http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/religion/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-football-field-is-no-place-for-nutty-religious-fanaticism/ Imagine if a dumb trend like planking collided with something much more dangerous than a balcony railing, like say religious fanaticism, and an entire nation caught the bug. Welcome to contemporary America, where the fad of “Tebowing” is both sweeping and dividing the nation. Tee-what? Tebowing, named after hyper-religious Denver Broncos quarterback, Tim Tebow, is the act of taking a knee in prayer, usually while you’re actually doing something else. Like playing footy. Tebow has been doing it for months in Broncos games, although he won’t be doing it any more this season, or not onfield anyway, after his team was thumped by the New England Patriots on the weekend. Apparently God prefers a patriot to a believer. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-football-field-is-no-place-for-nutty-religious-fanaticism/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-football-field-is-no-place-for-nutty-religious-fanaticism/#item7541 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 You hear many complaints nowadays about pesky, outspoken Christians.  Across the West, a fashionable attitude has emerged: Beyond the doing of charitable works, and perhaps the soothing of the bereaved at funerals, “religion” should be an entirely private affair.  The so-called New Atheists are vocal advocates of this position.  One of them, Michel Onfray, has admitted that his atheism “leaps to life when private belief becomes a public matter”.  Onfray hates it “when in the name of a personal mental pathology we organise the world for others”.  Here in Australia, there are many like him.  The talented journalist-author Peter FitzSimons is fond of ridiculing sportsmen, like golfer Aaron Baddeley, who publicly give thanks to God.  FitzSimons rarely misses a chance to snipe at all “delusional” believers, and, in a recent spray in the Sydney Morning Herald, asserted ludicrously that belief in God “is entirely inimical to educational principles”. (Read Brian Rosner’s spirited reply.) http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/why-god-botherers-bother/ You hear many complaints nowadays about pesky, outspoken Christians.  Across the West, a fashionable attitude has emerged: Beyond the doing of charitable works, and perhaps the soothing of the bereaved at funerals, “religion” should be an entirely private affair.  The so-called New Atheists are vocal advocates of this position.  One of them, Michel Onfray, has admitted that his atheism “leaps to life when private belief becomes a public matter”.  Onfray hates it “when in the name of a personal mental pathology we organise the world for others”.  Here in Australia, there are many like him.  The talented journalist-author Peter FitzSimons is fond of ridiculing sportsmen, like golfer Aaron Baddeley, who publicly give thanks to God.  FitzSimons rarely misses a chance to snipe at all “delusional” believers, and, in a recent spray in the Sydney Morning Herald, asserted ludicrously that belief in God “is entirely inimical to educational principles”. (Read Brian Rosner’s spirited reply.) feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/why-god-botherers-bother/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/why-god-botherers-bother/#item7368 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 You hear many complaints nowadays about pesky, outspoken Christians.  Across the West, a fashionable attitude has emerged: Beyond the doing of charitable works, and perhaps the soothing of the bereaved at funerals, “religion” should be an entirely private affair.  The so-called New Atheists are vocal advocates of this position.  One of them, Michel Onfray, has admitted that his atheism “leaps to life when private belief becomes a public matter”.  Onfray hates it “when in the name of a personal mental pathology we organise the world for others”.  Here in Australia, there are many like him.  The talented journalist-author Peter FitzSimons is fond of ridiculing sportsmen, like golfer Aaron Baddeley, who publicly give thanks to God.  FitzSimons rarely misses a chance to snipe at all “delusional” believers, and, in a recent spray in the Sydney Morning Herald, asserted ludicrously that belief in God “is entirely inimical to educational principles”. (Read Brian Rosner’s spirited reply.) http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/buried-basements-witch-hazel-and-bay-rum/ Once your eyes adjust to the blur of big city New York, you start to notice there’s another world here. Like the botanicas, the curious little stores that are sometimes buried in basements or can be found in poorer parts of town. You’ll push open the door to a room crammed with statues of Mary, candles, rosaries and bottles of strange oils and potions. And you get the immediate sense that Father McGuire from the Catholic Church across the road would not approve. Up on West 96th street is Botanica Four Winds. Inside is an elderly woman, Molina Alicia, known to most as Ma, from Cuba; there’s her adopted son, Mark, who’s part Puerto Rican, part Colombian; and Joao, who was raised in Trinidad to a Haitian father and Brazilian mother. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/buried-basements-witch-hazel-and-bay-rum/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/buried-basements-witch-hazel-and-bay-rum/#item7488 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 You hear many complaints nowadays about pesky, outspoken Christians.  Across the West, a fashionable attitude has emerged: Beyond the doing of charitable works, and perhaps the soothing of the bereaved at funerals, “religion” should be an entirely private affair.  The so-called New Atheists are vocal advocates of this position.  One of them, Michel Onfray, has admitted that his atheism “leaps to life when private belief becomes a public matter”.  Onfray hates it “when in the name of a personal mental pathology we organise the world for others”.  Here in Australia, there are many like him.  The talented journalist-author Peter FitzSimons is fond of ridiculing sportsmen, like golfer Aaron Baddeley, who publicly give thanks to God.  FitzSimons rarely misses a chance to snipe at all “delusional” believers, and, in a recent spray in the Sydney Morning Herald, asserted ludicrously that belief in God “is entirely inimical to educational principles”. (Read Brian Rosner’s spirited reply.) http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-end-is-not-nigh/ ‘Tis the season for many predictions. Here’s mine: The world will not end. Earth will not be ripped apart by titanic tectonic shifts, swallowed by a black hole, or smashed to blithereens by another planet. Doomsday prophet Harold Camping had to crawl back into his shell after two failed predictions of the world’s end last year – this year there’s a broader belief that the end is nigh. This too will prove false. The ‘2012 phenomenon’ is a meme, an idea that has spread across the world, gathering layers of bullshit as it goes. It was born from a murky misunderstanding of an ancient Mayan calendar. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-end-is-not-nigh/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-end-is-not-nigh/#item7462 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 You hear many complaints nowadays about pesky, outspoken Christians.  Across the West, a fashionable attitude has emerged: Beyond the doing of charitable works, and perhaps the soothing of the bereaved at funerals, “religion” should be an entirely private affair.  The so-called New Atheists are vocal advocates of this position.  One of them, Michel Onfray, has admitted that his atheism “leaps to life when private belief becomes a public matter”.  Onfray hates it “when in the name of a personal mental pathology we organise the world for others”.  Here in Australia, there are many like him.  The talented journalist-author Peter FitzSimons is fond of ridiculing sportsmen, like golfer Aaron Baddeley, who publicly give thanks to God.  FitzSimons rarely misses a chance to snipe at all “delusional” believers, and, in a recent spray in the Sydney Morning Herald, asserted ludicrously that belief in God “is entirely inimical to educational principles”. (Read Brian Rosner’s spirited reply.) http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/And-so-this-is-Christmas-which-now-I-embrace/ One more sleep till D-Day… but this year, I’ve actually felt good about Christmas. It’s not a familiar feeling. In my adult life, Christmas tradition has involved ambivalence tending to hostility, a fortnight of creeping despair, then curling up after a bottle of cognac to cry in a corner and throw up mince on the rug. Many of those years, if the bloke in the red suit had existed, I would have left him out a roast leg of venison and hoped that the reindeer could smell it on his clothes. No doubt many of us go through stages like this, where we want to go out and club a ringy-dingy elf right in the head. And no wonder. The season can’t compete with how it was as a kid, when days were as long as novels and “Ten more minutes” was a judicial sentence. The heat somehow arrived earlier. The lead-up to Christmas stretched out to the horizon, as afternoons led a charge deep into the evenings and the grass dried to gold. Stepping outside to air already hot before we’d dressed for school. The toy shops excruciating in their possibility. The advent calendar crawling by, glue and crappy chocolate marking days that dragged out their final demise like a row of dying grandparents. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/And-so-this-is-Christmas-which-now-I-embrace/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/And-so-this-is-Christmas-which-now-I-embrace/#item7446 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 You hear many complaints nowadays about pesky, outspoken Christians.  Across the West, a fashionable attitude has emerged: Beyond the doing of charitable works, and perhaps the soothing of the bereaved at funerals, “religion” should be an entirely private affair.  The so-called New Atheists are vocal advocates of this position.  One of them, Michel Onfray, has admitted that his atheism “leaps to life when private belief becomes a public matter”.  Onfray hates it “when in the name of a personal mental pathology we organise the world for others”.  Here in Australia, there are many like him.  The talented journalist-author Peter FitzSimons is fond of ridiculing sportsmen, like golfer Aaron Baddeley, who publicly give thanks to God.  FitzSimons rarely misses a chance to snipe at all “delusional” believers, and, in a recent spray in the Sydney Morning Herald, asserted ludicrously that belief in God “is entirely inimical to educational principles”. (Read Brian Rosner’s spirited reply.) http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/do-they-know-its-sockandjockmas-time-at-all/ Many of us these days prefer to take our Christmas without the Christ or the Mas(s). It’s convenient to keep the name, though – the world’s not quite ready for Sockandjockmas or Drinkingwhitewineinthesunmas. The hijacking of this pagan/Christian celebration by the irreligious is of concern to many – particularly when the predictable stories start to circulate about childhood institutions ‘banning’ Christmas in favour of the bland and Americanised ‘Happy Holidays’. Last week Tracey Spicer revealed that a Sydney class had torturously removed all references to Christ from end-of-year Christmas carols. Utterly ridiculous, of course, an unnecessary and probably unrequested bending over. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/do-they-know-its-sockandjockmas-time-at-all/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/do-they-know-its-sockandjockmas-time-at-all/#item7410 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 You hear many complaints nowadays about pesky, outspoken Christians.  Across the West, a fashionable attitude has emerged: Beyond the doing of charitable works, and perhaps the soothing of the bereaved at funerals, “religion” should be an entirely private affair.  The so-called New Atheists are vocal advocates of this position.  One of them, Michel Onfray, has admitted that his atheism “leaps to life when private belief becomes a public matter”.  Onfray hates it “when in the name of a personal mental pathology we organise the world for others”.  Here in Australia, there are many like him.  The talented journalist-author Peter FitzSimons is fond of ridiculing sportsmen, like golfer Aaron Baddeley, who publicly give thanks to God.  FitzSimons rarely misses a chance to snipe at all “delusional” believers, and, in a recent spray in the Sydney Morning Herald, asserted ludicrously that belief in God “is entirely inimical to educational principles”. (Read Brian Rosner’s spirited reply.) http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/culture-and-religion-are-no-excuse-for-child-brides/ Cradle snatcher. Toy boy. Cougar. Child bride. Teen bride. Paedophile. How old is too old, how young too young? We may have a visceral revulsion when we witness a large age gap in a relationship, but when does it go from odd to deeply wrong, sick – when should it be illegal? And what can we do about it? The Daily Telegraph reports that more than 200 17-year-old girls and hundreds of 18, 19 and 20-year-olds have been granted prospective spouse visas to marry older – in some cases much older – men here in Australia. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/culture-and-religion-are-no-excuse-for-child-brides/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/culture-and-religion-are-no-excuse-for-child-brides/#item7091 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 You hear many complaints nowadays about pesky, outspoken Christians.  Across the West, a fashionable attitude has emerged: Beyond the doing of charitable works, and perhaps the soothing of the bereaved at funerals, “religion” should be an entirely private affair.  The so-called New Atheists are vocal advocates of this position.  One of them, Michel Onfray, has admitted that his atheism “leaps to life when private belief becomes a public matter”.  Onfray hates it “when in the name of a personal mental pathology we organise the world for others”.  Here in Australia, there are many like him.  The talented journalist-author Peter FitzSimons is fond of ridiculing sportsmen, like golfer Aaron Baddeley, who publicly give thanks to God.  FitzSimons rarely misses a chance to snipe at all “delusional” believers, and, in a recent spray in the Sydney Morning Herald, asserted ludicrously that belief in God “is entirely inimical to educational principles”. (Read Brian Rosner’s spirited reply.) http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/lets-tell-these-bloody-street-preachers-where-to-go/ In the name of God, why should anyone be force-fed the word of the Lord while they’re shopping? That swarthy dude with his dulcet tones outside Roger David in Rundle Mall? He can convert me to men’s suits any day. But these sanctimonious sermonisers and their 100-decibel rantings? No way, Jesu. Myer is My Sunday place of worship, thank you very much, and Adelaide City Council can have My Vote for ridding our secular shopping strip of these screechy preachers who are apparently just as deafening as chain saws, jackhammers and farm tractors. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/lets-tell-these-bloody-street-preachers-where-to-go/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/lets-tell-these-bloody-street-preachers-where-to-go/#item7078 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 You hear many complaints nowadays about pesky, outspoken Christians.  Across the West, a fashionable attitude has emerged: Beyond the doing of charitable works, and perhaps the soothing of the bereaved at funerals, “religion” should be an entirely private affair.  The so-called New Atheists are vocal advocates of this position.  One of them, Michel Onfray, has admitted that his atheism “leaps to life when private belief becomes a public matter”.  Onfray hates it “when in the name of a personal mental pathology we organise the world for others”.  Here in Australia, there are many like him.  The talented journalist-author Peter FitzSimons is fond of ridiculing sportsmen, like golfer Aaron Baddeley, who publicly give thanks to God.  FitzSimons rarely misses a chance to snipe at all “delusional” believers, and, in a recent spray in the Sydney Morning Herald, asserted ludicrously that belief in God “is entirely inimical to educational principles”. (Read Brian Rosner’s spirited reply.) http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dancing-on-graves-immoral-even-if-its-gaddafis/ World leaders and of course, many Libyans, have celebrated the death of Colonel Gaddafi. Many suffered under his brutal regime. There is no doubt Gaddafi was a tyrant and the head of a government known for torture and mass killings of dissidents. He was either complicit or directly aware of major human rights abuses happening under his rule. He also took power of a country without the mandate of his people. He was eccentric and unpredictable and many world leaders accepted him and treated him as their equal, yet none truly admired the man. His death was a cathartic moment for many.  But even though he was a mass murderer and rightly despised, his death should not have been treated in the undignified manner that we saw again and again on our screens. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dancing-on-graves-immoral-even-if-its-gaddafis/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dancing-on-graves-immoral-even-if-its-gaddafis/#item6989 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 You hear many complaints nowadays about pesky, outspoken Christians.  Across the West, a fashionable attitude has emerged: Beyond the doing of charitable works, and perhaps the soothing of the bereaved at funerals, “religion” should be an entirely private affair.  The so-called New Atheists are vocal advocates of this position.  One of them, Michel Onfray, has admitted that his atheism “leaps to life when private belief becomes a public matter”.  Onfray hates it “when in the name of a personal mental pathology we organise the world for others”.  Here in Australia, there are many like him.  The talented journalist-author Peter FitzSimons is fond of ridiculing sportsmen, like golfer Aaron Baddeley, who publicly give thanks to God.  FitzSimons rarely misses a chance to snipe at all “delusional” believers, and, in a recent spray in the Sydney Morning Herald, asserted ludicrously that belief in God “is entirely inimical to educational principles”. (Read Brian Rosner’s spirited reply.) http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/festival-of-obvious-ideas-9.-stop-being-nutty-for-jesus/ So the world’s going to end again today. Panic! Or maybe wait a day. It’s never clear how the International Date Line comes into play with these things. According to fruity American doomsday prophet Harold Camping, God forgot to carry the two, or screwed the equation some other which way, and the apocalypse predicted for May 21 is in fact now due today. While it’s tempting to bang on in gloriously pisstaking tones about Camping and other prophets of doom – and don’t worry, I will – the serious side to all this is the gross distortion of the message of Jesus Christ, a man who had plenty of sensible advice for the world. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/festival-of-obvious-ideas-9.-stop-being-nutty-for-jesus/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/festival-of-obvious-ideas-9.-stop-being-nutty-for-jesus/#item6970 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 You hear many complaints nowadays about pesky, outspoken Christians.  Across the West, a fashionable attitude has emerged: Beyond the doing of charitable works, and perhaps the soothing of the bereaved at funerals, “religion” should be an entirely private affair.  The so-called New Atheists are vocal advocates of this position.  One of them, Michel Onfray, has admitted that his atheism “leaps to life when private belief becomes a public matter”.  Onfray hates it “when in the name of a personal mental pathology we organise the world for others”.  Here in Australia, there are many like him.  The talented journalist-author Peter FitzSimons is fond of ridiculing sportsmen, like golfer Aaron Baddeley, who publicly give thanks to God.  FitzSimons rarely misses a chance to snipe at all “delusional” believers, and, in a recent spray in the Sydney Morning Herald, asserted ludicrously that belief in God “is entirely inimical to educational principles”. (Read Brian Rosner’s spirited reply.)