Victoria was set up as a secular society.
The education system looked more Irish than English, University of Melbourne was set up as a secular instituion and even today theological colleges are not part of the university. This is in marked contrast to Ireland where Catholics are still unable to study at Trinity College right in the heart of Dublin.

I thought Australia had made great progress since the 1970s towards becoming a secular society but recently the Liberal party has exercised wedge politics to great advantage.

If Catholics push too hard they will still find the faint glimmerings of my protestant soul. A soul that only becomes apparent under extreme duress like

- seeing women's access to legal, safe abortions curtailed
- spending money on religious schools when the state system is in a parlous condition
- when passing through the temple to mammon every time I enter the CBD.

Bhuddists and Muslims haven't intruded on my space yet so I have yet to become a "born again" christian.

Roll out the following anti-religionists as models of justice, humanity and virtue.....blokes like: Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot.......... I can just see the photos of these heroes of secularism adorning the secularists meeting rooms (do they really bow to these images as they walk past?) Is it true that these 4 in less than a century spilled more blood, caused more human suffering and carnage than all previous wars put together. If religion is a cancer what can you say about the secularists?

Don't know about this new political party, I would have to see their real policies first. Being a bit cynical in this day and age, I have my doubts that they will produce policies that reflect the peoples best interests. When you have economists involved, you have a recipe for social disaster Like others though, I agree its a great idea to put religion where it belongs, last.

Sells, “For where did these “universal moral principles such as compassion, honesty, freedom and justice” come from?”

Certainly not from religion. Compassion, ha ha, honesty, double ha ha, justice, nearly choking in mirth. Just watch question time in parliament, they are solemn when they pray to god. Then they display true honestly, compassion and with justice in mind for the people they represent, in the well know historically documented, religious fashion. Lies, corruption, dishonesty and no compassion except for themselves and their vested interests. Morals, none of you can lie straight in bed your so bent.

If this secular party comes up with policies that will make a difference, like making sure the country gets a fair return for our assets. Stop large amounts of our hard earned money disappearing overseas and into CEO's and controling the escalating charges we pay, for less and less services. Plus am environmental sustainable policy that gives us hope.

Considering the status of those involved, I expect that we will just get more of the same, with a different transparent spin.

John, you base your whole premise on the notion that we are looking at religion for answers when any post or news report condemns religion as the basis for all our problems.

I am not devoutly religious by any means but in the absence of faith there is cynicism to life in general. Secularisation cannot exist in any form when it is devoid of the beliefs that instigated its creation. Someone once believed that blind dogma was not a rational system of order and secularisation was born. That is an assumption, as I have not studied the history of that particular process but it would be natural to assume that there was an instigation born from frustration.

That blind dogma, that so infected and corrupted the religions of the world, would be no less prevalent in the party you propose. It would blanket all religion as, if I may borrow a phrase, the "opiate of the masses", with all the inherent diminutive connotations.

If religion gives the world just one thing, regardless of its faults, it is a voice of compassion that transcends mere rhetoric and statute. Without it we are cattle that use everything in our power to defend nothing of substance.

I have criticised religions vehemently on other postings and do not retreat from any of them however there is an inherent nobility, though difficult to define in contemporary society, that we would lose, at our peril, if we were to disgard it.

billie, what you say about TCD is simply untrue. Times change, and I have several Catholic friends with TCD degrees. Your Protestant soul isn't just glimmering, but burning with a nasty, and I'd have thought outdated, sectarianism. It ain't the sect, my dear, but the belief itself that's the problem. Or are you simply opposed to what Ian Paisley calls 'the whore of Babylon'?

As a profoundly lapsed Catholic, I would be delighted to have the chance to vote for the Secular Party. Long may it - at lvery east - hold the balance of power in the Senate.

Sells means the political under the guise of religion I think. CS Lewis said there can be no Christian political party. A political party can act on Christian principles but there are anti- theocratic principles in Jesus’ teachings. “My Kingdom is not from here” and perhaps “render under Caesar” etc. Jesus saved his worst denunciations for the Pharisees. Probably equivalent to Muslim clerics/Quranic Muslims of today. Religion that is all exterior and no heart. Whitened sepulchers he called them.

Nietzsche provided the spiritual energy for fascism, provided the death of God so that Hitler could fill that vacuum. Marxist Leninism the intellectual force behind Bolshevism. Marx’s opiate of the masses was effective in eroding the right authority of God and His Church – Communism filled the void. I think with the Germans they were quite happy to cede responsibility for their lives to the Nazi’s. The cult of personality of Stalin perverted the human religious impulse in Russia effectively too.

I understand what you mean Reason -The mix of Greek philosophy and Judaic monotheism are the two streams running through the Christian west. But the Beatitudes turned upside down Greek and Roman virtues. Stoicism, Epicureanism, etc could not cope with God become man giving up his honour for the cross, Jewish Law could not cope with Jesus fultilling the Law in his person while claiming the authority to forgive sins and calling himself ‘I AM’ which only God could do.

Christian virtues are very different from Roman/Stoic and Epicurean ones.