In a recent post Eric Hunter asked: “Why doesn’t God save the world?” (P&I, 10 February 2025). It’s an interesting question, usually framed under the rubric of “the problem of evil.” Hunter prefers to believe in science rather than to believe in God. So why did he post about God in the first place? There Continue reading »
Culture and Religion
The buzz around Xiaohongshu and then DeepSeek has had an unusually high volume of westerners speaking positively about China for the last couple of weeks, which of course means we’re also seeing many westerners falling all over themselves to say “Well actually China is actually quite bad actually” in response. Western liberals who fancy themselves Continue reading »
Today marks 237 years since the commencement of the violent dispossession of First Nations peoples from this land. It represents a day of mourning and protest. We are reluctant to email you about anything other than this today, but we feel it is important to keep you informed about the vicious and escalating attacks on Continue reading »
The promotion of antisemitism as a diversion from what is happening in Palestine is a deliberate activity which must be understood by all Australians, particularly voting age Australians. What must be understood is this. Antisemitism is a derogatory concept. To call someone an anti-Semite is to convey a defamatory imputation about that person. It is Continue reading »
Wars, like that being waged currently by the Zionist terrorist government of Netanyahu are the destructive and mindless outworking of dualism; about winners and losers. ‘We unequivocally condemn the October 7th, 2023 heinous attack on Israel by Hamas’. And it’s absolutely right that we do. The attack was evil and indefensible, although understandable in the Continue reading »
I have been reading Stan Grant’s beautiful new book, Murriyang song of time (Bundyi: Sydney 2024). There is in it a sentence pertaining to the Uluru Statement of the Heart and the subsequent failed Referendum. Stan Grant says, poignantly, that ‘the Uluru Statement spoke from the afflicted to a nation that has never loved us.’ Continue reading »
When Parliament returns, the government will be pressed to enact a law making it a criminal offence to threaten violence against people or groups on racial or religious grounds, or to threaten them about gender identity or sexual orientation. Before February, we need to know more about what caused a recent spate of nasty incidents Continue reading »
The Year of the Snake begins on 29 January. Over the next couple of weeks, fortune tellers will flood the press with their views, each with as much weight and reliability as the mottos in fortune cookies. Predicting the future by reference to zodiac signs may be as unscientific as other astrological or phrenological forecasts, Continue reading »
December 5, 2024. On the eve of Christmas as thousands of Americans file towards the White House to watch the Christmas tree lights turned on, Christians come together to witness for Peace against the horror currently taking place in Gaza and the West Bank. Palestine. A captive nation which has lived under Israeli occupation for Continue reading »
This Christmas, we can give to all planetary life. The loving intent must be to stop carbon emissions as soon as possible. The transition to renewables is obviously complex but ‘loving our neighbours as ourselves’ includes those on islands in the Pacific who know the consequences of global warming and need us to focus unambiguously Continue reading »