Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts

Aug 12, 2015

Best Twitter Accounts (at the moment)

I know not everyone likes Twitter, and lately I don't much like it either. It's all a bit exhausting. But there is still plenty of gold in Twitter. These are the accounts that are currently making me smile.


We Want Plates (@WeWantPlates)

Showcasing the worst of the restaurant craze for serving food and drink in silly things.
The photos make me LOL.




ManWhoHasItAll (@manwhohasitall)

So, so good. When you've spent a few years wrangling parenting and work AND dealing with the endless scream-worthy, useless, unfair and impossible "advice" in women's lifestyle articles, welcome to your soulmate, ManWhoHasItAll.  Turning all the stupid "work-life balance" advice for women around as if it were written for men:





I could keep going. I have retweeted so many of these I've virtually stolen the account.



Spineless Wonders (@SpinelessWonder)

I love short stories, in particular of the speculative fiction type. And I love flash fiction - when it's good (which it often is not). All last month under the hashtag #MicroLitMonth, this account put up some really great short short fiction.

Like this one



The Conversation (@ConversationEDU)

Source of excellent articles which look at issues and ideas slightly differently, with the benefit of academic insight. The articles are a good length, striking just the right balance between Buzzfeed and Longform, and they publish them all under a Creative Commons license. Nice work, The Conversation.



 God (@TheTweetOfGod)

The God we really need.

Daily Dose of Puppies (@TheDailyPuppy)

Cynical exploitation of internet-cute? Sure. But ADORABLE.




And my favourite tweet today:

Posted by 4 comments:

May 17, 2014

Budget Bugbears

When the federal budget was handed down this week my initial reaction was less anger than I have now.

No, there is not actually a "budget emergency", and the constant spam about Labor's "spending" is unfair given we are actually talking about economic stimulus following the GFC - but, we do have a big deficit and it has to be fixed, and that means cuts to things we don't want to cut.

So, cuts to the public service? Expected. Not good - in some cases no doubt, terrible - but expected.

Return of the fuel excise? Not that terrible, a sensible measure.

Cuts to renewable energy programs? Totally expected given we all know where this government stands on that.

Cuts to family tax benefits? Both sides have had this on the agenda and the cuts were less than expected.

The income tax levy on higher-income earners: surprising for a coalition government, though of course it's not permanent.

But these things make me angry, firstly because they're wrong, but perhaps even more than that, because they are lies - they are nothing to do with fixing a "budget emergency", but are about ideology:

  • $20 billion medical research fund. Medical research and science are absolutely great and all, but this is wrong for two reasons. Firstly, if we are truly in the grip of a dire budget emergency and all sorts of cuts have to be made, why commit to this now? Secondly, it is funded by huge cuts to public health funding, and the outrageous GP "co-payment". Somehow I feel like this has Tony Abbott's health freakery stamped all over it. I don't know how, but you know, "it's the vibe of the thing".
  • $7 GP "co-payment" - very harsh, will have unintended (but entirely predictable) consequences, and it goes entirely against what Medicare is. Plus, it is nothing to do with fixing finances. $2 will go to the doctors (probably just to cover the admin required) and $5 to fund the medical research future fund. It is wrong, and unfair. 
  • Cuts to welfare generally. Abbott says we have to "break the welfare mindset". Well, there isn't one. Sure, there was in the past, from some people. But welfare bludging hasn't been a thing for years. People receiving disability pensions, Newstart and the like are already on the breadline. And also, why does "everyone" have to "chip in" to fix the deficit? Spread the pain, sure, but spare the very bottom. And yes, you could take a bit more from the top without hobbling business and waging class warfare.  
  • Funding increased for school chaplaincy program (despite growing public resistance to it) with removal of the current option for schools to use the funding to appoint a secular student welfare officer. It's religion or nothing. Sorry, but are we, or are we not, a secular state? And how can increased funding be found for school chaplains when school funding itself is being cut and we are in a budget emergency? Because the program is less about student welfare than proselytizing, that's why.

Look, for most of us it's not the end of the world. Times are tough economically, and things need to be done. This budget is not a total horror. I get sick of the silliness that is pervading public debate at the moment - that Abbott is evil, that Labor did no wrong whatsoever, that the government is sure to lose the next election (two years out!) based on its current unpopularity.  I'm a measured person, and the truth for me is always in the middle.

But there are things that many of us are unhappy with, and I'll leave the last word to Mike Carlton at the SMH, who wrote this week:
It is a delicious irony that Abbott has destroyed the faith the voters placed in him. Endlessly blackguarding Julia Gillard for her broken carbon tax promise and trumpeting himself as a paragon of probity, he raised the bar.
On Tuesday he fell beneath it, face down in the mud, and will never be trusted again.
Posted by 9 comments:

Sep 23, 2013

RE vs Halloween

My kids attend "RE" (religious instruction) at school, although I'm an atheist. I do not send them because I think religion teaches them ethics or "how to be good". They go because of a mix of personal philosophy, circumstances and compromise which include:
  • most of the kids including their friends go
  • I'm happy for them to have "some religion" as it's part of our culture and history and this way they will understand it
  • their dad is mildly religious and wanted them to go
Last year when I found out one of my daughters wasn't enjoying RE I took her out, and she joined the small group of children doing drawing or writing practice in the spare room. She was happy doing that, and she has only recently gone back to RE because she wanted to (friends again).

I've had my squirmy moments when the kids came home and spoke earnestly or lovingly about Jesus and God, but there has been nothing too bad.  In their prep days we just went with it, and in grade 1 and 2 I've started to slowly put on the brakes. I let them know in various ways (less subtle as they get older)  that it's really not my bag.   I've told them that RE is not like the rest of school and it is optional and I don't mind if they don't go. When they ask me if such-and-such is true I say "Well, no one really knows", and if they ask me if I believe something I will say "I'm not sure", or "Not really", or I'll launch into "Well, some people think x and some people think y, and really we just don't know."  Very occasionally, I've flat out said "No, that's not true." The last occasion was not something an RE teacher said, but a classmate who told A. that her mum said people who don't believe in God go to hell. Charming!

I asked A. if she asked her RE teacher about her friend's mum's comment, and she said she did and the RE teacher said there was no such thing as hell. Whew.


HOWEVER. We have recently had our first ideological collision with the RE instructor, and it was not over the expected battlegrounds like hell, church attendance or non-Christian religions.

Last week during A's RE class the kids started talking about Halloween and whether they'd be doing Trick or Treat, and A's RE teacher said she would never let her children take part in Halloween because it celebrates evil, and evil creatures.


Curly's Halloween GIFs


Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

"Er, no - that's not right," I said firmly. "It's just a bit of fun; there's nothing evil about Halloween."

What's more, apparently, Jesus and God hate Halloween.

"That's definitely not true," I said even more firmly. "God doesn't care if people celebrate Halloween, and Jesus lived 2,000 years ago and no one celebrated Halloween back then, or at least not in Jerusalem, so that doesn't even make sense!" I would never disrespect my kids' teachers, especially not right to the kids' faces - EXCEPT if they say something really dumb and judgmental like this. Which the real teachers, of course, never do.

A. was not too worried and was happy to know she could still dress up and terrorize neighbors for sweets without making Jesus unhappy.

I've written before how I'm a big fan of Halloween. RE? Not so much. If one of them has to go, I know which one it will be!

You're one strike down, RE - watch yourself!



Posted by 10 comments:

Feb 22, 2013

Science and Religion

Science and religion. 'And' - not 'versus'. No need.

As Julian Burnside tweeted this week:



I am an atheist, and I LOVE science. But I am not anti-religion. Religion is part of who we are as humans, and it serves multiple purposes. Religious people are probably on the whole happier, and more comforted. And we all, somewhere, retain a little bit of religious sentiment, hope or belief, even if we consciously reject it.

My kids were baptized Greek Orthodox, but we don't go to church. They opt in to religious instruction in school, though I would prefer it were not offered. I don't send them to learn ethics or how to be a good person, because you don't need religion for that. I send them because it's a huge part of human culture and society, and because religion gave me some comfort as a child. (Actually I took A out last year, because she hated it. M loves it. A wants to try again this year because her friends go, so we'll see how it goes. I've made it clear she doesn't have to go).

I answer my kids' questions about God and religion honestly (more honestly than I answer their questions about Santa).

Last week my kids learned the truth about the tooth fairy. This year I expect they'll figure out the truth about the Easter Bunny and Santa. But the truth about God and religion is not an easy one and one they will decide for themselves along the way.


Like the books on this trestle table, why can't we all just get along?




Posted by 2 comments:

Apr 29, 2012

Sex, Politics and Religion

I'm going off topic. We'll resume the usual programming about parenting and working and nervous breakdowns shortly. Meantime, what are your top "versus" topics?

Here are three of mine:


1. Religion vs Atheism


Religion provides valuable cultural and psychological benefits. If it didn't, it wouldn't exist.
Yes, it is associated with much repression and misery within cultures. But that's not the religion per se doing that, it is the way it is used by the powerful. Similarly, religion is a pretext for wars, not a cause.

I have no actual problem with religion.

I send my kids to RE at school (with some guilt and misgivings - but I still think I'm doing the right thing). I am helping them get the experiences and the tools to help them grow in their culture, understand human knowledge and experience, AND question beliefs. We discuss Jesus and God and Heaven sometimes, and where it is appropriate, I am starting to let them know, gradually, that these are not fixed, settled realities. More will follow as they get older.

It might be my 200-years-ago anthropology degree speaking here, but I really believe what works for kids is integrating them into the culture they live in. Give them the belonging and the frameworks and the community. Sow some seeds to allow questioning and rebellion, but let them go either way.


I am, however, a HUGE fan of Richard Dawkins. Some find him smug or snobbish, but what he really is is just relentlessly logical. The God Delusion was a strong, minty breath of fresh air. Remember, Dawkins made atheism okay. That's huge.


[Oh - and while I'm on The God Delusion - for an example of how religious and atheists can discuss these things in a respectful, open-minded way, see this blog: http://isitadelusion.blogspot.com.au/ ]






2. Left vs Right


Photo by bitterlysweet via Flickr CC
I've always been left-leaning myself. My dad and grandfather used to call me "the Communist" when I was a kid, which, all respect to them, is not saying a whole lot. Or I thought it wasn't, until the day my rabidly, cringe-inducingly Far Right grandfather told us he had been a member of the Communist Party when he was young. The shock and merriment this news produced in our family is hard to overstate. Pop explained it with his variant on the Winston Churchill quote * : "If you're not a Communist at 19, you have no soul. If you're still a Communist at 29, you have no brain."

I love that quote because it says a lot about my grandfather, and also it's just funny and true in the way it depicts youthful righteousness slowly morphing to centrist pragmatism with age and experience.

Now there are many things on the right that I dislike. But I have to say the one thing I most dislike on the left is smugness. I hate that whole thing the left tends to congratulates itself with, that being left makes you a kinder, better person.

It's true there are horrendously cruel and uncaring philosophies on the right. The callousness and lack of charity on the American right never fail to take my breath away. There are close-minded, unthinking people who refuse to credit anything outside their own skill or persistence in their success or affluence. So yes, that's true.

But many on the left are not open minded either. They think they are, but they aren't. Open minded doesn't mean adopting every liberal stance going and knee-jerking snarky abuse at other options. Open minded is not rejecting every public utterance of someone because of where they sit politically. Even if they happen to be (gasp!) Tony Abbott or Andrew Bolt.
                But, but... those guys are close-minded!
                               So what?  Be better.  Be open minded.


In Australia up to half the population votes Liberal. Hey, I voted for them once! (I call myself a swinging voter, but I don't actually "swing" so much as consider swinging, most elections).

To dismiss half the population as stupid and greedy is insulting, but more than that - and I think this annoys me more - it is illogical. It is ridiculous to imply that such a large proportion of the population is bad.

There are unthinking, close-minded voters on both sides.  There are people who vote from their hip pocket on both sides. (As Lee Iacocca said in his autobiography, "When we were poor we voted Democrat; when we were rich we voted Republican.")
And there are thinking, caring people voting out of belief for what's best for the country, voting from all sides.


*Winston Churchill quote:  “If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”




3. Marriage Equality vs "Marriage is Between a Man and a Woman".


Well, marriage equality, absolutely. FFS, if nothing else, it's time. I feel the tipping point on this was reached a couple of years ago. So what are the objections?


"Marriage is between a man and a woman." 
C'mon. That language was drafted in the ancient past when homosexuality was unknown to many and taboo to everyone else. We're not in that place anymore.

"It disrespects marriage." 
We have been doing that for ages without help from gay folk. Unhappy marriages, forced marriages, marriages of convenience, marriage for money, political marriages, separations, the divorce rate, people who marry four times... Please.


"What's wrong with a civil union that confers the same legal benefits?" 
Well, I don't know. Let's see: Did you choose a civil union, or marriage?
People want what people want. There is no "real" reason for marriage as such, but people continue to want it. Everyone should have the same access to it.

Photo: Petr Kratochvil via Public Domain Pictures 



Your turn!
What are your top "versus" topics?


Posted by No comments:

Aug 18, 2011

The Tooth Fairy and Other Necessities

Here is an interesting thing: a story on i09.com called Believing in the Tooth Fairy Can Warp Your Mind claims that children who believe in the tooth fairy, Santa Claus etc experience false memories and supernatural experiences that match their beliefs.

Photo by vauvau via Flickr Creative Commons
Now I am sure that believing in the Tooth Fairy and the rest when you're a little kid serves some very valuable purpose, so is worth the false memory risk. I am just not able to back this up with any evidence. Or detail. Or even a rational theory. But I think it's OK.

The thing is, I believe that where there is a massive, pervasive and long-standing cultural tradition, there is probably a purpose to it. (The Anthropology I majored in at uni all those years ago I guess). I don't mean "If everyone does it then it's OK", and I don't mean "If it's always been done that way then it is right" ...except that maybe I sort of do. In some cases.

I told you I can't back this up.

My very strong opinion is that humans are animals and our culture and everything we have built are all part of our response to our environment just like those of other animals. Other animals have language, culture and built environments too. I think what we build and create is part of nature as much as a beaver dam is part of nature.  And I think that cultural traditions like the tooth fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa Claus probably serve a purpose, in a similar way to how fairy tales and myths and legends serve a purpose (warning, guiding, teaching, etc).

I'm not sure what that purpose is, but I think it's there.

Before I had kids I used to scoff a little at those parents you occasionally hear about who don't do Santa because they don't believe in lying to their children. I love Santa and I love the magic of childhood - but now that I have kids I kind of understand what those parents are talking about. I would never withhold Santa from my young kids, but that doesn't stop me getting a twinge of unease or guilt sometimes over the whole thing. That's despite the firm belief I have that Santa is a good thing and deserves to be celebrated.

I am finding some parallels with religious instruction here. I am an atheist and have been since the age of 13 when I decided not to become 'confirmed' in the Catholic church and angered my (Catholic but not very religious) father with this decision, in one of the few times during my childhood that I stood against my parents on anything.  I am not, however, anti-religion. I don't believe ethics and morality come from religion; they are innate in us and we use religion in part to frame them. I don't believe that religion causes wars - politics and economic pressures do that. I do think we can all agree that extremist religious beliefs of any flavour are awful and oppressive and cause misery. But I also see religion give strength and satisfaction to most people and there is no harm in that.

So with all this in mind, I decided long ago that I would give my kids a mild dose of religion in their childhoods, to allow them into this big part of our culture and it would do no harm. (After all, I could gently steer them towards the "truth" later on, if their own minds didn't get them there first...)
My husband is Greek Orthodox and is that kind of "religious" that most people are - kind of believing in God and some form of gentle love-thy-neighbor religion, goes to church at Easter, but hates the trappings of organised religion.
So our kids were baptised Greek Orthodox and they attend the standard religious instruction at their primary school.

But what I didn't expect was the real discomfort that I feel when they come home from school and ask me (or tell me) about God and Jesus and Heaven. I am struggling a little, and I realise I didn't really think this through. I find myself wishing we had opted them out, though I know my husband would not have wanted that, and even though I still think it's good to give kids some religious exposure so they can understand it and make an informed choice later on. I sometimes just say "yes" to their questions; I sometimes hear myself spouting a proper "religious" response to their religious questions, and sometimes I tell them to ask their teacher. Initially I tried the old "Well, some people believe..." but that was no help. I just got the searching look and "Do you believe it Mummy?" "Sure" I mumbled and quickly changed the subject, hating myself thoroughly. I am always on the lookout for some extreme lunacy in what they're being taught, but so far there doesn't seem to be any of the kind of scary stuff we've read in the papers about the chaplaincy program.

I asked my mum about this and she had a good suggestion: "Just think of it a bit like Santa."
(My mum is not an atheist but she knew where I was coming from.) I am trying to follow that, and not feel like I am misleading my kids or violating their rights by warping them with beliefs that I truly believe are false. (It's not that bad, right?)

So that brings me back to the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa. I am sure that somewhere there is a purpose to these myths, apart from the lovely one of providing some delight and magic for children. Perhaps they are similar to religion, providing a framework for things like ethics (be good!), reward and punishment, the comfort of a powerful all-knowing being looking after you, etc. Maybe they are also for the parents - to remind us of the mystery and magic of childhood and to serve as a metaphor for our jobs to look after and guide our children.

I can't imagine a childhood without the wonder and magic of the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. (I am of course fully aware that plenty of children all over the world do without). I know my kids won't believe in them as long as we did - already at five their minds are working away at it, looking for the inconsistencies and the holes, and asking questions. And I know I'm inconsistent - I won't let them believe in other fairies, mermaids or dragons, however lovely those are. But I guess the important bit is fitting into the culture - you want them to be a part of the big common beliefs, and part of the cultural frameworks, not a crazy person believing in anything that comes their way.

And hopefully not end up as conflicted and self-torturing as their mum!

_____________

I think I overthunk it. I posted the link to the Tooth Fairy story on Facebook and a friend has replied about the Tooth Fairy:
"It is something to look forward to and it stops you from thinking of how disgusting a bloody tooth is and instead of throwing it in the trash you actually get a reward for all the tears."
That's it - it's really that simple!
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