I don’t get why people get such a major hang-up about homosexuality. I can understand people believing that there is a God who outlaws non-procreative sex. But I don’t understand why denouncing homosexuality seems to be such a high priority for many Christians. You don’t see Bishop Pell rushing out to say what a blight adultery is on our society. Nor do you see blokes who go out gay-bashing also going out adulterer-bashing. Yet no matter what religion you are, adultery’s a bad thing. The abho...

Am I a terrorist? It seems that I will have to remove the 4th article I ever wrote if I want to be certain to avoid jail for sedition. Australia is soon to introduce controversial anti-terror laws, based on Britain’s new laws. And according to yesterday’s Courier-Mail: "TERRORIST sympathisers who preach hate on the Internet will be jailed for seven years under tough anti-terrorism laws being considered by state premiers. Any published material which incites hatred could lead to the aut...

A couple of weeks ago I posted an article called "a history of liberalism". It was crap. I apologise. What I wrote had nothing to do with postmodernism, as Chakgogka pointed out. When I write about postmodernism at Uni, I explain myself well. Part of this is because I actually have the sources by my side and I have to reference them. This means that I don’t contradict myself all over the place and I stick to what they said. References keep you on track and remove contradictions. That’s wh...

Before I tell you how I’d teach Intelligent Design Link , I feel I should be upfront about my bias and tell you where I stand on these philosophical issues. Skip to the asterisks if you don’t care. I believe in the Dreamtime (the ancient stories told by Australia’s indigenous peoples). I also believe there is some truth to all the creationist stories of the world, including Adam & Eve. I believe in an immaterial/spiritual world that has an effect on the material world. I don’t believe in...

Something I realised recently about why I got so stressed out last year during election time. All my favourite comedians have gone serious. Paul McDermott hosts Strictly Dancing. James O’Loghlin hosts The Inventors. Peter Berner hosts the Einstein Factor. Andrew Denton hosts Enough Rope. * These are all worthwhile and good projects, but my coping strategy has gone. The way I used to cope with a World Gone Right was to have a laugh at it. It made me feel like it was cope-with-able....

Apparently I need a disclaimer (for the Right's PC brigade): This article is not an attack on people's right to live in the city. This article is not a political argument. It is simply a philosophical reflection on how I feel about city life and a defence of non-industralised societies. If you like the city, I enjoy hearing from you, and you are entitled to your preferences. I don’t like the city: I don’t like the concrete. I don’t like the fluorescent lights. I don’t like the fibreglas...

Liberal philosophy is based on the assumption of the free, autonomous individual. Adam Smith helped give rise to the French ideal of Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite and developed an economic theory (liberalised capitalism) based around this youthful ideal as it was then. It was thought that by abolishing the enforced, legalised markers of class distinctions (like royalty, servants) that were present under feudalism that this would allow people to become free, to act as they want. It was as tho...

For those of you who can't read my article "Tasteless Jokes About the News", here it is on my other blog Link But be warned, if you think that tragedy + time = comedy, you're in for a rude shock...in my book tragedy = comedy!!!!

For those of you who can't read my article "Tasteless Jokes About the News", here it is on my other blog Link But be warned, if you think that tragedy + time = comedy, you're in for a rude shock...in my book tragedy = comedy!!!!

There is a controversial plan to allow individual Northern Territory Aboriginals to lease or sell their own homes on native title land . Link . The idea is that this will improve health in communities where many people live in sheds, tents and shoddy housing. Although I admire Mundine’s attempts to move forward and empower Aboriginal communities for the future, I like many, am concerned that the new plan imposes Western culture on indigenous communities. Most Aboriginal cultures were noma...

There's been a lot of fuss in the past few weeks about the influence of postmodern philosophy on current literacy education. Everyone's very worried about this evil "critical literacy" thing that is poisoning our kids' minds. Unfortunately very few of the critics (or loudest proponents for that matter)seem to have any idea what they are talking about. Our Education Minister recently spoke out against it, painting it as some sort of Communist indoctrination or something, and everyone's favouri...

On October 6, fast to show your condemnation of the Government-sanctioned genocide that is happening in the Sudan. Link

Just a couple of unpublished letters to the editor from the past couple of weeks: The Australian published an article about Aboriginal assimilation last week: Link Gary Johns: Integration must take over from separatism September 22, 2005 HERBERT C. Coombs's vision of self-managing communities on Aboriginal communal land is dead. The Bennelong Society - formed by former Aboriginal affairs minister Peter Howson and others in 2000 - gives space to those who were convinced of t...