The religion of secular humanism (that man is a god) seems to be more prevalent than any other in this country. If people were honest enough to look at their own hearts they would see what a con this evolutionary based religion is. It is true that most people want nothing to do with personal commitment to Christ but on the other hand thousands upon thousands who are not commited to 'religion' want their children to receive religous values rather than the hopelessly flawed secular values or lack of taught in most State schools.

Good to hear Mr Rudd is now going to give an address to the Christian church regarding his policies. He obviously sees the need to uphold Christian values or is he just pretending?

"But I’ve always been struck by Guy Rundle’s argument in his Quarterly Essay a few years ago that Howard was holding back a dam of social liberalism"

I hadn't thought of it that way before but it makes a lot of sense coupled with your rearguard argument.

The accumulating results from the AES demonstrate that Australians generally have far more progressive views than the morality minders in the current government. One of Howard's ploys has been to accuse Labor of being held hostage by noisy minorities, but his government is surely in the same boat, just different minorities.

Interesting article Mark. Thank you.

Does anyone know how the ABS categorised the response "Jedi" in the 2001 data? They have clearly decided to bury it, but I bet the numbers are in there somewhere.

I like Mark’s article because it sheds some light on some apparent contradictions in the attitudes of our citizenry. This came to me when unexpectedly caught in the throng heading for a Hillsong event a few months ago. There were crowd control guards for blocks around the site. It was like a rock concert from my youth – but these young people were going to church! Impressive as such events are, as an uncommitted but interested observer of popular religion (especially TV evangelists); I am struck by the apparent superficiality of the current wave of enthusiastic evangelical religion. I wonder just how deep it goes.

Perhaps the enthusiasm of the throng surging towards these new and groovy churches, which often feature very traditional or fundamentalist doctrines, is more about belonging and affirmation than it is about belief. I reckon it goes like this: “The world might be headed for some environmental/work choices/union boss/ peak oil/Muslim hordes/terrorist-inspired Armageddon, but I’m part of something and I’m saved – just don’t ask me what I believe”.

Do people really need religion to hold a moral line as BOAZ suggests? It sounds good but I can’t see much evidence that it’s worked thus far in human history.

Runner similarly misrepresents secular humanism. It’s not a religion and does not, as suggested, make man a god. It’s about people taking responsibility for their actions as adults. It is nothing like the type of “rule book” religion you apparently endorse in which people take no responsibility for their decisions and act properly only because they might get into trouble from God if they don’t (in other words “wait till your father gets home”). I think I’d prefer my public schools to teach the secular human bit. We’ll leave the rest for the Julie Bishop fan club.

DamienJ

You claim secular humanism isnot a religion and then go on to say that its about people taking responsibility for their actions. Thats a bit rich when humanism leads to a dead conscience. Humanisn leads to men behaving like animals and having no feelings of remorse. We saw that in Germany when humanist doctors and psychciatrists practiced euthenasia on the most vulenrable before Hitler made it public policy. This is very similar to how the humanist have happily allowed thousands of unborn babies to be murdered without conscience.

I am yet to meet a secular humanist who takes responsibiliy for their own actions. They want to blame Government, their parents or their environment for their bad behaviour.History clearly shows that man has little goodness. Man's heart has a bias towards evil and like it or not humanist are no exception. Thank God for Jesus who is able to change a person's heart as man can not

Runner. Yes Dear!