Moody, 2008. (Available in Australia from Koorong Books) These two young guys are sceptical about megachurches, how-to-sermons, legalism, the effects of modernity, marketing gimmicks, and…
Every once in a while I am asked what I am reading, so I usually produce a column such as this. Now for those folks…
You know we have really entered a moral freefall when it actually appears reasonable to call black white, and white black; when we manage to…
On Wednesday the Rudd Government will offer a formal apology to the so-called Stolen Generation. The Prime Minister said this official “sorry” will come from…
It has been rightly said that perhaps the scariest phrase one can hear is this: “Hi, we’re from the Government and we’re here to help…
On such a hot potato subject as this, a few preliminary disclaimers. First, it would not be wise for me to presume to tell other…
Regnery, 2007. There are three worrying trends which make this book necessary. The first is the hatchet job on the term fundamentalism, which had quite…
All ideologues like to think they speak for all mankind, while in reality they usually just speak only for their own little clique. The feminist…
Anyone involved in public debates, the blogosphere, or discussion about controversial issues in the public arena will know that it can get pretty hot out there…
OK. I promise. No more articles on France. At least for a while. But given all the articles I have penned recently on the demise…
There are two general truths about so-called hate crime legislation, regardless of where they appear around the world. One, they are largely the work of…
I read a brief news item recently about a school which would no longer give low marks to students, such as a fail, because it…
The weekend talkfest in Canberra designed to smooth over Muslim and non-Muslim differences is now history. The gathering was meant, in part, to help Muslims…
Political conservatism and religious conservatism tend to go together. Not always. Not completely. But there does tend to be a connection. It can be said…
With both major political parties now headed by professing Christians, the discussions about faith and politics in Australia continue to gather steam. Christians can rightly…
Bantam Press, 2006. Many years ago when I read the short volume by atheist Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian, I thought: there…
The new leader of Federal Labor, Kevin Rudd, is seeking to take his party in new directions, while holding on to older core values. Such…
The Australian House of Representatives has just voted to allow the passage of a clone and kill bill. The Patterson Bill was passed by a…
Atheism has been around, in various forms, for some time now. At the risk of oversimplification, one can speak of three phases or periods of…
Freedom of speech has never been absolute. Crying ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre, we are rightly told, is just not on. So there is often…