Adelaide council prayers; religious exemptions; Dominion v Fox; Jesus & Mo

Published: Thu, 04/20/23

RSA Daily

For atheists, rationalists and secular humanists in Australia

Friday, April 21, 2023

Rationale, the magazine of the Rationalist Society of Australia

Good morning ,

For the last few years, the RSA has been using a board meeting platform called "Boardable". It was clean, uncluttered and intuitive to use. Nice. Then a few months ago, they released a new 'updated' version, and it's awful. Fiddly, too many options, all cluttered up. Obviously a lot of investment had gone into adding bits and pieces users had asked for .. but in the process, they lost its original appeal.

So now we've moved to an Australian board platform called Our Cat Herder. Not as sophisticated but it does the job and we won't have to pay for (in my view) misguided development.

If nothing else, I just love the name!

Getting atheists, rationalists and secular humanists to take action in lobbying campaigns sometimes feels a bit like herding cats. Unlike the parishioners in pews, who obediently send of hundreds of emails to their MPs at the behest of the clerics or the ACL. See stories 1 and 2.

Lead stories

'Don't be intimidated by Christian Lobby campaign on prayers', RSA tells Adelaide councillors | Rationalist Society of Australia

I say, "For years the ACL has been pushing nationally for ‘religious freedom’ laws. Yet here again we have the ACL wanting governments to impose acts of religious worship – and specifically Christian worship – on all Australians in government institutions, which should be secular."

Attorney-General extends religious exemptions for schools review

Is Dreyfus succumbing to pressure from the religious lobbies, or does he want to consider removing the exemptions, not just from religious schools but from religious hospitals and charities too?

The Dominion v Fox case was about protecting profits, not democracy

Waleed Ali makes two good points: 1. First, a case like this could never have proceeded in Australia because in this country, unlike in the US, large companies have no legal right to sue for defamation; and 2. It's almost impossible for politicians to propose truth-in-media regulation because they then face a "barrage of denunciation" from the free speech warriors.