Politics Archives - Page 2 of 8

It’s no secret that I’m an atheist; it’s just one facet of who I am. I’m not particularly bothered if you choose to have a religion; that’s your business and nothing to do with me. As an atheist, I just don’t believe in a god or follow a religion. I do talk about atheism and share thoughts on religion, but usually with like-minded people or people that have specifically asked me what I think. I generally don’t tell religious people, unsolicited, why I think they shouldn’t be religious. I don’t seek out religious people to criticise or dissect their beliefs. I don’t seek them out to list all the reasons I think they should abandon their faith.

I don’t do all of that for a few reasons.

It’s largely pointless. If someone has a strong faith, nothing I say will change it. They need to question it themselves for it to change.
I can’t speak for all atheists but generally, I don’t “recruit”. If someone wants to ask questions, they will.
It’s not up to me to instruct people in what they should think and feel. That seems presumptuous and kinda rude.

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Same sex marriage. It seems like something that should never have been prevented in the first place and yet it was

Religious groups are lobbying against it. Conservative politicians and ex-politicians are speaking against it. Ignorant bigots are speaking against it. The government, if re-elected, wants to spend millions (somewhere between $160- $525 million dollars, depending on who you believe) on a pointless, non-binding plebiscite over it. There are pamphlets being prepared in the hope of perpetuating the bigotry and fear-mongering around something that is actually completely innocuous- couples who just want to get married.

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In general, I try not to use the phrase “do your research” very often, because most of us aren’t equipped with laboratories, test subjects, degrees and the other necessities to perform actual research. Even pointing people towards existing research can be hit-and-miss because not everyone will correctly interpret it. That goes for a lot of information we have. For example, there are still people out there that believe female violence against men is an equivalent problem to male violence against women, despite statistics showing otherwise. Quite a few people still believe that vaccines cause autism despite many studies showing otherwise. There are plenty of us out there who think Australia has achieved gender equality, though research shows this isn’t the case. There are even groups of people who are pretty sure the earth is flat and some that believe the planet is only 6,000-10,000 years old. I could go on but really, all I’m saying is that presenting facts often isn’t enough. Some people aren’t interested in facts that don’t support what they want to believe.

I’m hoping that those people are a minority. We have an election coming and we all really need to do our research when deciding how to cast our votes.

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I’ve been stewing on this for a few days now, since reading your recent comments. I’m wondering if you can actually define “frivolous”. And while you’re at it, I’d love you to provide evidence that women are making “frivolous domestic violence complaints”. Because, as far as I know, domestic violence saw 79 women in Australia killed in 2015. Another 32 so far in 2016. Doesn’t seem like a “frivolous” issue to me. Many people are granted protection orders these days and I find it hard to believe that the police and the courts follow through with them if the complaints are so minor or petty. Did you know that between September 2013 and September 2014, just for a snapshot of the numbers, there were more than 26,000 domestic apprehended violence orders issued in NSW alone and approximately 80% of them were issued to women? Would you like to give an estimate of how many of these orders were made by the courts because a man said he didn’t like the colour of a woman’s dress? Because that is the example you gave of a woman making a “frivolous” complaint.

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An Atheist on Religious Freedom

Plebiscite, Schmebiscite: Same Sex Marriage is a Human Right

This Election, Do Your Research

Dear Pauline Hanson, Please Explain…