Persevering with Mr Sellick's offerings seemed important… In that I might eventually comprehend his religious points of view.

Well, it's been worth it. Not because I comprehend them – but I now have a better idea why I don't.

As a youth (callowish) I generally relegated the concept of god to be a term covering 'everything we don't know', and age has merely confirmed this as a useful classification.

However, Mr Sellick presents the exact opposite view as in "…God is rescued from being a superior bit of nature and becomes the truth and wisdom of ages…"

Seems strangely vedic… I wonder if he's blue?

But the sentence, "The soul aim was to glorify God…" did make me genuinely smile and laugh out loud – with you, Peter, not at you.

Hi Peter.... Usually I really enjoy your articles, which often range from being thoughtful and good to being bloody awful. Sorry mate, but this has to be put into the "bloody awful" category... :-)

I want to "knock on the head" the notion that the Roman Catholic university (your words) - and I assume you are referring to ACU - seems to exist in some ethereal plane of spiritual elevation because they begin their lectures with prayer. Wrong! As a past member of its theology faculty for 35 years, I can assure you that no lecturer begins their lecturer with prayer - particularly within the Faculty of Theology :-). Australian Catholic University is a university, and not a seminary!

Just in case you haven't noticed, our national parliament begins with a public prayer each sitting day. Now empirically, according to your assumptions, one would expect that this daily "lifting of minds and heart to God" should have had some positive influence on the demeanor and respect of the sitting members for each other. Now that is really apparent in their words and actions,isn't it? Need one go on... Pete, just how seriously do you take your words?

Yuri

The christian /bible worldview fits the data best.

What a tedious article! Sells and Singer compete with each other to entrap the gullible, the feeble-minded, the superstitious, and those who need a psychological crutch to help them get away from reality.

Instead of giving us wheelbarrows full of theo-babble, Sells, why don't you provide some evidence to support your childish, irrational beliefs.

Give us something, anything that supports this monstrous fraud that continues to hold the world back, continues to keep many humans locked into a stone-age, 'witches and goblins' mentality.

Put up or shut up, Sells.

Indeed the purpose of life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Dear Yuri,

I agree with you that this article is somewhat below Peter's average. Understandably, no one can be expected to only keep getting better and better all the time without the occasional slide.

Specifically, Peter should have not conceptually reduced God to "truth and wisdom of ages", etc. in order to try and please some of the readers: the later is limited while God is not!

Excellent comment about parliament. A superficial answer would be "just imagine how they would behave without that prayer - we should probably expect physical punches and knives instead". Perhaps also the extraordinary discipline of making them sit quietly for 30 seconds helps!

A better answer is that trying to engage those miscreants in prayer is "Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout" (Proverbs 11:22).

Prayer is wonderful, but forcing prayer on those who have no appreciation for prayer, is not only an improper waste, but will boomerang. The state and its politicians just do not deserve prayer (but nothing obviously stops those politicians who so want from praying in private). Similarly, I'm afraid, though I enjoy Peter's articles immensely, many in this forum do not deserve his beautiful articles, but must rather learn the purpose of life the hard way.

"...though I enjoy Peter's articles immensely, many in this forum do not deserve his beautiful articles, but must rather learn the purpose of life the hard way." Yuyutsu, you are no better than Sells.

Who are you to talk so pontifically about the purpose of life? Each human must work that out for him or herself.

Other than procreation, humans have no other purpose, just like every other living thing.

If all humans disappeared from Earth tomorrow it would make not a jot of difference except that the horrific destruction of the planet would cease.

Truth and reality are the enemies of all religion!