Does anyone else find, as I do, that the pro-religion posts on this site are considerably behind the others in intellectual rigour? It seems to me that almost anything will be published if it tries to put religion in a favourable light, whereas anti-religious postings have to be of a much higher quality to pass through the filters. This particular article says nothing of interest to anyone but the author, as far as I can see.

Can we agree that personal posts saying 'religion should be THIS' or 'the Church should do THAT' really contribute nothing to debate or enlightenment, and that unless a contributor genuinely has something new to say they should keep quiet?

Sells at least has a point. We are not becoming less religious, as some people might argue. We are becoming differently religious - and God, or even the idea of God needn't enter our piety. Our discovered absence of God isn't recent or indeed such a seismic shift - Friedrich Nietzsche, in 1882, declared the medieval authority towering over the cosmos as dead - simply and aptly, murdered by the modern mind.

But as always, the task of exegesis is to rescue truth from familiarity. The film "The Matrix", struck a chord as a box office hit. Its story gave us a near perfect world where everyone lives a lie, as in reality all human life is being used as fuel to provide energy. What everyone thinks that all they see and feel is real is hidden by the sinister fact that “reality” is only the projection of a monstrous computer program.

We may believe and grasp at our virtually created world - but our diminishing perspectives can only narrow our grasp on reality further. Our Post-modernity, which is most simply characterised by a rejection of the hope and expectation that the modern era, with all of the technological advances brought to us, leave us with the same vacuum or nihilism we wished to secede. Our consumer religion, after all, is “all about me.” Yes, I will join a church, find a guru or crystal gaze - if it lifts my depression, finds me a lover, takes care of my children, brings me wealth or success, lowers crime and finds me friends in the community. 'High' Church should certainly distinguish itself from this mediocrity of both spirit and intellect.

A "Bullet Magnet?"
Hmmm ...
In Indo, it was broadcast widely rather that if the "Islamic Freedom Fighters* were 2 catch young *Harry,* that they would cut off his ears and send them back to the *Whore of Satan* in a box for failing to "Hear" the word of their *Goddo Concept*
..
But, what if poor old *Lizzy Winza* just wants 2 b a *Luv Poppet* now &
to do a Heart-Felt-Expression of:
*Luv Poppets*
& do something of a ala "Disney Fairy God Mother Stage Dive" for those who argueably suffered abuses in contravention of the "Genocide Convention Act" post the WWII Nazi Era.
..
But, it seems the Australian Head of State is to be seen and not heard on this matter. This goes 2 the very Heart of our $demucracy$ in my view dear *Poppets* as if the basic rights of the individual are of so little significance in the form of the head, U may not expect them to accorded to the pawns either.
..
Mayhaps some in the church would beg forgiveness for having insufficient Spiritual fortitude to act, out of fear perhaps of loss of life and or possession and would say that at that time, they were only trying to make the best of a bad situation whilst *Uncle Satan* was running the House, a policy argueably finalised by the "law" that denies the right of return to those who cannot demonstrate a historical ongoing connection to the land. Take a look at the wealth under some of those bits *Poppets* to gain an additional perspective into *Darstardly's* mechanism of oppression & dispossession.
..
Mayhaps a media poppet will ask he who clearly suffers from delusions of grandeur, i.m.h.o., when he arrives, and I note that whilst I personally do not approve of the Red Chinese barbequeing priests, I do concurr that it wld b better that people are encouraged to feed, water and medicate those "excess" children in the world that we already have, as distinct from encouraging the Euros to breed up Catholic style.

...Adam...

Not that I bothered to read the article, but one of Christ's teachings was that the Church is irrelevant when it comes to we poor sinners approaching whatever god we want to believe in. Which is why the Church-of-the-day crucified him. Priests, mullahs and rabbis who insist that we bow down and worship encrustations of tradition that they have instituted for the sake of their own power fully deserve the name "God-botherers".

Ho Hum ,
Interesting that you should be so hostile to Peter Sellick's piece and yet contain in your writing the little gem that "a high culture would also feature a celebration of Beauty and The Beautiful". Beauty and The Beautiful have always played a large part in the search for God. It featured importantly in the conversion of St Augustine. In more modern times the search for Beauty and The Beautiful led the likes of Oscar Wilde, Edith Sitwell and Aubrey Beardsley to convert to the Catholic faith.

In my (online of course) opinion that is precisely the point of Peter Sellick's article. Without putting it into so many words he seems to be regretting the dumbing down of the Good, the True and the Beautiful in religion out of a misguided sense of appealing to the modern psyche. But it seems to me that never in its whole history has the human psyche been so thirsting after the Good, the True and the Beautiful as it is thirsting now.

This brings to mind the iconoclastic attitude of the teacher Miss Brodie in Muriel Spark's novel "The prime of Miss Jean Brodie" towards a popular school slogan.

"Little girls," said Miss Brodie, "come and observe this." They clustered round the open door while she pointed to a large poster pinned with drawing-pins on the opposite wall within the room. It depicted a man's big face. Underneath were the words "Safety First." "This is Stanley Baldwin who got in as Prime Minister and got out again ere long," said Miss Brodie. "Miss Mackay retains him on the wall because she believes in the slogan 'Safety First.' But Safety does not come first. Goodness, Truth and Beauty come first. Follow me."

And they did.

Some used to argue that High Culture and Beauty in the Church was epitomised by the Latin Bible, and to prove the point they burnt as heretics those who dared to print it in English. I did read the article; what a load of pretentious garbage. Christianity is as Christianity does, not whether it reads Latinate Bibles, walks round a rock seven times, bows 15 times to the Torah, jumps up and down like Kylie Minogue, plays beautiful orchestral music, or the pope wears bejewelled woolly pink socks. Such trappings are mere encrustations on any religion and are irrelevant, except for giving theologians trash with which to confuse the punters.