Ethics & Religion
Between swinging arms and chins: The push for ‘religious freedom’
This is an excerpt from Neil Francis’ soon-to-be published Part 2 of the Religiosity in Australia research series, commissioned by …
Not so different: Does religion deserve special protection?
A new draft of the federal religious discrimination legislation proposes to give special rights to the words and actions of …
A media pothole: The pitfalls of covering religion
There are few areas of media coverage more vexed and controversial than religion. So much so, it is far from …
It’s time to abolish the erroneous idea of sin
‘Sin’ is a word embedded in our language and culture. It has wide use. Uprooting it would be as difficult …
The truth by the numbers: Religion in Australian society
RSA Fellow Neil Francis is producing a multi-part study for the Rationalist Society: Religiosity in Australia. The first installment, Part …
Assisted dying opponents don’t mention Switzerland. Why?
Recently, Dr Theo Boer, an Assistant Professor at a “black-stocking” (strongly conservative Protestant) theological college in the Netherlands was at …
Out in the open: Should candidates for parliament state their religious affiliations?
When I read Meredith Doig’s comment about “a new breed of ‘muscular’ Christians (Australian Rationalist, December 2020), some of them …
Rethinking the human: On being accountable in the Anthropocene
In a quiet corner of my library is a book called Man and the Ecosphere. It’s a set of essays from Scientific …