Issues in yesterday's edition of The Sunday Age

Cardinal Tauran recently commented that

"God has returned to our societies. There has never been as much talk about religion as now."

And this was certainly borne out in reading yesterday's edition of the Sunday Age. Here are a few articles to be going on with:

Religion in schools to go Godfree

Yes, folks, it's official: Atheism is a religion. There are, of course, many Christian groups (such as the Salt Shakers) who are throwing their hands up in despair at this decision to allow the Humanist Society access to primary schools on the same footing as other religious groups, but I rather think it is the Humanists who have conceded a point here, not the religions! As my friend Prof Des Cahill says in the article:

"Our view would be that humanist studies are a legitimate world view just as Catholicism, Anglicanism or Islam is, and that none are any more provable than the rest, just as theism or atheism are no more provable than the other."

(My agnostic father-in-law looked a bit sheepish on this point over Sunday lunch yesterday.) As long as they are quite up front about who they are and what ideology they are pushing - and parents have the right to "opt out" their children, why should the Humanists and Atheists not have as much right to push their religion as we have? At least it beats the way these ideologies are usually taught in the class room without disclosure!

The God Allusion

The usual guff at this time of year about how the Christmas event is to be taught and commemorated in schools and kindergartens.

The Future in our Hands: The medical profession is denying parents real choice about Down Syndrome babies

This is a VERY interesting article, about the way in which pre-natal testing is being used to screen for Down Syndrome. One point of interest is the fact that the author, the president of Down Syndrome Victoria, repeatedly insists that "Down Syndrome Victoria has a neutral prenatal policy" despite the fact that the article exposes and criticises the almost routine assumption that unborn babies diagonosed with Down Syndrome should be aborted. The drop in pre-natal testing is also interesting. We had an ultrasound for Maddy (Cathy was advised to do this because she was over 35) but not for Mia two years later. The moral of this story is: be very suspicious when anyone tries to pressure you to have a prenatal test. Ask the question: Why?