RSA Daily

For atheists, rationalists and secular humanists in Australia

Thursday, September 28, 2023

Good morning ,

Last night, researcher Dr Rebecca Banham was guest speaker at the RSA's monthly webinar. Speaking about some of the conservative media's excessive concern about the rise of non-religion in Australian society, she suggested we should be prepared for even greater alarm after the next census, when the number of Australians who choose No Religion is likely to increase beyond its present 40%. It's a phenomenon we at the RSA have been grappling with for years - Australians' tendency to accept that (i) a society dominated by one particular religion is "normal" and (ii) anyone who does not "have" a religion must be somehow bereft of any system of ethics. 

No, it isn't normal, and no, we are not amoral nor even immoral.

Lead stories

The federal opposition’s spokesperson for Defence personnel, Luke Howarth, has suggested tapping into migrants who have “stronger faith in God” as part of a plan to drive recruitment for the Defence Force (!)

About 900,000 cows are slaughtered every day. If every cow was 2 meters long, and they all walked right behind each other, this line of cows would stretch for 1800 kilometers. This represents the number of cows slaughtered every day. Another compelling set of figures from the terrific Our World in Data.

So who is Gabor Mate? He's a Canadian psychologist, a child of holocaust survivors, who has become a celebrity within 'wellness' circles. He suggests the burden of trauma people endure and the toxic culture that creates and compounds is the cause of increases in chronic disease, obesity, addiction and mental illness in our socities. His prescription? "Profound societal change, holistic healing practices and spiritual growth assisted by psychedelics." Another Jordan Peterson?

You've probably heard of Neil deGrasse Tyson, physicist and science communicator extraordinaire. You may not have heard of Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster, a couple of British comedians who have become the darlings of conservative UK media with their podcast series, Triggernometry. An analysis of Tyson's outburst in this video by the (right wing) Spectator (here) asserts "Neil deGrasse Tyson sells himself as an expert communicator, but effective communication involves speaking and listening. He is very good at the former, but utterly hopeless at the latter." Watch and decide for yourself.

Other stories of interest

Massive Study Pinpoints Specific Gut Bacteria Linked to Alzheimer's

Oh great.

Pakistan at a crossroads on blasphemy

"Blasphemy is a highly sensitive subject in Pakistan where 97 per cent of the population is Muslim .. British rulers first introduced blasphemy laws in 1860 to control religious violence .. the laws were later amended by military ruler General Ziaul Haq .. under the laws, disrespecting Prophet Muhammed or desecrating the Holy Quran are capital offences punishable by death."

Complexity and the patterns of evolution

Which pattern is the most common in the evolution of complexity: accidental diffusion or driven trend? Research into the evolution of complexity has only recently started gathering pace, so there is much we still don’t know. But we do know that the story of mammalian evolution hasn’t been a directional “march of progress”, but rather has many characteristics of a random and diffusive walk.

'Whatever it takes': PwC's poor behaviour exposed

Ziggy Switkowski found "excessive power was conferred on PwC’s chief executive and "there was a lack of independence and outside voices within the governing body."

Got a comment on any of these stories? 

Write to me at president@rationalist.com.au

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