Category: Religion
-
Supernatural stand-off – The Catholic Church vs good vs evil
I handle The Catholic Weekly pretty much every week. It is one of a number of publications that is sent periodically to the offices of all NSW politicians (and likely more besides) – like the Epoch Times and the Australian Israel Review – which is kind of journalism but kind of not. I barely have…
-
God’s Insecurity Complex
From time to time, I like to have discussions with religious people about their faith, be they Christian, Buddhist, Scientologist… I don’t discriminate. I find it a good way to examine my own beliefs, and given how religion has been such an important, some would argue integral, part of human development, it also helps me…
-
Does religion poison everything?
Last Friday night I attended the opening night of the Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House. The title of the talk was: Does Religion Poison Everything? and involved ABC journalist Tony Jones in conversation with writer and devout atheist Christopher Hitchens. It was a lot of fun. If you don’t have time…
-
Not such a good head for politics…
International media last week (and continuing into this) was concentrated on the presidential elections in Iran and the death of Michael Jackson. Both are engrossing, for very different reasons. Iran needs to release the remaining British Embassy staff asap (or Downing Street will write them a very angry letter) and the latest I’ve heard about…
-
God the Voyeur inspires Catholic Kama Sutra
A Polish Catholic Priest has written a book, dubbed the Catholic Kama Sutra, intended to put a little liturgical oomph into the sex lives of Catholics. The celibate Priest’s qualifications for writing the book are marriage counseling and running a website giving sexual advice. You may scoff, as indeed I did, but then again an…
-
Sounding the death-knell for Catholicism
I might have mentioned before I was brought up Catholic. Even though I definitely don’t regard myself as one anymore, I still keep an eye on what goes on within the ranks. So I’ve been quite interested in reading about what’s going on in St Mary’s and Toowoomba in Queensland. Love0 Share Tweet Share Pin
-
Very Superstitious, Writing’s on the Wall
A man claiming to have killed 110 child ‘witches’ has been arrested by police in south-east Nigeria. After his arrest he changed his statement to say that he didn’t actually kill the children, just the ‘witch’ inside of them. Whatever the case may be, the story highlights a horrible superstition plaguing parts of Africa. Love0…
-
Go find some lost Buddhas
If you’re in Sydney at the moment, or going to be in the near future, I can highly recommend visiting the latest exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW, The Lost Buddhas. I went and saw it on Friday afternoon and was thoroughly impressed by the serenity and beauty of these 6th century Chinese sculptures.…
-
Long Live the King of Thailand
There’s an Australian blogger/writer, Harry Nicolaides, being held in a Thai prison for slandering the Thai Royal Family. The crime was purportedly committed in a book that he wrote about Thailand, which had a print run of fifty and sold only seven copies. One of those readers evidently wasn’t too impressed with a brief and…