On the other side of the coin if someone is being defamed on the net any Government must be able to have rules to deal with it.

Here we all are worrying about the waste of time and effort that this project is, and the censorship of sites by unknown criteria and ideals changing the way people are able to express themselves and fundamentally our society, and you're worried about DEFAMATION?!

And no, it will not stop what the government says it wants to and will stop.

runner: "the national broadcasters and many universities have banned any sort of biblical expression for decades. ... Mr Rudd is to be applauded."

Your mates on the religious fringe aren't as sanguine about this proposal as you are, runner. For example, here Luke Stevens from sydneyanglicans.net worries that some of the more bigoted religious views on homosexuals will be targeted by these same censorship laws.

http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/forums/viewthread/3673/

As indeed he might. No doubt you delight the pointed responses you get to your calling homosexuals perverts and designating the secular evil. If this law comes in they will be able to do more than give you pointed responses. They will be able get them erased from the net. Most media outlets nowadays already bow to their pressure, and would delete your comments without a second thought from their forums. You are lucky to have this one available to you.

You have said here before with justifiable pride that you have put a daughter through Uni, and commented at the time on how well tolerated religion was at the institution. This is really unsurprising because as you probably realise many universities offer theology as a course. And as for our national broadcaster, I gather from your comments listen to them on occasion. Never caught "The spirit of things" or until recently "The Religion Report" - both weekly shows devoted to the topic you say is banned? I also guess you don't watch the Sunday services shown on ABC TV every Easter either.

The point being the rubbish you spout supported as it is by outright lies is a fairly easy target for the censors. And unlike you apparently, some of the people who do spout it realise it.

By the by, there are people who are deeply religious and whose words - unlike yours, would be upheld as examples of virtue, but who still don't like this proposal:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1075390&r=16996393#r16996393

Pity you aren't as thoughtful or as kind hearted as she is, runner. But it takes all kinds, I guess.

rstuart You accuse me of the following

'As indeed he might. No doubt you delight the pointed responses you get to your calling homosexuals perverts and designating the secular evil.'

I take no delight in this at all. It seems you are comfortable with the homosexual lobby who are prepared to push their agenda extremely aggressively and even violently.(as seen by the recent dummy spitting when black Americans voted against gay marriage in California). Of course they took it out on a predominantly white church again displaying their hypocrisy.

Personally I would rather not even comment on homosexuality. I have mentioned on a number of posts that adultery, fornication, lying and idolatry are all sins in the same basket. The only difference is that you have not got a militant lying or adultery club pushing their agendas like many (not all) people practicing homosexual.

If you can point to me a religion report or a university that teaches in their 'religous curriculum that fornication or living together without being married is wrong (as the Scriptures clearly teach) I will apologise. I am obviously aware that many universities run religous courses. My point is that they are not taught from a biblical world view.

Again I am sure that the vast majority of Australians would not tolerate some things on the internet. At the moment everything is tolerated. My opinion along with Mr Rudd believe that the reduction of porn from the pervert industry will reduce child abuse.

runner: "I take no delight in this at all."

Amazing. As we have discussed in the past, you fling more accusations of hatred, evil and sin at others than any of your fellow posters here on OLO. And yet you don't enjoy a single moment of it, eh? What a selfless person you are, runner. Sadly, despite your denials, it is unlikely the rest of the Australia will believe you if these censorship laws come in. Your words here on OLO read like the very definition of intolerance, and you can't change them. They are written in the OLO equivalent of stone. It is unlikely they will be erased by anything short of government fiat.

As for what the theology courses at universities: of course they teach the biblical point of view - or at least many of the biblical viewpoints as they can. By its very nature, a well rounded Theology course will try and cover them all - even the fringe ones like yours, runner. I guess you would prefer they cover only your particular interpretation of the bible, that that would be unfair to the others, wouldn't it? Getting back to religious expression on universities, I imagine that if your daughter stayed at a college at university you did damnedest to ensure the one she stayed at had a Christian chapel. Not that it would of been hard - the campuses are littered when them.

But your words indicate you know this. Now that you have take a second to think about it, you know that your earlier statement "Universities have banned any sort of biblical expression for decades" was a blatantly obvious attempt to mislead and deceive with what you know to be outright lies. And be honest, if people were to start go around and censor things, this is the sort of thing that should go first, isn't it?

rstuart: << it is unlikely the rest of the Australia will believe you >>

I agree with rstuart - runner is one of the most prolifically sanctimonious haters in this forum. If there is any pleasure at all in his life, it must surely derive from his ignorant certitude that he is always right, and everybody else is wrong.

Like with this preposterous claim:

<< the national broadcasters and many universities have banned any sort of biblical expression for decades >>

If runner ever watched ABCTV or listened to Radio National or his local ABC station, he'd know that there's probably more Christianity-related content on the national broadcaster than any of the commercial networks. If he'd ever been to a university, he'd know that they're crawling with Students for Christ, Opus Dei, and any number of Christian colleges, chapels and chaplains - not to mention the dedicated theology and divinity courses that some offer.

However, as I've said before, I don't think anybody takes runner and his fundy cohorts very seriously - except for themselves, of course.