The False Prophets of Climate Change
With the recent bushfires that have ravaged the eastern coast of NSW, many are proclaiming that the prophecies of environmentalists are being fulfilled before our very eyes. Leader of the global climate movement — 16-year-old Greta Thunberg — recently proclaimed the impending apocalypse of the world: Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money, and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you! But how bad are things, really? Sadly, we live in a post-truth age, which means that unbridled hysteria often trumps reality. And this…
Pornography is a Public Health Crisis
In an effort to normalise pornography, there are people who point out that porn has been around since ancient times. That might be true, but porn today is like nothing the world has ever seen. Pornography is now everywhere. It’s available on almost every screen and smartphone on the planet. In the West, what was once scandalous and shrewdly stocked in the newsagent or video store is now fodder for billboards, and makes for vanilla viewing on primetime TV. Would you believe that pornography is a US$97 billion global industry? Porn’s unstoppable popularity might be why so many in the mainstream…
Australia needs a national Sanctity of Life Sunday
Sometimes you’ll hear a federal politician claim abortion is just a state issue. Yet in the lead up to this year’s federal election, the federal Labor Party announced a national abortion policy that sought to make abortion easier and completely tax-payer subsidised. They threatened state health funding if abortion wasn’t available in all public hospitals, promised to build an abortion facility in Tasmania, and “encouraged” NSW to liberalise abortion laws. Although Coalition politicians refused to be drawn on the controversial issue, the Australian Christian Lobby and Cherish Life campaigned against Labor’s policy. Labor lost the election, and Labor MP Ed Husic…
We’re All Homophobes Now!
If you were one of the 20,000 people “who donated to Israel Folau’s bogus fundraising campaign” then you are a hard-core homophobe. At least, that’s what Claire Harvey, the deputy editor of the Sunday Telegraph thinks! According to Harvey, she is the only true believer whereas everyone else is just religious pretenders. As Harvey writes: Here’s the truth: I’m more of a Christian than Israel Folau is. I’m more of a Christian than anyone at the Australian Christian Lobby — and I don’t even go to church. I say you professional Christians are all fakes and phonies, and you’re riding…
Working out your senate vote in SA
The senate ballot paper can be daunting. This year, in SA, there are forty-two candidates, most of whose names you have never heard of before. Six of them will end up sitting in the Senate, deciding Australian Legislation for the next six years. That’s an important job, so we should look closely and think about who we will vote for. This article is, hopefully, a good starting point to work out how you will vote if you happen to be a South Australian. I’m going to introduce all the parties/candidates and the basic propositions that they represent. I’ve grouped them…
Where God’s revelation meets the West and all the rest
Karl Barth and Roger Scruton make unlikely conversation partners. Barth, was a Reformed Swiss theologian, who held up the distinction between theology and philosophy, and Scruton, is a British philosopher, talks theology, but knows his limits on the subject. The meeting between the two takes place in Barth’s On Religion and Scruton’s, The West and All the Rest. Together they provide a telescopic view of modern religio-politics and the socio-political landscape of contemporary Western society. One big theme for Scruton is the relationship between the ‘social contract’ and Creed communities (or communities bound by religious law). One clear example of…
The abortion of our conscience
It is the best of times. At no other time in human history has there been less war or invasion, plagues or pestilence, slavery or poverty. There has never been more knowledge, education and instant availability of information literally in the pockets and at the fingertips of more people than there is now. We are empowered, free and masters of our own destiny. We are civilised and enlightened and the major problems which plagued humanity for millennia have largely been solved. But it is the worst of times. We boast of social progress from the pagan ignorance of slavishly worshipping…