cont..
So when I stated that I felt you were foreshadowing a bigoted response I was talking in the non-pejorative sense. To assume that diversity is a problem and that homogeneity is indeed possible simply runs counter to the real world.

I agree with you that our toleration should not extend to those who would deny our rights to practise our beliefs.

The problem arises when you take a particular fundamentalist offshoot of a major religion and take the view that all believers of that religion share those views.

The key element to ensure that a culturally diverse society is successful is that there is a set of core values that trump whatever comprehensive theories of the good people may choose to hold that is sufficient protection to ensure that we have a stable cohesive society.

As far as population is concerned my view is that there are more than enough people in Australia - to exclude people on the basis of their beliefs is simply to distort that simple reality.

Apologies for my tardy arrival, Forrest Gumpp.

>>I must confess disappointment in Pericles' seeming non-participation in the discussion.<<

I occasionally find the company of so many intellectual giants quite intimidating.

But it is nice to be missed. Gives me a warm, slightly damp feeling.

To be honest, I'm still trying to work out what everyone is talking about.

I did try to make sense of the VHEMT web site. I even checked out its Russian version, but that didn't help much. So I accepted Google's invitation to translate it back into English, just on the off-chance it might become clearer.

The re-translation comes out as "The movement of fighters for the voluntary extinction of mankind as a species"

Hmmm. Where did those fighters suddenly appear from? Far more... threatening.

Those Russians. Much like the Irish, spoiling for a fight.

Trying the same exercise with Hebrew gives me "Voluntary movement of humanity to perish".

Very biblical, that "perish".

Now Belarusian. "Movement for the arbitrary extinction of mankind"

Now it's "arbitrary". Interesting.

In fact, the entire site is more fun after the double-translation into and out of Belarusian. Give it a try.

Sorry, what was the question again?

ah the joys of translation - eg out of sight, out of mind becomes invisible idiot

al; since when does 2.1 = 3?

living on a planet with a constantly increasing human population which is continually depleting the planet's limited resources means that the sustainable human population must decrease faster than the resources which sustain us are depleted

to quote Dr. A Bartlett; " A population growth rate less than or equal to zero and declining rates of consumption of resources are a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for a sustainable society"

" If sustainability is to be achieved, the necessary leadership and resources must be supplied by people who are not starving"

Pericles I'm glad you struggled to find the actual point the site was trying to make- because quite frankly, so am I.

I'm convinced the entire thing was done in a series of emotional rants by the author with no clear concepts in mind, nothing more, nothing less.

I always enjoy Pericles' (notice no "s" after the apostrophe. There's a disturbing trend these days to bestow this negative distinction on any commoner!) withering wit, though he frequently (no doubt wisely) sits on the fence..
Forrest Gumpp too, often seems infatuated with process, though when he does take the plunge he becomes a passionate advocate..
So, no partisan comments, fellas?

Despite my comments above, and my six kids, I do fully support the Vehement movement (indeed, at fifty I'm half disposed to take the pledge..), though I see its philosophy as part of a secular idealism stemming from Kant that omits to acknowledge its metaphysics; a kind of "unromantic pantheism" (not a bad handle for scientific naturalism, actually..).
This neo-(anti)Kantian cum Humean mindset (still a metaphysic) is best enjoyed by its high priests: the professional scientists who are richly rewarded for casting their dead-pan instrumental gaze on the "phenomena" of life in search of useful and/or curious applications. Yet that very same professional detachment from phenomena (among whose treasures miscellaneous monstrosities are conceived) has become a popular, even cultish pastime among swathes of the lay-community, who have compliantly dispensed with old-fashioned notions of the mystery of life.
Modern humanity has penetrated the veil; all is meaningless, a chasing of the wind..