Religion

In light of this week's expensive, overhyped mass hysteria and worshipping of false idols (of the hypocritical, old, sexist, mysogynistic male variety) - not to mention the cynical marketing exercise - and the fawning, uncritical press it has been receiving from the Murdoch tabloid and semi-tabloid media (and even bloody SBS, although they should know better), I felt it might be an appropriate time to note that in some parts of Australia, blasphemy may still be a crime.

From an article by Kate Gilchrist, published in Arts Monthly in 1997:

"The existence of blasphemous libel is unclear in Australia. Each State has its own criminal law which suggests different positions. The fact that in Victoria, under section 469AA of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), blasphemous publications may be seized, may indicate the possible existence of blasphemous libel in Victoria. In New South Wales the criminal offence of blasphemous libel is still recognised by explicit reference to the offence in the Defamation Act 1974 (NSW) and the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). The Australian Capital Territory has adopted the NSW Crimes Act. In Tasmania there is express reference to blasphemous libel in the Tasmanian Criminal Code. In Queensland and Western Australia, where there are criminal codes, the offence of blasphemous libel has been abolished. The position is unclear in South Australia and the Northern Territory where there is no express mention of blasphemous libel in the criminal legislation. With respect to the Commonwealth, there is no express offence of blasphemous libel in the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) although there is other Commonwealth legislation that refers to blasphemy.

If blasphemy is a crime, then like media-shifting and copy-control circumvention, it is an utterly victimless crime. And like those two other victimless crimes, it is one committed by thousands of people every day, and is almost never policed.

Thus, I would like to declare this week to be World Blasphemy Day (if the Catholics can string 24 hours out for an entire seven days, then so can I). Legislation should have an element of logic to it; we shouldn't have archaic, irrelevent laws created from works of fiction like the bible, that give vocal zealots a free kick at non-believers and critics, and are so vague that they present authorities with ample opportunity for victimisation of anyone they take a dislike to.

So fer chrissake, it's time to tell governments and religions where they can stick their blasphemy laws.

...of a Catholic Archbishop telling the Western world that it isn't having enough babies:

The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, today warned Western nations such as Australia to populate or perish ... "There is a crisis in the Western world. No Western country is producing enough babies to keep the population stable, no Western country".

You first, George.

I don't think I've seen anything much more depressing than the sight of hundreds of schoolchildren fawning over a wooden cross. Seriously. It's just plain sad that religious schools are allowed to brainwash them in this way, and more so that the government subsidises them to do so.

I don't know whether or not these schools were chosen for the report because they were populated with an unusually high number of children from ultra-religious families, but it was a considerable contrast from my time at school, where the vast majority of us were so contemptuous of religion that the school didn't even bother offering religious classes in years 10 and above...

Sydney's Anglican archbishop, Dr Peter Jensen, doesn't seem to appreciate the irony
of his own statements:

Dr Jensen has also warned people against dabbling in the supernatural.

He says those who are grieving over the death of a family member or friend should not try and contact them.

"This is very dangerous - meddling in the occult is never a good idea," he said.

I agree. Talking to supernatural beings and thinking that the dead might somehow resurrect themselves after, say, two days, is just plain strange.

2007 closed with a couple of government overreactions, which mostly escaped scrutiny because the governments involved announced them at a dead time when no-one really gave a bugger:

1. The Victorian government has banned bicycles on peak-hour trains in Melbourne, and on any V/line service which originates or terminates in Melbourne during peak hour. Now, I hate bicycles on trains as much as the next person (probably more so, given the number of bikes I had to squeeze past on the crowded Amsterdam metro, while I was living there) - but a complete ban seems overly heavy-handed.

   
   
   

   Wouldn't it be more sensible to remove a few seats from the end of each train and restrict bicycles to the final carriage? It's not like our public transport operators haven't stooped to removing seats in order to cram more passengers aboard, in the past.





2. The new Federal government is channelling the ghost of the old Federal government, dredging up a discredited internet access policy to appease a small group of Christian fundamentalists, who are too irresponsible to monitor what their own children are doing. ISPs in Australia will be compelled to supply a "clean" internet connection (read: no pr0n, violence or anything "inappropriate") to all customers, and anyone who does not wish to be subject to this must explicitely opt-out (whereupon their ISP may well decide to charge a fee, and presumably flag the connection for easy targetting by Australia's security services).

   
   
   

   Our new Minister for Communications, Senator Stephen Conroy, then went on to show he comes from the same fine pedigree that produced our previous Communication Ministers, by deliberately confusing pornography (which is legally available) with child pornography (which is already, as it should be, illegal):

   
   
   

   "If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd-Labor Government is going to disagree."

   
   
   

   Apples and Oranges. As mentioned earlier, this is all being done to appease the Fundies First party, because the government may well need their one vote to kill off Workchoices. A saving grace may be that the government hasn't got the ISPs on side, as Paul Montgomery notes. The previous government announced these plans several times, and never did anything about it; with luck, this will be just more bluster - because if it's not, then either their plan will be unworkable, or Australian internet connections will become unusable.

It happens, every time. What is it about morals-crusading right-wing parties that attracts them to such amusing incidents?

Of course, it's not only the creepy political arm of Australia's pentecostal churches that has, err, interesting candidates. The so-called Liberal Party has this fine fellow running for office in the Victorian seat of Lalor. I don't think Julia has a lot to worry about:

"I would be very much in favour of intelligent design being taught in public schools," Mr Curtis said.

Go ahead, but if you try to do that, I will insist that the Bible be studied only in the context of the fantasy and science-fiction part of the literature curriculum.

Poor old George Pell. Apparently he's not much of a fan of environmentalists:

Cardinal Pell replied that radical environmentalists needed no help from church leaders to impose their agenda by fear, and that church leaders should be allergic to nonsense.

One would think that, as the leader of one of the biggest organisations in Australia that trades in nonsense, he would choose his words a little more carefully.