As much as I dislike people pushing any religious notions or god on anyone else, I must say that I did enjoy many of the bible stories myself.

As a child, we had several bibles around the house, and mum bought us our own set of 10 Children's Bible Story books.

I loved reading these, and enjoyed all the stories about the families and how they lived .
I saw them as fictional, but yet historical stories, and read all of them many times over.

In Western society, it is an advantage to know the many bible stories, because of the numerous times that they are referred to in our everyday conversations.

I'm glad I know them, but I wish I had also had more education re other religions and histories in my youth as well.

The main, and perhaps only, "take-home" message for secularists from the bible is the statement from the New Testament's hero, Jesus, who reportedly said "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, etc." [Matthew 22:21]

He clearly was a strong proponent of the separation of the church and state. Wise man.

Thanks for the review. I am going to buy the book.

It is about time The Prime Minister put the fear of God into the banking sector and had them honour their obligations under the Laws of the Commonwealth by providing adequate working capital to the agricultural and business sectors. The banks have had no fear of God, since the abolition of the uniquely Protestant Christian system of government which was abolished after 1952, and a Continental European system substituted for it, by State and Federal Governments. The fear of God, is the belief that when two or more are gathered together in His name, sworn on the Holy Bible to find the truth, there guiding them is the Holy Spirit. The Gospel citation that confirms this statement is Matthew18 Verse 20. In the Authorised King James Version a mistranslation inserted at the behest of King James, is the translation of ecclesia from the Greek as Church, in Matthew 18 Verse 17 when in fact the true translation is a gathering of the people, which means twelve people drawn from the community, in a court of Judicature with a Justice trained as a lawyer, presiding over a jury of 12 sworn on the Holy Bible.

That is why “court” in the Australian Constitution, is not capitalised and “judges” is plural not singular. Jesus Christ stated in Matthew 7 Verse 1 that we should not judge. However the Holy Spirit is entitled to judge and find the truth, and as Gilbert and Sullivan so aptly demonstrated in the Pirates of Penzance, a jury should make the punishment fit the crime, as required in S 268:12 Criminal Code Act 1995( Cth). S 268:10 the anti slavery section, is also infringed when a Judge exercises powers of ownership over any other human being, by ordering without authority from a jury, that a Bank take possession of property. This is why you can put enormous pressure on the banking sector to do the right thing, and supply what is as necessary as rain and sunshine, to the farming and manufacturing sectors, and that is finance. Great article Graham.

With our infinitely superior knowledge. we should remember that not only do we stand on the shoulders of giants but on those of our ancestors as well. We all come from barbarian, 'traditional' societies, and we should be always sympathetic to the innumerable struggles - and innumerable side-tracks - that they have had to deal with in painfully developing better ways of living together, and the more informed knowledge and the more humane societies that we are extraordinarily lucky to live in.

Our societies, our democracy, our knowledge-base, will never be perfect or complete, but most of us would surely wish to make our own small contributions to better worlds for our descendants. Marx says somewhere that all reforms, revolutions, innovations bear the marks of the imperfect societies and environments that they spring from, so imperfection is bound to with us for a while yet.

And yes, our society, our civilization, has been built on the painful lessons portrayed in books such as the Bible, and in the gropings towards better forms of knowledge of the best of Greek and Roman and Indian and Chinese thinkers of the distant past, and of the more recent enquirers through the Renaissance and Reformation and the Enlightenment, and into the present. Any form of 'better society' has to build on all that.

Hopefully we will keep on learning, in political maturity, in science and in the recognition that all our seven billion neighbors are as entitled to relatively free and productive lives as we are, as we take for granted even as some of us - as Wm Trevor demonstrates above - attempt to denigrate it.

Best wishes, neighbour,

Joe

well that clears that up GY=Runner
Is Japan a Christain country? what laws does Japan have that make either way.

I think most free thinkers will atest to religions effect on our culture. But's rarely a positive one. The religious cherry pick their cultural impact raely will you read one confess to the blodd shed and hate that their faith has inspired.

It's only when you step into the light that you notice it. Star wars has had an effect on our culture, I'm sure in you ask a Star trek fanboy that could rattle off a number of culture movements that have been inspired by it. Hell coke is it isn't it? and just what does tSanta look like?

Just a note on christainity I'm sure you all relise most of the themes experinced in Romans new version of the bible, were already familar to Romans, they just spiced it up a little and made it the state religion. Mithraism anyone.....