Ethics & Religion
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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