RSA Daily

For atheists, rationalists and secular humanists in Australia

Thursday, November 2, 2023

Good morning ,

Finally, finally, after overturning the infamous Andrews Bill that denied Australian Territories the right to decide whether or not to legalise Voluntary Assisted Dying, the ACT will be introducing its own VAD bill. And there are moves afoot in the Northern Territory - which, ironically, was the first jurisdiction in the world to legalise VAD, back in the 1990s. 

Yesterday I included a link to articles published in the Journal of Controversial Ideas. This morning, an insight into one of them by Alan Sokal, the first take the mickey out of postmodernist academia - the Sokal Hoax. Enjoy!

Oh, and if you haven't already done so, please sign our petition to the parliament about replacing the daily Christian worship ritual with something that better reflects the diversity of Australian society:

Lead stories

In addition to the features of VAD laws in other states, the ACT bill has three new features:

• no specific timeframe until death - instead, eligibility requires that the patient's condition is "advanced, progressive and expected to cause death"
• nurse practitioners can be involved in assessing eligibility
• protections for patients in institutions that object to voluntary assisted dying - Catholic institutions will have to allow access to the VAD process "unless that is not reasonably practicable".

Watch for the furious debate on these sensible measures!

Jerry Coyne discusses UK physicist Alan Sokal's "long and devastating" critique of a US academic with joint appointments in physics and gender studies (!!), who wrote a "widely cited and praised" article called Making Black Women Scientists Under White Empiricism: The Racialization of Epistemology in Physics. In the preface to his article, Sokal writes "I will argue that the flawed reasoning in this article, together with its uncritical acceptance in many progressive educational circles, threaten to have negative practical consequences both for science and for science education, and in particular for the goal of attracting more women and Black people (and especially Black women) to scientific careers."

In Finland (and in Norway too), young children spend significant amount of time out of school buildings and in the outdoors, even in winter! 

"You have to learn how to get up if you fall down .. to do a little bit more, even if you're tired .. it's developing a really good immune system .. they get dirt in their mouths, dirt everywhere .. every time they go to the forest, their eyes start to shine .. the forest is their second home."

Such a great idea. 

Other stories of interest

'Our voices will be heard': survivors herald court ruling against tactics used by Australian churches to avoid abuse claims

Abuse survivors and lawyers have called on the Catholic church and other institutions to cease using permanent stays to shield themselves from abuse claims and for legislative reform to reopen past cases where the tactic has been used.

Tony Abbott says 'climate change cult' will be discredited

If it's a cult, yes, but if it's a fact??

Abbott is simply a master at the 3-letter acronym (in this case, "CCC") but he's rarely be correct.

Catholic church loses landmark case over tactics that shield it from Australian abuse claims

The Catholic church has lost a landmark case over its controversial use of the deaths of paedophile priests to thwart survivors’ attempts at justice.

The 2023 Shonky Award winners revealed | CHOICE

Got a comment on any of these stories? 

Write to me at president@rationalist.com.au

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