Q&A is a soft feather to its panelists, protecting them from any harsh glare.

Julie Bishop showed up her empty rhetoric, Fielding was back-peddling his own beliefs and those of his AoG crew, the Rabbi sounded as if she was not at all sure what she believed in or why, and Burke is well named.

ID and Creationism is taught all over the nation, and is supported still in Qld by the QTU, QCPCA, EQ, QSA and of course, the churches who sit on the QSA and help design (not very intelligently according to our school results) the entire curriculum fior the state public and private schools.

I felt sorry for the Oz of the Year fellow, who clearly wanted to be able to talk about his area.

We were well served though by Fielding 'outing' Rudd as a loony Creationist, which most people seem not to know, even though Rudd was very clear in 2008, telling radio listeners he was both a Creationist and a believer in ID.

All very well for Dawkins to lambast Fielding for his Creationism, but he must have missed the point about Rudd being a loonytune too.

Bishop should know that she installed more ID and Creationist evangelising adherents into public schools than anyone else has been able to, via her NSCP proselytising scam....why did Tony Jones not quizz her on that I wonder?

ABC Mark Scott's heavy fundie hand perhaps?

It was all rather like a bad dinner party, then, HOW RUDE, Dawkins stated the bleeding obvious about Jesus, said he had no desire to believe that, and they all got 'hurt' because he was not 'tolerant' of their 'views'.

Gawd help us, such fragile shells these people live in. And such double standards too.

They demand 'tolerance' from others but impose themselves and their faiths on everyone they can, while being 'offended' when Dawkins view is put...how 'tolerant' is that?

I got the distinct impression that not one panelist, beyond Dawkins, had thought very much at all about their own 'faith' and what it really meant/provided/offered to them, or anyone else.

TBC

Rudd believes in creationism?

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse.

Severin

Try this for a start:

http://www.gnomon.com.au/20080901/13/Kevin_Rudd_advocates_Intelligent_Design.shtml

And here is the SMH version:

http://news.smh.com.au/national/cosmos-order-proves-god-exists-rudd-20080829-45b6.html

The Oz ran the story but it has 'been disappeared' from the site.

Too bad there are so few signs of an intelligent mind at work anywhere in Canberra.

Too bad I never thought to send that lot in to hear what Dawkins might have said.

But of course, Blair, Bush, the Taliban, Rudd.... it's all the same really, isn't it?

TBC

Because Rudd sees in order in what little he knows about the universe, there HAS to be a singular intelligent mind that caused it. Why does it have to be singular? Maybe it was a committee? Maybe it just happened.

Yeah. And he "respects" non-believers too - isn't that magnanimous of him, looking down from his lofty position (not unlike the god he believes in) and tells us he respects us, even next morning.

We need more Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris'seses (sic) and more people like us who can make decisions (right or wrong) because we think about them, we apply reason, a sense of conscience and we don't refer to a book written 2000 years ago by a bunch of superstitious tribesmen.

Severin...you've blown your chances of a Xmas card from MHR Mr. Burke.

Yes, and Rudd is the 'smart one' in Canberra.

Just wonder at what a dullard would be like!

Of course, none of the political parties, beyond the Secular Party, actually believe in a 'secular nation state'...not even the Greens have the courage to say they are a 'secular political movement' seeking a secular nation.

Funny really, that Brown should be happily openly gay, and take on major companies for the good of us all at great personal cost, yet still manages to squib the task when it comes to stating openly, via clear policy, that the Greens support, endorse, promote, believe in...and so on, Australia being a secular nation.

Too many crystal gazers, Catholics and mystics in their ranks to think straight.

TBC

Yeah, I have wondered about Bob Brown. I am sure he is an atheist. However, Australia appears to have gone the way of the US, where no pollie dares 'out' themselves as having no religion - in the 21st Century no less, when scientific knowledge and education is more prolific than at any time in human history.

We'll know we have made real progress towards enlightenment when world leaders can be atheists too.

... and Kevin IS smart, what does that make T. Abbott?