I find it bloody annoying how some Australians - church leaders and politicians mainly - describe this country as a ‘christian’ nation or a ‘christian’ society. Australia isn’t actually.
I believe the word ’secular’ doesn’t describe our society well enough though - so I have come up with an alternative that I’ll run by you.
Our society is a ‘DEWS’ society. Sorry, it’s best acronym I could come up with at short notice!
D = Democracy (self-explanatory really)
E = English (which only conveys the language used by the majority of society members)
W = Western (as distinct from Eastern. Not a geographical term, more more of a philosophical one)
S = Secular (again, self-explanatory)
What do you think?
“Why should I care what the society is called?” I hear you ask.
I’ll tell you - because like the USA there are religious groups / cults / churches in this country that want very much to emulate the Americans. To add something like ‘In god we Trust’ to our aussie currency and similar insanities so that they can steer us all down the same perilous path that the yanks are heading down.
Honestly, the time for complacency and tolerance of religious mania is well and truly over. Many Americans are beginning to realise that their country is becoming the laughing stock of the rest of the other western civilisations. We all know that politicians (usually republicans) are fond of proclaiming the USA as ‘one country under god’ or that ‘god prefers America’ or some other such inane drivel because they have to tell the majority of voters what they want to hear. In reality I believe the majority of US senators (well maybe excluding George W) are educated, intelligent men and women who just ‘play the game’ and spout this nonsense but are just paying lip-service to the extremist elements of their constituencies. But the danger in this is that it becomes ingrained into society and it will be bloody hard to extricate.
I was listening to the ABC local radio yesterday and caught the end of a caller who was proclaiming that ‘god told me he didn’t cure my mouth abscess because he wanted to rid me of the poison in me’ or some such nonsense. I don’t know what the beginning part of the conversation was about (and don’t really care) but I was amazed by the complete non-reaction to the statement by the ABC program host. Sure, silence really spoke volumes - but I believe that the time for tolerance of this kind of childish crap during interviews and similar stuff that is made public is over. The host needn’t come out with what we were all thinking, ie: ‘oh come on, you really are a w**ker aren’t you?’, but could have said something along the lines of ‘well, I don’t personally believe that your god told you anything and I’d thank you not to bring that kind of stuff here’ (or words to that effect!)
Too harsh? No, I don’t think so.
Some people believe that our morals and our altruistic behaviour is attributable to the ‘word of god’ or scripture but they are wrong. Like most mammals, humans are by their nature altruistic. Not only does this behaviour reap benefits for the family groups and society they inhabit but because we all (well most, the appalling ‘I don’t want to get involved’ type of behaviour that some members of the species exhibit can be explained but that’s the subject of another posting) but it is also ‘hard-wired’ into our brains. It makes us feel good to do something to help others.
If you were to ask the countless selfless people who have sustained terrible injury while protecting or saving a complete stranger whether they would do it again if they knew the consequences of their actions - most (if not all) would likely say that they would do it again in a heartbeat. These people didn’t need to be told this kind of behaviour from an ancient fairy story, they instinctively knew it was the right thing to do.
So, in closing this - longer than expected - posting, let me say this: I take exception to being told or described as living in a ‘christian society’. Again, I don’t and we don’t and in reality there is no such thing, anymore than there is a ‘christian child’.
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