Tis a wondrous thing .. a treasure of knowledge regained from those who fear same such as the book burning nazis and persecutorial catholics, who remain we are told incapable of doctrinal error as they r guided by the

*Holy Spirit*

What a sick joke that they remain an ever present danger to children as a whole because of the fact that they remain convinced of their papal infallibility and holier than thou status to the extent of being dismissive of sexual abuse, for example.

QUOTE *MAC*
" ... The danger is from religious institutions subverting the secular state ... "

and I draw yr attention to the following Bill b4 guvment:
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;adv=;db=LEGISLATION;group=;holdingType=;id=legislation%2Fbills%2Fs486_first%2F0009;orderBy=;page=;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fbills%2Fs486_first%2F0001%22;querytype=;rec=0;resCount=
Parliamentary Charter of Rights and Freedoms Bill 2001 [2008]

Division 4 — Privacy and family rights
Article 14
Rights of the child

(d) the liberty of parents and legal guardians to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions is to be respected.

My view is that these people truly care not for their children else they would not allow them to be indoctrinated by the bigoted idiocy of their parents, as the case may be. Children ought be taught comparative religion only, that they may have an empathy with all the peoples of the world. And if when they come of age they wish to ascribe to one or the other, then, their own Will b done. To me it is a great travesty and failure to not recognise the unique magnificence and inherent majesty of the individual Soul such as to allow them to be treated as chattle to be subjegated by blood bonds.

As one "wise" person said to me long ago:
" ... Blood may b thicker than water, but Spirit is thicker still. ... "

There is no harvest in Spirit that comes from ill begotten mindless adherance, only puppets for the politically depraved.

Better to revamp the school curriculum in its entirety and offer also for consideration Archimedes, medicine and the law, and metaphorically speaking snap the necks of the religious bigots and zealots.

Evangelos,
A truely interesting piece. I await the text (translation) being relaased.

GrahamY
You've outdone yourself this weekend the articles have been trully worth the read. Thanks

Examinator, I'd love to claim the credit, but Susan Prior does 90% of the work most days, and for last weekend probably 110%.

A delightfully easy to read review. It seems clear to me, that the Muslims, whose messiah came seven centuries after that of the Christians, are still where the latter were seven centuries ago, before the likes of Luther.

What the author so clearly shows is how religion takes over from the boundaries of knowledge and those boundaries are forever shifting out. To wit the recent apology of the Church of England to Charles Darwin. Religion, as long as it involves dogma and beliefs of the ancients, will continue to resist, even violently, new understandings. Archimedes and the enlightened Greeks, bear testament to this.

Only when Christianity can unshackle itself from the past,can it be free from the burden its flock awakening. At least today, unlike in the days of Copernicus, can scientists say their truth. This does not (yet?) apply to the Muslims.

A great statement!