Hi Paul,

We've got many different beliefs among our politicians,
from Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and others, including
non-believers. And I'm sure that they all do the best
they can for their constituents. They would not get elected
if they didn't.

Foxy you say "Our religious institutions
are already supported in part by the state. They don't
pay taxes."

What this situation, of religions not paying taxes, really means is that religions are not supporting the state in this case.

When party is freely supplying a good/service/money to another then it is the one that is doing the supporting and the party receiving the aid is the one that is supported.

So repeating what I said above: in this case the religions are NOT giving money to the state (ie, not paying tax) so they are NOT supporting the state. Not paying taxes doesn't justify you to say that the state is supporting religions.

However, the state does assist religions in other ways, such as by granting/giving them money that contributes to the running their schools. These schools not only teach the students the required state determined curriculum but also include the promotion of their religion. So in cases like this the government is providing aid that assists the religion's cause. To me, I'm not decided on whether this is a good or bad thing- because I find myself asking "the parents of students that go to private religious schools are usually wealthy than most and so have paid more tax than most. So why shouldn't they demand some of it back for their child's education when others who've paid little or no tax get their children educated by the government for free at state schools?"

Just to clear up something in the above post: When I say "When party is freely supplying a good/service/money" what I really mean is when a party is supplying a good/service/money without requiring anything in return.

So this includes if you're coerced to supply something. When coerced, the good/service/money was not freely given by you, but it is given without you requiring anything in return. So you are supporting the receiver- all be it most likely unwillingly.

Just to be clear.

The Commonwealth government provides funding to
religious schools and funds school chaplains for public
and private schools. All Australian Parliaments are
opened with a Christian prayer and the preamble to the
Australian Constitution refers to the "Blessing of
Almighty God."

I've read an interesting article by Max Wallace
on the web. He's pointed out the various
connections we have in this country between
the role religion plays in politics. It's worth
a read because it broadens this discussion and
adds to our knowledge of the roles that religion
plays in our society from symbolic, to financial,
and constitutional. His claim is that religion
retains a hold on Australian politics.

Here's the link:

http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/religion-retains-hold-0n-australian-politics-in-soft-theocracy-14902

Sorry for the typo. Here's the link again:

http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/religion-retains-hold-on-australian-politics-in-soft-theocracy-14902