Name: Michael

Bio: A passionate defender of equality of opportunity. A scientist who prefers to use evidence rather than dogma or superstition. A despiser of "Faitheism" & Accomodationism. One who knows that religions have exceeded their "best before" date by thousands of years.

Posts by Rev. Gray:

You Just Couldn’t Make it Up!

June 6th, 2011

Australian Muslim billboard campaign angers Christians.

Advertisement by group Mypeace, reading “Jesus, a Prophet of Islam,” labeled by Catholic bishop “a direct assault on Christian beliefs.”

From The Jerusalem Post.

A billboard campaign in Australia launched by a Muslim group in the country caused outrage among some of Sydney’s Christians, upset by advertisements reading “Jesus, a Prophet of Islam,” the London Daily Mail reported on Saturday. One Catholic bishop said that the posters were a “direct assault on Christian beliefs.”

The group, called Mypeace, claims that the campaign was made to encourage awareness about Islam, and correct some misconceptions the public may have regarding the religion. The group said the signs will be up for four weeks before being placed on city buses.

Some other slogans posted include: “Holy Qur’an: The Final Testament” and “Muhammad: Mercy to Mankind.”

According to the group’s website, one of the billboards was vandalized a day after it first appeared.

Julian Porteous, auxiliary bishop at the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, urged Mypeace to take down the advertisements, saying religions should not offend people of different faiths.

Let the infighting continue until there are none left standing.

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Priest on-the-run Refuses to Return to Oz.

June 5th, 2011

A former Far Northern Catholic Priest at the centre of a lawsuit filed by a former Atherton altar boy alleging he suffered years of abuse has refused to return to Australia to face his accuser.

From The Cairns Post.

Father Joseph Sultana relocated from the Cairns diocese to Malta in the late 1990s after allegations surfaced of misconduct that the Catholic Church deemed “inappropriate” for a priest.

That sounds very serious. An overseas relocation by the Catholic Mafia.

Normally, the heartless criminals “deal with” cases of aggravated mass child-rape by simple relocation within the same country.

A decade after Father Sultana left the Far North, a Cairns man lodged a lawsuit against the Catholic Church in the Supreme Court, claiming he was regularly abused by Father Sultana while he was a student and altar boy at St Joseph’s School and Church at Atherton between March 1979 and November 1982.

The case against the Catholic Church is being prepared by Dean and Bolton Solicitors, with medical reports being collated before both parties enter into a compulsory conciliation process.
If the matter is not settled during that process, the case will go to trial.

Full Story…

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Australian churches narrowly loses right to discriminate in employment

June 4th, 2011

Australian churches narrowly loses right to discriminate in employment

Report From the National Secular Society:

The government of the Australian state of Victoria’s attempt to reinstate the right of religious organisations to restrict employment only to those who shared their beliefs was defeated by one vote last week.

The Victorian Equal Opportunity Amendment Bill 2011 would have repealed the ‘inherent requirements test’ requiring religious organisations to justify employment discrimination. It would also have limited the powers of the Equal Opportunity Commission to investigate discrimination claims.

The bill was defeated when Women’s Affairs Minister Mary Wooldridge was locked out of the parliamentary chamber after failing to make the vote in time. Following parliamentary convention, Liberal Speaker Ken Smith cast his vote instead, siding with the opposition Labour Party. The bill was defeated 44 to 43.

Wooldridge issued a statement saying she was embarrassed by missing the vote but she strongly supported the bill. Manager of Opposition Business, Jacinta Allen, said “We were absolutely jubilant that the bill was defeated.”

Allen said if the government wanted to reintroduce the bill it would have to prorogue parliament [end the current parliament session], significantly rewrite the bill, or wait until after the next election, set for November 2014. Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews said: “I don’t think there is a legal facility, a legal ability if you like, for the Government to reintroduce this bill any time during the next four years.”

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Scientific Paper firmly Correlates Religiosity with Brain Damage

June 3rd, 2011

A new paper published in PLoS1 outlines the correlation between the fervency of religious belief and a shrinkage of the hippocampus.


Print it out and read it on the loo:

Religious Factors and Hippocampal Atrophy in Late Life

Abstract:

Despite a growing interest in the ways spiritual beliefs and practices are reflected in brain activity, there have been relatively few studies using neuroimaging data to assess potential relationships between religious factors and structural neuroanatomy. This study examined prospective relationships between religious factors and hippocampal volume change using high-resolution MRI data of a sample of 268 older adults. Religious factors assessed included life-changing religious experiences, spiritual practices, and religious group membership. Hippocampal volumes were analyzed using the GRID program, which is based on a manual point-counting method and allows for semi-automated determination of region of interest volumes. Significantly greater hippocampal atrophy was observed for participants reporting a life-changing religious experience. Significantly greater hippocampal atrophy was also observed from baseline to final assessment among born-again Protestants, Catholics, and those with no religious affiliation, compared with Protestants not identifying as born-again. These associations were not explained by psychosocial or demographic factors, or baseline cerebral volume. Hippocampal volume has been linked to clinical outcomes, such as depression, dementia, and Alzheimer’s Disease. The findings of this study indicate that hippocampal atrophy in late life may be uniquely influenced by certain types of religious factors.

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Preist Pleads Guilty to Violent Aggravated Anal-Rape of a 9 Yr Old and 20 others!!

June 1st, 2011

Can you guess what his “flavour” of Christianity was?
(Hint: Its Godfather wears a silly hat and lives in Rome)

The court is very euphemistic of the nature of the horrific crimes against humanity committed by the perverted parasite, variously reporting to them as “sex offences against students” and “aggravated buggery”, when in fact they are clear cases of the most violent rape of children!

The church may have double-standards, but so do the courts.

Here is the Sydney Morning Herald’s take on it:

Church sex case ’shows double standards’

It is estimated more than $1 million was spent on lawyers defending Best in his six trials, despite him being found guilty four times by juries.

This is $1m heavily subsidised by your taxes, given the unwarranted tax-exempt status of selected churches in Australia.

I cannot keep writing about this atrocity, lest I descend into a foaming rage.

Instead, why don’t you read the article and arrive at the same rage for yourself.

It is well past time to immediately close-down the entire Roman Catholic Church, sell its fabulous stolen assets, and give the proceeds to its victims.

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STOP PRESS: Head Scientologist Arrested in Sydney!

May 31st, 2011

One of the Church of Scientology’s most senior figures, Jan Eastgate, has been arrested and charged in Sydney!

She has been charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to allegations she coached an 11-year-old girl to lie to police¹ and community services about the sexual abuse she suffered from her stepfather who was a member of the Church of Scientology.

Police allege Eastgate threatened and intimidated Carmen Rainer when she was 11 into providing false statements to police about the sexual abuse she suffered from her stepfather.

Eastgate has been granted conditional bail and asked to surrender her passport.

She is due to appear in Downing Centre Court on June 16.

___________________________________________
¹ As reported on this blog.

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Mark “No Religion” in the Aussie 2011-08-09 Census!

May 31st, 2011

Census 2011, why mark No Religion?

The coming census in Australia is an important chance to make sure your interests are met in decision making and funding, and that views you don’t hold are not over-represented in the coming years. As the next Australian Census approaches (9 August 2011), the Atheist Foundation of Australia(AFA) is preparing for one of its biggest and most important projects. The AFA is campaigning to encourage individuals and families to think about the importance and impact of their answer to this leading Census question: “What is the person’s religion?”

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Rationalist Society of Australia write about ACCESS Ministries

May 30th, 2011

A letter just landed in my in-tray from the Rationalist Association of Australia (RSA).

You may have seen the article in the Sunday Age yesterday regarding special religious instruction in Victorian schools – click here.

We [RSA] have just written to Professor McGaw, asking him to formally evaluate the ACCESS Ministries curriculum.  Let’s get this out in the open!



Dr Barry McGaw

Chair, ACARA

Level 10, 255 Pitt St

Sydney, NSW 2000




Monday 30th May 2011




Dear Barry,

Re: Place of Religious Education in Australian Government Schools

The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians refers, amongst other things, to the role of schools in promoting social cohesion, a responsiblity shared by families and the community.  It further says that schools should help ensure young Australians appreciate Australia’s social, cultural, linguistic and religious diversity.

Like many other groups and school parents, the Rationalist Society is concerned that the curriculum presently being used by ACCESS Ministries in Victoria fails to live up to these aspirations.

From the examples we have seen, the ACCESS Ministries curriculum is more likely to promote social division rather than social cohesion.  The curriculum inculcates belief in the doctrine of one type of religious denomination, excluding equal recognition of others – it does not educate about religions.  Let me give you an example.

In one Unit designed for primary school children called “Who do I want to be?”, the stated purpose of the Unit is “For students to understand that people can make wise choices in life, with God’s help”.  This carries the implication that choices made without God’s help are not wise choices; it also assumes the actual existence of a God, which remains a controversial topic even for mature adults.

The Unit’s logically directed conclusion is that “Letting Jesus take control of your life will help you make a new start”.  In urging students to let some religious leader ‘take control’ of their lives, this directly undermines the Melbourne Declaration description of successful learners as being able to ‘think deeply and logically, obtaining and evaluating evidence in a disciplined way’.

The Rationalist Society has sought a full copy of the ACCESS Ministries curriculum in order to assess the degree to which it further undermines the sort of educational goals listed in the Melbourne Declaration.  To date, they have declined to let us have a copy.  What do they have to hide?

Governments and governmental agencies like your own should support democratic values like transparency and accountability.  ACCESS Ministries is not transparent, nor are they accountable to anyone other than themselves.  And yet they enjoy signficant amounts of taxpayers funds.

You were quoted recently in the Sunday Age as approving of the current Special Religious Instruction arrangements in Victoria.  We hope you made these comments in the absence of a close understanding of the actual ACCESS Ministries curriculum.

We call upon ACARA to formally assess the degree to which the ACCESS Ministries curriculum (and other curricula used by evangelical organisations, such as Scripture Union) supports or undermines the aspirations of the Melbourne Declaration.

Yours sincerely,




Dr Meredith Doig

President, Rationalist Society of Australia

cc: Hon. Martin Dixon, Victorian Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development



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Aussie Journalists Finally Getting it Correct!

May 28th, 2011

God squads push fiction to our kids.

Cheers are deserved for
Susie O’Brien, from The Herald Sun.

IF seemingly untrained volunteers went into schools telling preppies that Allah created the world or Allah loves me, there would be an outcry.

So why do we give evangelical Christians the chance to indoctrinate our kids in the same way?
Make no mistake. There is a risk that Christian Religious Education (CRE) lessons in our supposedly secular state schools indoctrinate our kids.

And further on, she does not pull any punches:

And, unless parents specifically object, it’s part of the formal school day.

Take a look at the syllabus topics: “I can talk to God”, “God makes everything”, “The way we live is important to God”, “What living God’s way looks like” and “God can be trusted”. Gee, wouldn’t you feel left out if you were atheist, Jewish, Buddhist or Muslim?

Even the Access Ministries website makes their agenda crystal clear: “Every day of the school year, ACCESS Ministries CRE teachers are sharing God’s love with over 200,000 young Victorians.” The website goes on to say that CRE teachers are well trained and culturally sensitive.

But this seems absurd. For a start, they’re not teachers, they’re not well-trained, and they’re not culturally sensitive. In fact, they apparently make no attempt to include other religions or faiths.

And don’t buy the line that they’re not preaching, they’re teaching. Access Ministries says its goal is to “reach every student in Victoria with the Gospel”.

“Join the vision and help us transform this nation for God,” its website says.

You owe it to yourself to read the full article

But Wait! That’s not all! Susie writes another article about this matter, this time addressing the non-existant ‘training’ that these tricky teachers gain, (or don’t, more like it).

RELIGIOUS education instructors in state schools are required to do less than one day’s training before they teach hundreds of children.

The volunteers, organised through the Access Ministries, pay just $15, attend a six-hour training session, and get a note from their minister in order to become accredited to teach Christian Religious Education classes.

The volunteers are supervised by classroom teachers and instruct according to a mandated syllabus, which includes topics such as “God created all of the world”.

This is truly obscene and disgusting to force these outrageous lies upon our vulnerable kiddies, who cannot just get up and leave.

Legally, these clearly criminal clowns are in “loco parentis” for the unfortunate children, which makes it even more urgent that we do something to stop this disaster.



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Not fom Oz, but from a Pommy Bastard!

May 25th, 2011

Nelson Jones writing in the New Statesman about the usefulness or otherwise of Richard Dawkins debating William Lane Craig:

An atheist is like the lion running for its dinner – victory is desirable but not crucial. Theists need better arguments – like the gazelle running for its life – because they need to, as the default setting of our society is now atheist, or at the very least agnostic.

I dunno ’bout you, but that neatly encapsulates the feeling that I have had as an Aussie for decades now.

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