Planet Atheism » Blogonaut

Dodging Elephants

Blogonaut — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 02:01:30 +0000

It has been awhile since I have posted here – finding it hard to actually give a damn about some of the so called movements I have been a part of.

But here’s a series of posts by Barb Drescher that mirror some of my thoughts:

Take Back Skepticism, Part I: The Elephant in the Room

August 6, 2011, at 11:30 pm

I was planning a short rant about some ironically irrational arguments made by self-described rationalists at the World Atheist Convention in Dublin a couple of months ago. However, events of the past two weeks have left me frustrated, angry, and a little bit sick. Since they are all connected, I have decided to discuss them together in one long post, broken into three parts for easier reading.

Read more

Jewish Community leader tells of Sexual Abuse

Blogonaut — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 09:14:47 +0000

Once again showing the sexual abuse is not confined to any particular culture/religion, that as a society we must demand that institutions religious or secular must submit to the rule of law.

Jewish Community leader tells of Sexual Abuse

Education Department & Religious Ed provider colluding to stifle dissent?

Blogonaut — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 01:09:34 +0000

It certainly looks like something untoward is going on. A department that wants to shut down community discussion on the provision of SRI and a corporate Evangelical ministry that seems to hold clout beyond the narrow Christian worldview it holds.

Evangelical Ministry attempts to gag critic

Blogonaut — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:52:53 +0000

Educator and writer Mike Stuchbery, one of the many and varied voices against evangelical involvement in Religious Instruction in Victorian State Schools was threatened by ACCESS Ministries lawyers for commenting on documents that ACCESS produces for dissemination in State schools. Mike and others are of the opinion that the documents were inappropriate.

See his post here.

The pdf document is now gone as per the first part of the request.

But it seems par for the course for this rather powerful group who have managed to become one, if not the major providers of religious education in Victoria(discounting Private Religious schools).

I am inclined to side with the lawyers on the reproduction of the resource in its entirety. It’s in my lay opinion infringing on copyright.

The request to, paraphrasing here, to “seek permission of the copyright holder to comment on parts of it”, however, (ie fair use) is a crock. And it seems part of a heavy handed attempt by ACCESS ministries to squash any debate or criticism of their practises.

It appears they are quite used to flying under the radar and riding on the coat-tails of the “meek and mild” concept of Christianity that many of us may have experienced in our youth( I was raised catholic and my religious instruction was mild compared to ACCESS ministries material).

Now it seems that Lawyers acting for ACCESS also filed a DMCA notice against WordPress to lock Mike out of his regular blog, not waiting to see if he complied with their request.(Update: Wordpress confirmed that a claim had been filed and now that Mike has informed them that he has removed the infringing document he’s been allowed back in).

Dirty pool folks, dirty pool.

Some may claim that this is merely ACCESS protecting their copyright. What it demonstrates though is that ACCESS is not shy in being prepared to throw their corporate clout about when they feel threatened.

In the mean time Mike, keep your eye’s peeled for this guy

Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

The Demons made him do it?

Blogonaut — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 06:55:15 +0000

Some days the news is so downright depressing:

Suffocated, raped and set alight: church leader blames ‘sexual demons’

Adrian Lowe

June 20, 2011 – 2:20PM

A Melbourne church youth leader claimed his rape of an unconscious 14-year-old girl, who he later tried to kill, was prompted by his “sexual demons”.

The Supreme Court was today told that Michael Tuano Hermogenes, 25, suffocated the girl at her home in Caroline Springs in May last year with her stockings after plying her with alcohol.

Read more

Nah buddy you are just an evil shit and you got caught.

Article Link – Their Feet Don’t Touch The Ground by Bruce Everett

Blogonaut — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 07:12:28 +0000

A short link to my compadre Bruce Everett who has written an in-depth criticism of the John Jay College report, The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010 and the ABC Religion portals comments on said report.

Their Feet Don’t Touch The Ground

Extreme Christianity being pushed in state schools

Blogonaut — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 06:02:13 +0000

The issue of Special Religious Education/Instruction/Indoctrination almost inspires me to come back to full-time blogging about secular issues. Pay a visit to Mike Stuchbery’s post on the insidious and contemptuous actions of one Tim Clemens in

‘CHRIST REQUIRES REPENTANCE & FAITH, NOT EDUCATED KIDS.’

If you are a parent (even one who is religious) you should be aware of what certain groups are perpetrating in the name of Christian Instruction. If you are a teacher, and particularly in NSW you should perhaps being making complaints to the union.

Participation of parents and community but only…

Blogonaut — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 05:24:39 +0000

when it suits the religious agenda.

Here’s a link to a skirmish between a Melbourne school council and the Education department over the provision of Religious education in a State (Secular?) school.

School claims bullying over religious education

You may have noticed an absence

Blogonaut — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 06:48:01 +0000

of my presence that is. Let’s say I am on sabbatical. Taking a break from blogging about religion, crazy superstitious beliefs, homeopaths and dodgy chiropractors. I may or may not start blogging here again. I just don’t have the compulsion at present and it’s something that a good month or so hasn’t fixed.

I am blogging about books over here at Adventures of a Bookonaut.

Life getting in the way of Blogging

10:23 Campaign Melbourne

Blogonaut — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 09:24:38 +0000

Bravo to Victorian Skeptics and The Young Australian Skeptics.

Powerbalance shuffle

Blogonaut — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:04:47 +0000

I overheard a curious conversation in my local purveyor of woo food products and cheap chocolate raspberries yesterday.

A woman at the counter had questioned the proprietors sale of Power Balance Bracelets, she’d obviously seen something about the ACCC decision (go team Skeptic and other critical thinking Australians).

The proprietors response was most interesting(unfortunately it was hard to hear without making it obvious I was eavesdropping). He seemed to indicate there was nothing wrong with the product itself, just a problem with the wording in the advertising, that you can’t scientifically test or prove "’performance enhancing technology”.

One wonders how you can then make claims about it enhancing performance, when you can’t do the research in the first place – how do you find out it works initially? Do you just make shit up… oh wait

So what I am wondering is if this is just some poor retailers response, an effort to move a product that’s become unpopular or if distributors are providing suggestions in how to deal with the bad publicity?

Perhaps its time for Skeptics to run some spot checks on their local retailers?

Ghost Hunting at Gladstone Gaol

Blogonaut — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 01:08:06 +0000

Well this Christmas and New years period has been rather pleasant, beautiful spring weather(in the middle of Summer mind you) so beautiful in fact that I decided to take a day trip. Now I must admit I do love going on Ghost tours, whether the host hams it up (the Rocks Ghost Tour in Sydney) or they are a little more serious(Port Arthur tour in Tasmania) I am always open to the possibility of being shocked and bewildered at some appearance of some ethereal interloper. Most of the time it’s just jolly good fun seeing other adults, become for a moment that inner child that believes something might be hiding in the cupboard.

Unfortunately the day trip didn’t coincide with a ghost tour(it being daylight for one). We were however assured by the Host( a previous correctional officer at the Prison – a wizened Dutchman) that people regularly captured pictures of Orbs in B block.

Gladstone Gaol – A little History

The gaol was built between 1879-81 and was originally used for ‘inebriates and debtors’. From the time of its opening until the 1920′s it never housed more than 86 prisoners.

It housed both men and women and there were apparently a number of babies born on site. During World War II it was used as an internment camp for Italians and Germans. It remained unused between 1943 and 1953, when it became a corrective training complex for 18-25-year-old offenders.

Following extensions in 1955, the complex increased to 125 cells. It was closed in 1975 with prisoners being moved to Port Augusta – the reason being that they were required to install toilets in each of the cells and it would be cheaper to move prisoners to more modern lodgings in Port Augusta then retrofit the prison.

Visitors can enjoy day trips or enjoy B & B accommodation if they dare – muhahahaha …ehem sorry.

Here be Ghosts or Not

Below is a slideshow of the shots taken at the Prison including some shots of rather relaxed Kangaroos. Much to my disappointment there were no ghostly apparitions in appearance, though my other half did notice some odd smells (sorry dear it was the curry).

Very observant and diligent Australian film aficionados might recognise the prison from the Bryan Brown film STIR

Power Balance revealed as a SHAM, finally!

Blogonaut — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 23:51:14 +0000

Though I may have trouble convincing the old gents down at the Bowl club. They were sold some line about the ‘real’ power balance bands working, but not the cheap Chinese knock-offs. Try telling someone who’s paid $60 bucks for one that they are one and the same and you get into “loosing friend” territory.

But it’s official, after complaints and much good work from Skeptics around the country:

A bracelet worn by high profile sports stars that claims to improve athletic performance has been exposed as a sham by the consumer watchdog.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has ordered Power Balance Australia to refund all customers who feel they were misled by the supposed benefits of Power Balance bracelets.

[SMH – Read More]

In other news…it’s all about family

Blogonaut — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 06:32:27 +0000

Christmas that is. It seems that most Victorians probably sail closer to Tim Minchin’s feelings about Christmas than the Salvation Army’s. See below from the Herald Sun:

HAVE Victorians lost the spirit of Christmas? One in five sees it as a celebration of Christ’s birth, survey says.

When asked which of three statements summed up Christmas, the Galaxy Research poll of 800 people found 75 per cent said it was about good times with family and friends.

Only 20 per cent said the day was about the birth of Christ.

Church leaders expressed mixed reactions to the poll.

Uniting Church moderator for Victoria and Tasmania, Isabel Thomas Dobson, said the results offered a challenge for Christians.

“There is a bit of work for us Christians to do,” she said.

[Read More]

I think Tim Costello wins the diplomacy award on this one(see his comments further down in the article).

Perhaps we are just all tired of being lectured to by hypocrites and trust ourselves to know what’s best for our own.

Oops he did it again.

Blogonaut — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 05:38:31 +0000

The Pope I mean. Made a colossal fuckwit out of himself just as I was settling down to enjoy a rant and anger free holiday period while the fundamentalists fight a war against figments of their imagination who are attempting to destroy Christmas.

And I was getting ready to bitch and whine about the umpteenth time I have seen Ricky Gervais’ rehashed, retweeted “Why I am an atheist” missive.

GAH!

You see Pope “foot in his mouth” has gone and blamed the promiscuousness of his paedophile priests on secular society. Check out the article below:

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI told Vatican officials Monday that they must reflect on the church’s culpability in its child sex-abuse scandal, but he also blamed a secular society in which he said the mistreatment of children was frighteningly common.

In his traditional, end-of-the-year speech to Vatican cardinals and bishops, Benedict said revelations of abuse in 2010 reached "an unimaginable dimension" that required the church to accept the "humiliation" as a call for renewal.

"We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in our whole way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen," the pope said.

Benedict also said, however, that the scandal must be seen in a broader social context, in which child pornography is seemingly considered normal by society and drug use and sexual tourism are on the rise.

"The psychological destruction of children, in which human persons are reduced to articles of merchandise, is a terrifying sign of the times," Benedict said.

He said that as recently as as the 1970s, pedophilia wasn’t considered an absolute evil but rather part of a spectrum of behaviors that people refused to judge in the name of tolerance and relativism.

As an avalanche of cases of pedophile priests came to light, church officials frequently defended their previous practice of putting abusers in therapy, not jail, by saying that was the norm in society at the time. Only this year did the Vatican post on its website unofficial guidelines for bishops to report pedophile priests to police if local laws require it.

"In the 1970s, pedophilia was theorized as something fully in conformity with man and even with children," the pope said. "It was maintained — even within the realm of Catholic theology — that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a ‘better than’ and a ‘worse than.’ Nothing is good or bad in itself."

"The effects of such theories are evident today," he said.

Read on

The sexual abuse of children is a society wide problem. It’s the responsibility of each and everyone of us to look out for the welfare of others especially the young. It is interesting to note that when conducting my mandatory reporting training at the start of this year, Ministers of Religion were still not required to attend the training before operating around children.

The Origins of the Santa Claus Myth

Blogonaut — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 02:50:02 +0000

Thanks to Russell Blackford I came across this sample chapter of a book attempting to unravel the mythology that surrounds Santa Klaus, Saint Nicholas and the most ancient of our gods, the Wild Man. Interesting holiday reading.

Photo by: deliverySushi of Krampus Celebrations

What teacher’s make?

Blogonaut — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:03:24 +0000

Still busy, I have some articles in the works, some interesting developments do to with Mercy Ministries and some comment on the Silly Salvo’s again. That being said its the end of the school term and in honour of those great teachers that I work with here’s a short poetry slam.

John Pilger on Assange and Wikileaks

Blogonaut — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:02:28 +0000

Busy at the moment folks so this post will be short. Here’s an interesting interview with John Pilger conducted by Phillip Adams.

Who is John Pilger?

John Richard Pilger (born 9 October 1939) is an Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain’s Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US. Noam Chomsky said of Pilger: "John Pilger’s work has been a beacon of light in often dark times. The realities he has brought to light have been a revelation, over and over again, and his courage and insight a constant inspiration.

(source)

Interview link here