Society is broken up into two groups: one small group which embraces reality and thinks rationally, and a very large anachronistic group which embraces a mindset that was common two thousand years ago, a time when humans knew little about themselves or the world they lived in and allowed their minds to be filled with superstition and fantasies by cunning religious conmen.

I find it difficult to believe that many educated humans in 2012 cling to these myths about God or various Gods (which number in the hundreds of thousands) and ridiculous promises of eternal life and winged Angels who wander about singing hymns for eternity.

Sorry, Santa doesn't exist and neither does God. It's time to grow up and accept reality, folks!

It's not so bad.

How sad.

An intelligent woman, who appears to have legal training, thoughtfully raises some very important issues about the 'thin edge of the wedge' as far as the danger of sharia law making its first subtle inroads into Australia.

Individual Muslim women in Australia can be protected from trauma, abuse and even from death by murder, by a system that will uphold human rights vigorously, and strenuously highlight the distinction between secular law (the law of the land) and religous "law" which applies only to those who choose to believe in it by faith, and which cannot and will not be enforced by the state . . .

Why has this discussion degenerated into whether God exists or not, withGod-believers kicking God-deniers and vice versa?

How pathetic.

The law of the land is meant to protect all people in the land.

No sharia law - not even one tiny bit in Australia!

A 'marriage' to a person who is already married is not and never will be a marriage in Australia.

Maybe this should be a part of the citizenship test instead of "Who is Ian Thorpe?" and "What are the words to Advance Australia Fair?"

I agree Dunc; the shift to the irrelevant, utterly idiotic minuta of the theology, history, myths of whatever the religion is that the commentator is espousing is the classic trolling technique of the religious troll.

It does not matter because in a secular society every ratbag can believe whatever theology he wants; the problem is that some religious adherents are not content until their reality is everyone's.

As I said at the beginning Ms Scutt, as a feminist has a role to play in revealing what an abhorrent social blight Islam is. Any attempt to distract from that point is reprehensible.

>>The law of the land is meant to protect all people in the land.<<

Too right: the last thing we need is some archaic religious legal system operating at cross-purposes to the secular laws of this nation.
Unfortunately we already have one which is firmly established and probably isn't going anywhere: Catholic Canon Law. This is the legal system under which the most severe punishments for child rape were until quite recently to be moved to a new parish or - in the most serious cases - to be defrocked: to be discharged from the priesthood so they can get a job in the secular world. No doubt running amusement park rides or working in schools.

So why do people get so worked up about Sharia law while turning a blind eye to abuses and injustices occurring under Canon law? I would have thought that most people considered child rape a worse crime than bigamy.

>>the problem is that some religious adherents are not content until their reality is everyone's.

As I said at the beginning Ms Scutt, as a feminist has a role to play in revealing what an abhorrent social blight Islam is.<<

I think you're mistaking Islam for Christianity. I've met plenty of Muslims and none of them have ever tried to convert me. Compare and contrast this with those religiously intolerant bastards from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and their Jehovah's Witness mates: waking people up at 7am on weekends when they're hungover to share the good news about Jesus certainly counts as an abhorrent social blight in my book. When Islam starts sprouting off weirdo sub-cults that come around to wake me up and tell the good news about Mohammed I'll get concerned but at the moment they seem mostly harmless. Except for the violent extremist psychopaths. But there's plenty of abortion-clinic bombing Christians who fit that bill and I don't see it as a reason to tar all Christians with the same brush because most Christians - like most Muslims - aren't crazy. Dangerous lunatics are thankfully rare.

Cheers,

Tony

Dear Dunc,

<<Why has this discussion degenerated into whether God exists or not, withGod-believers kicking God-deniers and vice versa?>>

It started with the article itself and the "intelligent woman" has only herself to blame:

Sharia law is not on the cards for Australia and nobody in their right mind claims otherwise, so it's simply a non-issue. The humanist government of Australia is already ruling with an iron fist and would allow none the like, certainly in the area of marriage where they don't even allow gay-marriage, how less so polygamy. Polygamy is also a non-issue because although Islam allows it (up to 4 wives per man), it does not mandate it. One can be a perfect Muslim while having just one wife (or none). Even if polygamy/polyamory is ever introduced in Australia it will not be a result of Islam or religion, but more likely as a Green push.

Why should the author then burst into an open door?

Because the discussion of polygamy and Islam is only a pretext, a cheap opportunity to attack religion as such, to "show" religious people who is in charge, who holds the big end of the stick in Australia, to scare us that we should follow the secular regime rather than God, or else...

Any religious person respects God way above and beyond the secular authorities. No true religious leader would advise his flock to put the state's laws before God. Tyrants come and go while God's light shines for eternity.

Maybe polygamy's not a bad idea. Is the West's much more prevalent institution of adultery superior? At least polygamy is out in the open; we need only ensure women have the right to divorce should the husband, or indeed the wife, choose to take another partner. Better still, women should abandon the institution altogether and stand on their own two feet.