While I don’t think Australia will ever be as dominated by fundamentalist religious dogma as is the case in the USA, it’s scary to see religion and politics closely intertwined in Australia, as it’s certainly possibly that we could head down a similar path. Our two major party leaders, Kevin Rudd, and John Howard are both strong Christians (or, so they claim), as are many of the other Members of Parliament.

Democrats¹ leader Lyn Allison says there are too many federal MPs with strong religious views.

Senator Allison says the separation of church and state is becoming blurred.

“The Prime Minister this morning said that there were a great number of Members of Parliament in Coalition ranks with very strong ties to the Christian church,” she said. “I know this is a Christian country but people with very strong religious views are heavily over-represented, if I can put it that way, in the Parliament,” she said.²

I’ve always been a swinging voter, and I don’t support either major Australian party – my votes in the past have gone to the Greens, the Democrats, or the odd independent (with the unfortunate necessity of nominating both of the major parties somewhere with my preferences). It worries me, however, when I can see the line between politics and religion in Australia getting blurred.

Some claim that comments like those of Lyn Allison are misguided, but I think it’s a legitimate concern. There’s certainly no problem with having a reasonable percentage of Christians represented in parliament (if 64% of the population are Christian, then their views might be well represented if we have 64% Christian MPs). My problem is that politics seems to be becoming more about religion than it should be, and who knows where that will lead? Honestly, I don’t care what religious views our leaders have, as long as they’re able to put their views aside when it counts. I worry that the efforts of our potential Prime Ministers to emphasise their Christianity will push the focus where it doesn’t belong.

(Oh, and sorry this post was late – I try to write one major post each Sunday, but I’ve had a rather busy weekend!)

1. A minor party in Australia
2. Donald, P., Iggulden, T. (August 2007) Howard, Rudd Woo Christians Online, ABC News

Link to Video

I can’t imagine the atheist community would have anything important to confront them about? (*cough* evolution *cough*) Anyone skilled with a camera, and able to present a good case in 30 seconds or so?

If you’ve got some ideas, check out http://www.youtube.com/debates

(via Slashdot)

• Letter to the Editor: Kick the Atheists out of America – “I don’t care if they have never committed a crime, atheists are the reason crime is rampant.”
• Philosophy and the proof of God’s existence by Roger Jones – A nice summary of many of the traditional “proofs” of God’s existance, including the argument from design, pascals wager, and the philosophies of Kant, Hegal and others.
• What Evolution Left Behind On Humans – “I?ve always been fascinated with human evolution. To me, the most fascinating part of human evolution is learning about what was ?left behind? on our bodies from our ancestors and from our prenatal development.”
• Wife Beating – It?s therapeutic – I’m glad someone’s cleared this up. Wife beating is not a rule, it’s just therapeutic. Oh, but there are limits!
• Pharyngula: They’re running out of virgins! – Nice tasteless video about terrorists debating how many virgins they get in paradise

• Morality Part 2: Immoral Religion
• Morality Part 3: Non-Theistic Morality

God Hating Atheists

Some have claimed that atheism is responsible for immoral acts, and that lack of Christian morality (ignoring the possibility of other types of morality) in schools is responsible for school shootings. Both these articles describe various violent acts and crimes committed by young USAians¹, and then jump right into blaming Atheists and Darwinists (perhaps I’m missing a step in the argument, but I can’t see it – although “How to build a bomb in the public school system” does have one piece of evidence – the words “Natural Selection” on one shooter’s T-shirt):

Now do you realize who the people are who are responsible for children having gotten so violent? The answer is ATHEISTS and other non-beleivers [sic.] in the true God. So you may ask how can this be? The reason why they are responsible is because they hate God and teach their children against God (which is the highest form of child abuse). For example: Atheists hate the TEN COMMANDMENTS because God is their Author. ²

Aside from the obvious problem that Atheists, by definition, are unable to hate God (because as far as they’re concerned God doesn’t even exist) I see no logical reason why someone couldn’t hate the Christian God, but still “love” the 10 commandments. Jews and Muslims still have the 10 commandments, but in this writers mind, I’m sure Jews and Muslims would classify as “non-believers in the true God” (even though, technically, all three religions have the same roots, and thus the same God). There’s also plenty of people who live arguably moral lives while breaking at least the first few commandments. Depending on your interpretation, it’s also possible that all Christians break the 1st commandment, if you read “thou shalt have no other Gods before me”³ as endorsing strict monotheism, given that Christianity (arguably) invokes three Gods⁴ – I think Jews and Muslims are safe, though. Then, of course, there’s those of us who choose not to kill, steal or commit adultery, and still manage to respect our parents every so often – I don’t need to love (or even believe in) the Christian God for that.

There may be many religion-hating Atheists (or, anti-theists – of which Richard Dawkins comes to mind – while I’ve seen him in documentaries, I have yet to actually read his work, though, so I could be wrong), but a God-hating Atheist is an oxymoron. I certainly don’t think taking issue with religion necessarily makes you amoral, just like I don’t think that following a religion (whatever it may be) necessarily makes you moral.

One final thought – how many “immoral” people do you think are out there in this world? 5%? 20%? 50%? Well, if you subscribe to the theory that without Christianity, you’re necessarily immoral, you are immediately saying that 67%⁵ are incapable of living moral lives – not including immoral “Christians”, of course. Is there really a God who would condemn the majority of the world’s population simply because they were raised in a religion other than Christianity?

(To Be Continued… – Morality Part 2 will be posted next Sunday)

1. Residents of the United States of America – often incorrectly (in my mind) called Americans. “The Americas” cover a lot more ground than just the U.S.A.
2. Atheists Responsible for Youth Crime
3. Exodus 20:3
4. Suggested by AthiestWager, although I think it’s definitely possible to be Christian and follow the 1st commandment – it all comes down to interpretation
5. According to Wikipedia, only 33.06% of the world’s population are Christian

• Heed the word of God – An amusing commentary about George Bush’s claims that God is speaking to him
• I Believe In Evolution, Except For The Whole Triassic Period – From The Onion: “Scientific reasoning can explain nearly every stage of life from the Big Bang to the present day. I say ‘nearly’ because the period commonly known as the Triassic period was quite obviously the work of the Lord God Almighty.”
• The Atheist Delusion – A satirical response to Richard Dawkins’ “God Delusion”
• The Official God FAQ – Visit this page to find out everything you need to know about God
• God is Imaginary – 50 simple proofs – It is easy to prove to yourself that God is imaginary. The evidence is all around you. Here are 50 simple proofs
• World Religions Religion Statistics Geography Church Statistics – A collection of statistics and religious geography citations
• You Know You’re An Atheist When…
• Ars takes a field trip: the Creation Museum – The new “Creationist Museum” in Kentucky – “This walk through history museum will be a wonderful alternative to the evolutionary natural history museums that are turning countless minds against the gospel of Christ”

• YouTube – Red State Update: Night at the Creation Museum – Jackie and Dunlap on Kentucky’s new Creation Museum, the new Billy Graham library, and Murfreesboro’s own Bible Park. Plus, a sneak peek at the new Ben Stiller comedy “Night at the Creation Museum”.
• Question Everything… – Funny photo of graffiti on a wall
• Even Evangelical Teens Do It – How religious beliefs do, and don’t, influence sexual behavior.
• 26 Reasons What You Think is Right is Wrong – A cognitive bias is something that our minds commonly do to distort our own view of reality. Here are the 26 most studied and widely accepted cognitive biases. Just show’s how important it is to really think about things.
• With God on side – Opinion – theage.com.au – “Atheism might be all the rage, but Christianity is about more than fashion”
• Nearly 1 in 3 Believe Bible is Literal Word of God – Believe in the literal word of the Bible is strongest among those whose schooling stopped with high school and declines steadily with educational level, with only 20% of college graduates holding that view and 11% of those with an advanced degree.