Stillbirth
The Failure of Secularism in the English-Speaking World

Book Launch

Wednesday 18th January 2023 @ 6:00 pm
Librairie Le Port de tête
262 Avenue du Mont-Royal Est, Montréal

Many thanks to all who attended!

The book remains available at this bookstore.

Talk in English by David Rand
Playlist of videos of the event

Stillbirth, The Failure of Secularism in the English-Speaking World

“Stillbirth” is available on Amazon in both eBook and paperback versions.

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Présentation en français

Bibliography

Images from the book



Transcript of the above video

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How Anglo Ethnocentrism, French Postmodernism and Fashionable Nonsense have Neutralized Secularism

We are all familiar with Thomas Jefferson’s famous metaphor of a “wall of separation” which he used in an 1802 letter to describe his view of religion-State relations in the USA. And yet, the US Constitution, including its First Amendment, adopted in 1791 and forbidding the establishment of a State religion, never mentions the concept of “separation.” Over two centuries later, secularism in that country is in shambles, […]

The Canadian constitution is worse, declaring “the supremacy of God” in its very preamble. Meanwhile, the Criminal Code of Canada includes hate propaganda legislation which grants impunity to religions—arguably the greatest source of hatred—by allowing believers to make hateful declarations based on religious texts, declarations which would be prosecutable if made by non-believers. As for Great Britain, it is even further from secularism, having a State church, the Anglican, […]

Before the French Revolution, France was in an even worse situation than Great Britain, having an absolute monarchy, far more autocratic than the British and very tightly allied with the Roman Catholic Church—a near-theocracy. However, the revolution effected an abrupt break with that rigid tradition.

The 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, like the US First Amendment, guarantees freedom of religion, but unlike the latter it allows that freedom to be limited by law. A little more than a century later, the 1905 Law of Separation between Churches and State explicitly declares, in its very title, that crucial word “separation” missing from all legislation in the US, Canada and Great Britain. […]

In June 2019, Quebec adopted legislation, Bill 21, which partially implements State secularism in that French-speaking Canadian province. Although weaker than similar legislation in several European countries, that law was met with overwhelming and fanatical opposition from mainstream media and politicians elsewhere in Canada. […]

As bad as the situation was previously, in the 21st century it has become much worse with the advent of various anti-Enlightenment ideologies, […]

— From the Preface

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