Humanist Society of New South Wales Inc. Separate Religion (Church Mosque Synagogue) from State

• How the lack of separation of religion from state has damaged and continues to damage public education by Jane Caro. (you must have Adobe Acrobat installed.)
  
  
  

• Reply to Amanda Lohrey who like Marion Maddox refuses to acknowledge the soft theocratic nature of present Australian politics - as if were a taboo subject - so pusillanimous! (you must have Adobe Acrobat installed.)
  
  

• Reply to Bishop Frames criticism of secularism (you must have Adobe Acrobat installed.)
  
  

• A thought relating to the furor over the cartoons from Denmark:
  Strange it is, that men should admit the validity of the arguments for free discussion, but object to their being `pushed to an extreme'; not seeing that unless the reasons are good for an extreme case, they are not good for any case. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty.
  
  

• A Secular Party of Australia Newspoll shows the majority thinks there is no separation of church and state but that there should be. Additionally, the majority favours same sex relationships should be formally recognised.
  
  

  Aggregated results are:

  BELIEVE THERE IS OR IS NOT A LAW SEPARATING CHURCH AND STATE IN AUSTRALIA.

  YES, There is a law 20%; NO, There is NOT a law  46%  Don't know 34%

  INTRODUCE A NEW LAW TO SEPARATE RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT IN AUSTRALIA?

  Yes 45%;  No 36%;  Don't know 20%

  FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD INTRODUCE A NEW LAW TO FORMALLY RECOGNISE SAME SEX RELATIONSHIPS IN AUSTRALIA

  Yes 52%  No 37%  Don't know 11%

  Details

• Max Wallace on Is There a Separation of Church and State in Australia and New Zealand? (From Australian Humanist No. 77 Autumn 2005 issue).

• "Maddox's detailing of Howard's religious push in so many areas of policy is better interpreted, I suggest, as the action of a religiously committed individual [our emphasis] ... Howard is, I suggest, a truly committed right wing Christian [our emphasis]". That is how reviewer Max Wallace interprets God under Howard: The Rise of the Religious Right in Australian Politics by Marian Maddox published by Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2005 $29.95 in the Australian Humanist No. 78 Winter 2005 issue.

• Max Wallace has shown that the High Court's decision about the State Aid case in 1981 eliminated the Separation of Church and State in a stroke.

Keep religion out of politics campaign

(The following are large (5 - 8 MB) movie files aired on Australian television early in 2005 (these are now dated following the election of the Rudd Government in November 2007). We do not recommend you click on these links unless you have a broadband connection and your computer has a media player such as Quicktime, Real or Windows Media player).

Note: all the video clips should finish with the statement, both in print and spoken, "Authorised and spoken by John Goldbaum, Potts Point". If you do not see and hear this the download is faulty and you should try again. You may want to try first to download the file and then play it rather than letting your browser play it directly. Please send an if you have persistent downloading problems.

• Keep Religion out of politics by John Goldbaum filesize is 5351 kB

• Religiously inspired rejection of a woman's right to choose - 1 by John Goldbaum filesize is 8374 kB

• Religiously inspired rejection of a woman's right to choose - 2 by John Goldbaum filesize is 8368 kB

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