Religion

SOME CONTRASTS BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION

In Nigeria in 2002, Amina Lawal was fount guilty of adultery and was sentenced to death by stoning. The penalty, to bury her up to her neck in sand and then throw rocks at her head until she died, caused an international outcry. [i]

Since stoning to death is imposed in some Islamic countries, it is worthwhile to find out what Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions say about this practice.

CONTENTS

* UNHOLY INQUISITION
* THE APOLOGISING POPE
* HOW FAR MODERATION
* CARDINAL GEORGE PELL "INDEX LIBRORUM PROHIBITORUM"
* THE POPE AND WOMEN

UNHOLY INQUISITION

I have often facetiously remarked: "If I can discover the true faith, I'll join 'em!" My non-believing friends just grin and see the absurdity of it. My 'churchy' friends shake their heads and also see the absurdity of it - but for different reasons.

This famous phrase conjures up images of organised secretive forces working against the government of the day by any means available. It generally refers to a fifth-column enemy assault in the deposing of an existing regime by another.

In the context of this article, ‘The Enemy Within' is a reference to the controlling historical factors that have influenced humanity to be its own worst enemy. Instead of a reason to abandon all hope and thereby surrendering to our self-conjured adversities, once recognised and exposed, ‘The Enemy Within' can be rendered harmless.

Let us momentarily put aside the arguments that are for or against the idea of a god existing.

Why don't we have a look at the world as the world is with an impartial view? Imagine we are contemporary historians evaluating the broad picture of the politics of Earth.

Our vantage point, in this instance, is Australia. What is the picture of society that we see?

Inquisitions, Crusades, slavery, stoning to death, fundamentalist terrorism, abortion clinic bombings and such like are well known parts of past and present history resulting directly from and because of religious fervour.

As dreadful as these occurrences were and are, they are only the visible tip of the iceberg of religious violence and intolerance experienced to some degree by all societies. That which has the appearance of being against the prevailing religious view is and has been dealt with in the harshest ways imaginable.

An AFA Committee member, who has been concerned by the access granted to Christian Options in the Area School in his district, alerted us to the attempt by the Schools Ministry Group (SMG) to appoint a chaplain in this school.

Our approach to the Principal has not resulted in the hoped-for response so we must try other avenues.

In an article sent to the local weekly newspaper for the area, we have presented our arguments against chaplaincy and also written to the State Minister of Education.

The inevitability of religions began in the circumstance of ancient primitive humanity's ignorance of the natural world. Long ago, Kant suggested that humans invented gods because of their need for them. The notion of gods assisted the invention of explanations for the phenomena of the natural world and also gave meaning to life within ancient primitive concepts of the natural world.