What about the many Christians who think climate change is real. I have not read any articles in the Age pushing the idea of conversion to Gaia - what is that about?!

I am an atheist who does not believe that a Carbon Tax will reduce pollution or make an iota of difference on a global scale to reduce pollution.

Does that make me a secret Christian.

The foolish comments on this thread are amazing.

One has nothing to do with the other.

Someone used the term "Christian soldiers" and that is exactly what th world does not need. Soldiers with jackboots plotting war against anyone who does not bend to their will. They used to call it facism. It is reminiscent of the Communist regimes that suppress and oppress diversity and forcing the idea there is only one right way - their way. Did we learn nothing from the Crusades?

HAHAHAHAHA...

Is this guy for real?

Saying that 10% of atheists pray once a week is so ludicrous it's funny. That's just like saying 10% of christians pray to Vishnu once a week just for the hell of it (pun definitely intended)!

As an atheist the act of praying (or even walking into a church for that matter) is so foreign I don't see why you would even make a statement like that.

To me personally praying is like asking Santa for a brand new bike... it would be good but c'mon people let's get with the times. There's no such thing and authors like the one in this article are just holding society back...

So sick of self-righteous biggots. Leave us atheists alone - go pray to your non-existent god and let us enjoy life as the liberated and enlightened free spirirts we are.

I definitely see what you mean, pelican…

<<Does that make me a secret Christian.>>

The way some - including the author - speak, you would think that every person on Earth fit perfectly and neatly into one of the following categories:

(a) Rightwing = theist = anti-AGW

(b) Leftwing = atheist = pro-AGW

But as someone who was raised by predominantly Leftwing Christians who don’t doubt AGW, I find this extreme form of rigid thinking very small-minded.

In regards to “Christian soldiers”, that was said in jest on another thread (http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=12045&page=0), but I couldn’t help smile when I read your (justified) reaction because I remember singing the song that term comes from in Sunday school as a kid!

“Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war…”

I think Pelican has made the best response to this article thus far, and is to be commended for the thoughtful approach taken.

I have an inclination to propose a philosophical evaluation: As a sentient being, Man has a sense of "self" encompassing the physical, the emotional, the historical and the environmental (my proposition, and not necessarily all-encompassing). This sense of self appears not to be shared with any other inhabitants of this planet, and may in fact be unique in the universe. Man is not only endowed with amazing neurological capabilities, in memory, logic, reasoning, problem solving etc, but also with great creative ability - to imagine the future, to delve into the very construct and nature of the universe - but is also fundamentally an emotional being. Is it possible that the full extent of our appreciation of "self" may in fact necessitate a sense of, or the actual presence of, a "soul"?

Now, there's a challenge. To decipher the indecipherable? There has been mention of Zen, and meditation, and immersion in the spiritual (or neurological) self, detached from the physical. Whether such "detachment" is real, or just an altered state of reality, is another question. We know people may be subject to altered states - as in delusion, hallucination, schizophrenia, catalepsy, etc, - but can there be a "cognizant" detached state, in which the individual is truly immersed in their "inner being", and could this therefore be considered to be in communion with their "soul"?

Could the proposition of a "universal presence" (or God) possibly emanate from an innate sense of "soul", as perhaps a nexus to the understanding of our uniqueness?

Since all life is truly a "miracle" (both in a literal and metaphorical sense), and Man is indeed a most amazing being, it appears likely that recognition of a higher being as a "creator" is a logical expression of man's wonder at the intricacy, enormity and indescribable beauty of the universe. It seems a pity then to deviate from sheer admiration by the construction of beliefs or mythologies which divide rather than consolidate.

Too late, I see that Ben-Peter Terpstra is "an Australian-European satirist". While his numerous links/references do seem to check out, I suspect we've all been had!

Philo,
We are facing despair right now.
What is there for you and your children but a war to the death with the irresponsible administrators of the only planet we can live on?

BPT,
What do you think we have done with the spirituality of the people we now call Aborigine, other than destroy their wondering and wanderings and compel them to build fences on a land of pristine beauty?

They did not have but one church, the most magnificent, ‘The Sky’, the breath and beauty of which cannot be approached by any of the churches built by the civilized.

The original inhabitant of this land did not, in their tens of thousands years or existence, felt the need for a God; hence they did not create any divinity,