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The Forum > Article Comments > Australian pluralism and religion > Comments

Australian pluralism and religion : Comments

By Bruce Kaye, published 8/1/2009

Religious bodies need to get their act together on the nature of Australian pluralism and its meaning today.

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The article started:

"At Federation the constitution set out in Clause 116 some apparently clear guidelines on religion in public life, while retaining in the preamble a clear reference to God, as indeed did the oath of the current Governor-General.

The High Court interpretation of clause 116 has taken Australia in a different direction from the United States of America. Whereas the US tradition has moved to a doctrine of separation of church and state and a doctrine of non-entanglement, the Australian version has moved to a position of non-separation of church and state and a doctrine of equitable entanglement."

In the lines above there is a contradiction. There cannot be equitable entanglement along with a reference to God in the preamble. The religions of Australia include Buddhism which is a non-theistic religion. Therefore official mention of God puts Buddhism at a lower level. Equitable entanglement requires treating all religions the same.
Posted by david f, Thursday, 8 January 2009 9:42:07 AM
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Dear David....

the presense of "by the blessing/guidance of Almighty God" in the pre-amble of our constitution.....

and

the present state of spiritual decay and alienation, permissiveness and debauchery..

...simply testify to how far we have fallen since those days when our country and it's moral spiritual foundation were established.

We turned our backs on divine grace.. we greedily embraced and clung to debauched representations of humanity, salivated over the next opportunity to sin....rejected the good..and strove for the bad....

...and now....that our collective conscience is but a dim whisper on a dark cold night... we cry out.. AWAY WITH YOU God... away!... let us be free to enjoy and take our fill of lust, of strong drink, of mediums and wizards, of fortunetellers and obscenity....let us give up natural relations and establish those of our own choosing...



and we wonder why G-D used such words as he did in Ezekiel to the Israelites of the day...

"She(faithless Israel) lusted after her paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses." (Ez 23:20)

Colorful stuff!....but accurate.

The answer is not to go further down the Highway to Hell...but to get the Street Directory and find out way back to the Spiritual CBD.
Posted by Polycarp, Thursday, 8 January 2009 11:19:04 AM
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Polycarp wrote:

"the presense of "by the blessing/guidance of Almighty God" in the pre-amble of our constitution.....

and

the present state of spiritual decay and alienation, permissiveness and debauchery..

...simply testify to how far we have fallen since those days when our country and it's moral spiritual foundation were established."

Dear Polycarp,

In some ways we are much better off. When Australia was invaded by the barbaric English they slaughtered some 20,000 Aborigines. Kevin Rudd's 'Sorry' speech exhibited a conscience that was lacking in early settlement. I see nothing wrong with permissiveness. It is far healthier than the repression in the early colonial period. It is far healthier to have the Sydney Mardi Gras where homosexuals can parade, have fun and entertain than hide because bigoted people were afraid of a different sexuality.

You see license. I see freedom and health. Hooray for contemporary Australia. I love it.
Posted by david f, Thursday, 8 January 2009 11:32:03 AM
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Whilst trying not to laugh at the rantings and doom-laden evangelical sentiments expressed by Polycarp, I would simply offer the view that 'pluralism' (in whatever form) as a rational alternative to the on-going battle between the various denominations for financial succour from a largely secularly inclined (and long suffering) general public, is as doomed as are the childish irrational fantasies that underpin the various manifestations of the Abrahamic 'god'.
The only long term solution to the ever-increasing liklehood of the world going down in flames as the the people of the book battle it out for the title of 'world saviour' seems to me to be the universal acceptance of rationality as the only revealer of truth available to us, and to universally discard the nonsensical, unsustainable, and totally outdated wishful thinking commonly called 'religion'.
I suggest that the obscenity of Palestine provides thhe latest sufficient warning to the informed truth seeker.
Ask the children of Gaza, Iraq, etc etc their views on pluralism.
Posted by GYM-FISH, Thursday, 8 January 2009 11:48:01 AM
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Oh bokdrols David F and Gym-Fish.
Posted by wubble you, Thursday, 8 January 2009 3:11:48 PM
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Dear Polycarp,

Your entry suggests that 'God' is exclusively Christian and that you know the mind of God.

How can you be so certain?
Posted by Ninja, Friday, 9 January 2009 5:16:06 AM
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