Col Rouge
its amazing what a little 'religious zealotry' can do to bring out so much in terms regurgitated media generated mythology, and the views of people who have apparently unquestioningly accepted such verbal soup. Anyway.. ur right about my statement neither 'for' or 'against' the article. But in regard to hypocricy .. lets ask, 'where is the yelling screaming marching protesting left' about the genocide in Darfur ? I mean..they have the energy to rant and rave and protest about our treatment of 'alleged' assylum seekers..why is there not more 'compassion' generating protests outside the Sudanese consulates, or Parliment house, urging them to DO something about the murder and rape of tens of thousands ? Maybe its because Darfur is 'far away' and out of mind.
I don't question the generosity of folk who have given to help the tsunami effected people.
I don't see how you get 'quasi religious condemnation of our democratic processes'.
I'm rather enjoying democracy of late, since I'm seeing how it can 'work' for me and those of a like mind.
I maintain my point, that its not a 'system' no matter which one it is which will address the problems of either Darfur or natural disasters. Its renewed hearts. What I find a bit shallow, is when people come along from 'within' our peaceful and protected 'spot' on the historical time line and speak as IF they would not react in a rather human manner in the face of a water shortage where u have 2 identifiable ethnic groups both wanting their peceived rightful share.
Its easy to be 'nice' and compassionate when there are no bullets flying or ur water has not been cut off by the members of a village up pipe from you during a water shortage simply because they were a different 'religion' or race than you.(as happened to me) As soon as u see ur kids not able to drink or bathe.. u discover instincts u perhaps would not like to think exist in yourself. That is also by the way, where u discover the trendy leftist approach of 'lets resolve problems of human conflict without violence' approach just looks so stupid its not funny. (by the way, violence can be verbal as much as physical) When your child is going thirsty, you have to ACT and fast.
You said 'we are a secular society' and 'religion has no place in a secular society' and

"Religious zealotry has no place beyond the confines of the cloister or cult-centres which are the usual realms of delusion in which the zealots hide from the reality of life. I suggest - Keep it to yourself - It has no credibility with a balanced and educated population."

I suggest you read THIS ==>http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/rn/1999-2000/2000rn08.htm

...Regarding God in our constitution.

Specially the part which says there are about 73% to 75% of Australians who would subscribe to the idea of God. So, Col, ur describing a heck of a lot of ur fellow citizens as unbalanced and uneducated.
But, the 'balanced and educated' bit.. I so love :) I will probably devote a special response to 'caringly dismantling' that one, its so loaded with issues that are juicy to any apologist. But mainly it tells more about you than the statement itself. (no offence meant)
So, in conclusion, I support the article in some areas.
By the way, I was not meaning to suggest that acts of kindness and human generosity are not worthy and good .. the 'filthy rags' reference was also not meant to imply that God simply doesn't care about our behavior and nothing we can do will ever please Him. But it certainly got you going :) Which is good. I was saying in a rather 'in ur face, religious zealot' kinda way, that deep down, we all have the need for renewal, and acts of kindness during times of economic blessing and peace, dont really change that, as other circumstances would quickly reveal.

In regard to democracy and how society is shaped, secular or Christian, (in the sense of a specific emphasis on a Christian based socialization program) that dear Col is purely up to the voters, not an individual like you. If a number of us decide to put Family First across the line, or even for them to have a significant number of juicy preferences .. even in one seat which could determine the flavor of the government in a close election.. wellll deals can be made :) and to quote a person you know well .. "so what" ?

Have a chew on this, and see where it leads.

This is what President Clinton says in his memoir "My Life", about the role of the USA in Rwanda (Hutchinson, London, 2004, at page 592):

"Early in April....mass violence raged in Rwanda. A plane crash killing the Rwandan president and the president of Burundi sparked the beginning of a horrendous slaughter inflicted by leaders of the majority Hutu on the Tutsis and their Hutu sympathisers. The Tsutis constituted only 15 percent of the population but were thought to have disproportionate economic and political power. I ordered the evacuation of all Americans and sent troops to guarantee their safety. Within one hundred days, more than 800,000 people in a country of only 8 million would be murdered, most of them with machetes. We were so preoccupied with Bosnia, with the memory of Somalia just six months old, and with opposition in Congress to military deployments in faraway places not vital to our national interests that neither I nor anyone on my foreign policy team adequately focused on sending troops to stop the slaughter. With a few thousand troops and help from our allies, even making allowances for the time it would have taken to deploy them, we could have saved lives. The failure to try to stop Rwanda's tragedies became one of the greatest regrets of my presidency. In my second term, and after I left office, I did what I could to help the Rwandans put their country and their lives back together. Today, at the invitation of President Paul Kagame, Rwanda is one of the countries in which my foundation is working to stem the tide of AIDS."

BOAZ_David

Sorry I did not bother to read all your rant

I saw the length of it, read the first paragraph, realised there was nothing to gain and went straight to this response.

If you want to sell an Opinion or Idea - Keep it Brief (ranting has low marketing appeal)

Col you should have seen OZ-Aware'S response to Grace recently.

and if u make sweeping statements only to ignore responses, it says more about your own closedmindedness and 'bigotry' ? than anything else.
Brief enuf ?
BOAZ

BOAZ_David

I posted according to the contents of the article

You posted something which was rambling on not about the article but seemed to be a "bible class for the cognitively challenged"

I will give credit when and where credit is due

but I felt what you posted lacked any "credit" to merit further comment