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The schism is that the great majority of people in the West, and certainly in Canada, believe that there is some sort of supernatural spiritual force or intelligence, whether they translate this into religious practice or not, but that the academic communities, the media, and the higher levels of government are all almost entirely in the hands of atheists, and in many cases, aggressive atheists. Recruitment to the clergy in the Roman Catholic and Evangelical Churches are increasing, and attendance at their services is steady or rising, but in the salons of the publicly influential, any reference to religion, other than as an antiquarian superstition, causes anyone who raises the subject to be stared at as if he or she had two heads.

Exceptions are made for the Muslims and Canada’s native people. Parliament has passed a motion praising the civilizing value of Islam and claiming that there is a “rising climate of hate and fear” in Canada, which is nonsense. The Supreme Court has accepted to hear out a 25-year controversy that has been comprehensively addressed by the British Columbia courts, that a ski area development in the Kootenays may banish the spirit of the grizzly bear and, according to a private revelation to a deceased elder of a band of 900 people many years ago, thus prevent the practice of their religion. The truckling to Islam, I believe, apart from cowardice and societal self-hate, is itself a mockery of religion, since there are few religious denominations which, by their rites and texts, atheists are more likely to despise. The motivation for acceptance to hear absurd litigation from First Nations in the country’s highest courts is less contemptible. The First Nations have legitimate grievances, but they will not be addressed in this sort of frivolous and vexatious court action.