Promoting Religious Freedom Abroad

Prime Minister Harper is fulfilling his 2011 election promise to open an office of religious freedom within the department of foreign affairs. The United States, Italy and Germany all have similar offices designed to promote and monitor religious freedom abroad. But what does a Canadian approach to religious freedom look like?

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[eminem4436]

@Knight2e5 I'm talking world-wide. Also, the American statistic is rather twisted. It's true that there are a lot of people who do not believe in Christanity, but, that does not mean they are atheists. The statistic used by many Atheists in the USA is, over 15% of the population don't affiliate themselves with a religion. But that includes agnostics, and people who DO believe in A God, but not a God that goes with a certain faith. Meaning, the atheists population is quite small.

[Knight2e5]

@eminem4436

Less than 1%? I admit to not knowing the true percentage of Canadian atheists but even in the US they account for over 10% of the population and rank second, only to Christianity, among religious 'views'.

[eminem4436]

@Prytanus Alright, lets hope we can keep this debate as respectful as possible.

Your statement about being sentenced to death is quite true, however, the countries that do in fact slaughter innocent people are doing it not because they are atheistic, but doing it because they are openly NOT following the dominint religion of the country. Also, atheists (not all of them) are the most outspoken members of any western religion. I'll continue this in a private message.

[Prytanus]

Thank you for your response.

Making atheistic statements is punishable by death in several countries around the world. The freedom OF religion does include freedom FROM religion, just as any other religion ought to be free from discrimination FROM other religions.

You may be correct that atheists are a small % of the pop, but that still doesn't mean that they aren't discriminated against everywhere.

As for scientology, I'm curious. Not a lot of them being sentenced to death, I bet.

[eminem4436]

@Prytanus Atheism is not really a religion, and it has a very small following. In fact, Christianity grew more world-wide last year than Atheism. If it was included on the list, it would be at the bottom, not even 1% of the population is Atheistic. If your complaining about not including ALL religions. You should be pissed that scientology didnt make it. Right?

[Prytanus]

Where are atheists and nonbelievers on the list posted at 6:48 of this video?

Why don't they deserve to be included?

Where would they fall on this list?