Ethics & Religion
When rationalist Anne Lennon exposed church’s selling of ‘indulgences’
In the Roman Catholic Church, a ‘novena’ is a devotion in which special prayers or services are repeated on nine ...
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Why religious conservatives are hitting the panic button
In the 1950s, Australians were constantly being told to be aware of the dangers of communist infiltration of our institutions. ...
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Report adds ‘reach, depth and nuance’ to our understanding of religiosity
This foreword appears in ‘Religiosity in Australia: Religious minds, religious collectives’. The Rationalist Society of Australia believes — and has ...
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The personal stories reshaping Australia’s journey out of religion
The trend in people ‘deconverting’ from religion or ‘deconstructing’ their faith has in recent years triggered viral hashtags on social ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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