it doesn’t sound right to say that Ottawa is ‘Central Canada’ either.
That must be it, then.