John Turner as usual has served up a steam plate of bollocks.

As an Atheist myself, I ascribe to a belief system based on observable facts, such as most Christians while quoting the bible don't actually believe that the bible is the literal truth.

None of the quotes that John offers up indicates that Abbott believes that the bible is the literal truth, or that he would use his belief as any more than a ethical guide.

John in this article and previous other logically deficient articles proves that irrationality is not the sole purview of the religious

I don't know which is the worst: Julia the Atheist or St Tony!

What a choice people will have in September: Julia who couldn't run a chook raffle and Tony who believes in the greatest fraud the world has ever seen: religion (and I mean all religions, everyone of which prey upon the gullible and the feeble-minded).

Australia has lost its way. We are led by political morons and witchdoctors who worship the U.S., where evil reigns.

Time we had a big flood again, swept away all the current rubbish. Perhaps a new breed of humans might get it right for a change!

Everybody is entitled to believe what they will!
There are other ways of interpreting, in his own image, other than a literal carbon copy!
I believe most religious believers/students, now see the creation story as merely allegorical, rather than literal?
Most if not all non evidence based belief, has an element of brain washing implicated in it, be it literal creationism, or evolutionism.
We see the survival or the fittest or most adaptive as evolutionism, whereas, the very same EVIDENCE of adaptation applies equally to intelligent design?
If the theory of evolution were proven, all life forms would have evolved to a higher order, yet we still have single celled organisms.
Even so, some evolutionists are just as fanatical in their belief system, as many so-called religious fanatics.
And start a mouth frothing dialogue, if their "BELIEF SYSTEM" is ever challenged?
What we don't need running the country, is a person with any form of fanatical faith based belief system, be it McCarthyism or communism.
Nor do we need a dominating control freak, who believes freedoms should be religiously controlled or doled out, like Govt accorded privilege or favouritism!
This is why we still need a bill of irrevocable rights, that no extreme autocrat can ignore, remove or annul, just so they can wield more overriding personal POWER! [A smart party could even make a long overdue bill of rights, a dominant election issue!]
Fortunately we have a party political system and a leader entirely dependant on the party, for his or her leadership credentials!
And we now have a precedent for removing a sitting PM, if that PM appears to wield to much personal power, is too rigid, or is "emotionally" unwell?
Rhrosty.

I have been a labor voter all my life but reading of Abbot's speech has made me rethink.

At last a politician who bravely speaks about our cultural heritage in the face of the impoverished secular world.

In his speech Tony Abbott stated the following;
"In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve believed they could do almost as they pleased."
If you refer to "people" in such a way it indicates that you believe they actually existed.

The statements that the author presented about the ages of the universe, our sun, the earth and the Australopithecine and Homo species are as now verified by the scientific evidence. Check out the latest "deep field" Hubble telescope evidence for example or Lawrence Kraus's, " A Universe from Nothing". The Smithsonian has an excellent site on the evolution of our early forefathers and our present sapiens species.

There is a link in the article to a German study. I have examined this study (earlier) and it makes a clear case that social justice leads to very contented, beneficial, and peaceful societies in in the Northern European countries and not one of the leading quintile is much influenced by religion. Another study, conducted by an individual, Phil Zuckerman, came to a similar conclusion.

One of today's comments by an admitted atheist in effect states that atheists should remain quiet. To do so allows the various religions free reign to indoctrinate the the youngsters in the coming generations. That is not in the interest of each child and appears to be in breach of some of the clauses in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Clause-7 in particular). Australia signed up to the Convention in 1950 when it was in its earliest form.

Foyle.
Nope, science doesn't affirm anything, affirmation is part of a belief system, science creates techniques to make predictions about the physical universe, that's it's only function.
You can't hold a "scientific belief" it's an oxymoron and if you're talking about affirmation of the theory of evolution then you're not engaging in a scientific process, you're constructing a belief system.