One to watch

In commemorating Anzac Day yesterday, the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and organisers in a number of capital cities again imposed one religious tradition – Christianity – in their Dawn Services. This video shows some of the religious elements in this year's Dawn Services across the country. What do you think? Email your comments to: editor@rationalist.com.au

Opinion / Analysis

Jack Dikian: By the end of 1930, Austrian-born theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli was experiencing a cascade of troubles that had begun almost three years earlier. Pauli, a future Nobel laureate, turned to seeking psychiatric help and respite. He turned to the famous Swiss analytical psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Read the full article

Libby Lester and Alfie Chadwick: Australia’s climate and energy wars are at the forefront of the federal election campaign as the major parties outline vastly different plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle soaring power prices. Meanwhile, misinformation about climate change has permeated public debate during the campaign. Read the full article

Paul Daley: While secularism is growing in Australia, particularly in younger demographics, official Anzac commemorations across the nation (especially the biggest, televised and most observed – that at the war memorial in Canberra) remain fervently Christian. The Rationalist Society of Australia has been at the forefront of the push to expunge the Christian rites and practices and prayers from the service…. Read the full article

Anonymous: Standing in the darkness and cold of the morning, deep in thought about the heavy toll that service has taken, my thoughts are disturbed by the prayers, hymns and Christian preaching that dominate the event… Why is the non-Christian majority required to participate in religious tradition in order to pay their respects to the Anzacs?” Read the full article

Chris Merritt: If the polls are right, much of the nation’s future direction is about to be determined by Adam Bandt’s Greens. That needs to be carefully considered not just by those who live in rented accommodation and are worried about the Greens’ tax policies, or by those who believe Jews have a right to self-determination in their historic homeland. Read the full article

Daisy Dumas: In elections gone by, Az Fahmi volunteered for Labor’s home affairs minister, Tony Burke, in her electorate of Watson in Sydney’s south-west. Now she wants change. “Enough is enough. We’re sick of being taken for granted. We’re sick of being ignored,” says the campaign volunteer, who works in communications. Read the full article

Eryk Bagshaw and Kayla Olaya: Gamel Kheir, the secretary of the Lebanese Muslim Association, says there has been “a seismic shift in the way we [Muslims] talk and relate to politicians”. “We’re dealing with people like me, third-generation Australians, who have learnt that their vote is not taken as a fait accompli any more,” he says. Read the full article

Muslim Votes Matter is a new political advocacy group calling on Muslim Australians to vote not just as individuals, but as a community united by shared values, priorities, and frustrations. From Islamophobia to Gaza, their campaign has made waves and raised eyebrows. Is this a bold new model of civic engagement, or does it risk reducing a diverse population into a monolithic bloc? Listen to the full episode

Siobhan Marin and Inga Ting: Monsignor Asis is among the 1.37 million Catholic immigrants who has helped temper Catholicism's precipitous decline in Australia. In Australia, the percentage of Catholics reached a peak in 1991 at 27.3 per cent of the population. Today, that figure has sunk to 20 per cent, according to the latest census — the lowest since the 1930s Depression. Read the full article

Frank Bongiorno: Albanese was mourning a foreign head of state but also a man recognised as a spiritual leader by Australia’s Catholics, who were a fifth of the population at the last census. We don’t know if Albanese marks that box on his census form. We do know, from things he had to say since the Pope’s death and from other statements over the years, that his Catholic heritage is meaningful to him. Read the full article

Brianna Morris-Grant: Just 10 days after Pope Francis was appointed head of the Catholic Church, he received an ominous gift from his predecessor — a large white box. The box between them on the table contained documents relating to what Pope Francis later described as the church's most painful abuse stories — "cases of abuse, corruption, dark dealings, wrongdoings". Read the full article

David M. Lantigua: Francis’ tango with nearly one-fifth of the world’s population was a difficult one to lead, especially amid Catholic culture wars within the United States and Europe. Ever since the momentous Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, which introduced major reforms, progressive and traditional Catholics have been battling out the meaning of their church’s identity. Read the full article

Daniel Hall: Free speech is fundamental to human progress. Scientific, medical, technological and social advancements all rely on the free flow of information. Robust discussion and disagreement are equally important to maintaining a healthy constitutional republic. Read the full article