Bien, Victor As a technically orientated person and educated in a scientific field, namely physical chemistry for a higher degree, I have never found history interesting until recent times. This followed from getting to know, with increasing detail, what happened in the Age of Enlightenment. Now I have acquired a strong taste for history!

Brown, Roy W The International Panel on Climate Change issued its second-last full report in 2007. The experts hoped at that time that, provided sufficient measures were taken soon enough to reduce CO2 emissions, it should be possible to limit global warming to just 2 degrees Celsius over the coming century. But over the past five years and despite the economic downturn, the effects of global warming have been accelerating and the experts' predictions, no doubt mindful of the massive political (...) opposition to their message, were quite simply too optimistic. In this article I summarise the evidence that the consequences of global warming will be devastating within the lifetimes of most people alive today. (shrink)

Bryce, Ian As part of the CAHS Convention in May this year, I organised a Panel discussion entitled 'Ethics Education Initiatives in Australia'. It was to take advantage of the presence in Sydney of Humanist Society delegates from interstate, and acquaint them with the success story of the NSW Primary Ethics program.

Harris, Michele Aboriginal advocate Olga Havnen, in her Lowitja O'Donoghue oration, has asked a critical question. She asks what has been the psychological impact of the Intervention on Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory . It is surprising that so little attention has been given to this critical, yet in some ways tenuous, link before now.

Pitsios, Rigas I saw reproduced a few years ago, in beautiful colours on the jacket of the book Wisdom of the West by Bertrand Russell, the photo of a marble head of Epicurus, who lived and taught in Athens, during and shortly after Macedonian imperialism and its leading actor, Alexander, made their appearance on the Middle-Eastern scene. The fact is probably indicative of the recognition, by an eminent representative of modern civilization, of the ancient philosopher's importance; it may also be (...) taken as a sign of the times, in that it expresses the need of many to reexamine and understand better the teachings of Epicurus, their relevance to our own times and their usefulness in the planning of our lives. (shrink)

Wallace, Max; Wallace, Meg On 31 July this year submissions closed to the government's Constitutional Advisory Panel concerning a constitution for New Zealand. New Zealand, like England, does not have a written constitution. On 13 July there was a day-long seminar sponsored by the Law Faculty at Victoria University in Wellington on the question of separation of church and state. One reason for this seminar was the lack of constitutional separation in New Zealand.

Bien, Victor At the 2013 Council of Australian Humanist Societies AGM, held in Sydney on 4 May, it was resolved to adopt 'the defence and promotion of the values of the Enlightenment as an ongoing process for organising our aim, objects and programs.'.

Courtin, Judy As a young girl in the 1960s, I attended a Catholic boarding school. The nuns could be scary. When they walked the wintry and un-illuminated corridors of the convent, their knee-length rosary beads jangled against their ankle-length black habits.

Ryan, Jennie A current search of reliable internet sources gives the present number of recognised major world religions as somewhere between twenty two and twenty five. These religions have approximately 6.9 billion adherents. Recent meta-analysis of a range of surveys into non-belief in 'God' has reported that between 7% and 10% of the world's population identifies as non-theistic . Out of the top fifty countries with the largest percentage of self-professed atheists, , close to 80% are developed, democratic, mostly European (...) countries, with high standards of public healthcare and accessible food, water and housing. (shrink)

Stuart, Jennie Review of: Norman Haire and the study of sex, by Diana Wyndham, Sydney University Press, 2012,.

Stuart, Stephen Review of: On being certain: Believing you are right even when you're not, by Robert A. Burton, St Martin's Griffin, New York, 2008,.

Stuart, Stephen Review of: Wicked company: Freethinkers and friendship in pre-revolutionary Paris, by Philipp Blom, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 2011,.

Tribe, David The scientific disputation among Dr Victor Bien, Dr David Blair and myself in AH has, I hope, been of some interest to all readers. It smouldered with a dispute over the reality or unreality of anthropogenic global warming and climate change , with me for unreality in the minority, and flared with my assertion 'that scientific consensuses on all controversial issues are initially always wrong' . I adhere to both positions.

Wallace, Max This paper poses a paradox: the post-Gonski situation appears uncertain for mainly low socio-economic status government schools as the apparent government- in-waiting, the Coalition, have made a number of ominous statements as to whether they will follow through on the Gillard government's embrace of the Gonski funding reform.

Williams, Robyn I was briefly a religious person - only on a form. When we crossed into Pakistan, having hitch-hiked from London en route to Sydney in 1966, there came a point where you could not just put a line through where it said 'religion'. I suddenly discovered what to do. I wrote 'Congregationalist hedonist'. All the officials loved it. We had lots of fun together.

Wright, Ken France's state school system has a long tradition of freedom from religion. It owes a great debt to Jules Ferry who was Minister for Public Instruction from 1879 to 1885, and to Ferdinand Buisson, his Director of Primary Education. A law of 28 March 1882 removed the teaching of religion from all primary schools, to be replaced by ethics and civics.

Barrett, Pamela My name is Lucky and I am, because I'm a dog..

Blair, David Concerning David Tribe's rejoinder to my 'Science works better than that' , it's pleasing to see that there are some points on which we agree. Unfortunately he continues to make a strong and unjustified attack on the scientific community as a whole-essentially on the grounds that, of the conclusions of science that later turned out to be false, virtually all of them were at some time 'believed' by most scientists. In reply, I shall show that it is his (...) underlying framework that needs to be altered-quite radically. He does not understand what the activity of scientists is like-indeed what it has to be like, when faced with the task of extracting knowledge from the real world. (shrink)

Blair, David Review of: Here on earth: An argument for hope, by Tim Flannery, Text Publishing Co. 2010 $35.

Ellis, Brian Humanism has a lot to offer the world. It is not just an individual moral philosophy, although it includes such a philosophy. Nor is it just a political program, although it implies one. The theory of social humanism, which was developed in a book I published last year, is both a moral and a political philosophy. It is socially democratic, and morally and politically humanistic.

Gardner, Harry On 6 December 2012, a meeting was held of people of several faiths and philosophical traditions in the Victorian State Office of Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship, located in Melbourne, to discuss 'the need for more education about diverse religious and non-religious beliefs in Victorian schools.'.

Gogineni, Babu Ravulapally village in Nalgonda District of Andhra Pradesh was enrolled in the 'Adopt a Dalit Village project' as it received generous support from the Council of Australian Humanist Societies in 2012.

Ives, Rosslyn Review of: The god argument: The case against religion and for humanism, by A. C. Grayling, Bloomsbury, London 2013. $30.

Krins, Tony What is God? Where did God come from? Where is God going? God is the focus or figurehead of a religion.

Milan, David An atheist and his christian friend are engaged in cordial conversation. The latter is taken aback and is rather indignant when his atheist friend declaims, 'On this question of the existence of god I believe that our respective positions are much closer than you imagine'. The Christian's firm riposte is that, by definition, such a harmony of viewpoints is impossible. Unfazed, his non-believing friend offers a thoughtful defence of his claim. He begins, 'You know that, since time immemorial, (...) humankind has taken unto itself all manner of gods, and that almost all of these tribal deities have long since vanished into obscurity.'. (shrink)

Mitchell, Patricia Review of: Meaning, Self and the human potential: An appeal for humanism, by Kristine Millar, Janus Publishing Company Led London 2013.

Stuart, Stephen Review of: Free will, by Sam Harris, Free Press, New York, 2012,.

Tribe, David All serious journalists and debaters garnish their opinion pieces with facts and figures seen as 'corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative' . This apology for a lurid pack of lies in The Mikado has long been compared with statistics. Of course it's unjust. Nevertheless, investigation shows that statistics, widely used to interpret the past and present and forecast the future, to determine or justify public policy, are often unsatisfactory through questionable (...) processing of controversial, inadequate or bogus data. (shrink)

Wright, Ken Review of: How much is Enough?: Money and the good life, by Robert and Edward Skidelsky, Other Press, New York, 2012, x + 241 pp., $20.07.

Blair, David Review of: Incognito: The secret lives of the brain, by David Eagleman, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2011, paperback, $35.

Bryce, Ian Robertson's talk was an analysis of the legal positions around many of the crimes of organised religion, and consequent legal actions already in progress or possible in the future.

Elliott-Kleerkoper, Marietta It was Charles Darwin who first proposed an evolutionary theory of beauty. He surmised that art fulfilled two evolutionary functions. In respect of general selection, beauty is related to fitness. It also plays a part in sexual selection: the female selects the male on the basis of aesthetic criteria: think, for example, of the peacock's tail, the bowerbird's nest.

Gibson, Robin The concept of dying by euthanasia and indeed physician-assisted suicide is a highly emotive one. Assisted dying arouses intense feelings both in favour and against. The prospect of enduring a long drawn out dying process generates both fear and apprehension in both terminally ill and chronically ill patients. Many of them wish to choose the time and manner of their death. On the other side, passionate, mainly religious groups have campaigned long and hard to deny suffering people assistance (...) to die. As the law currently stands in Australia, there is a complete ban on both euthanasia and assistance in suicide. Even following a request by a patient, a medical practitioner who directly takes the life of his or her patient, can be charged with murder or manslaughter. Despite the repeal of laws that forbade committing or attempting to commit suicide, laws still exist which proscribe the provision of assistance to another to commit or attempt to commit suicide. (shrink)

Ives, Rosslyn Review of: The swerve: How the renaissance began, by Stephen Greenblatt, Publisher The Bodley Head, London 2011.

Levack, John We are to the gods as flies to wanton boys on a summer's day they kill us for their sport..

Murphy, Elysia Government funds should not be used to endorse religion in state schools. The presence of chaplains and scripture teachers in public schools diminishes the secularity of the state school system. Given the plethora of faith-based schools for families seeking a religious education, it is not unreasonable for non-religious families to expect a secular education from the government sector.

Tribe, David I was disappointed, but not surprised, by criticisms of my 'On science, good, bad and ugly' , which may also have prompted the appearance in the same issue of other articles confirming points in mine. While I don't agree with many details, Massimo Pigliucci's 'Science needs philosophy' directs timely attention to 'an over-enthusiastic embrace of science' and a scientism which 'leads to nihilism'.

Wallace, Max I respond here to David Nicholls November 2012 Facebook posting in response to my article 'Non-religious tax avoidance' in the Summer issue of AH, No. 108, 2012 where I reviewed how it was the Atheist Foundation of Australia came to have tax-exempt status and whether that was appropriate.

Wallace, Meg London's National Theatre recently hosted a debate about freedom of speech, multiculturalism and Islam called Can we talk about this? The opening line was a question to the audience, 'Are you morally superior to the Taliban?' Anne Marie Waters, who was present, wrote in her blog that 'very few people in the audience raised their hand to say they were.' This response demonstrates a misconceived attempt to be seen as tolerant and 'multiculturalist'. People could not bring themselves to (...) say their views are morally superior to a group that, Waters points out, 'denies women medical treatment, imprisons them in their homes, allows domestic violence, and executes people by stoning for having a private life or the audacity to not believe in God.' They fear being labelled, racist, 'Islamophobic', or discriminating against religion. Rather, they adopt a stance that treats all moral views generated by culture or religion as equally valid . They confuse the distinction between the right to think as you want, and the right to act as you want. (shrink)

Woolcock, Peter G Review of: Social humanism: A new metaphysics, by Brian Ellis, Routledge, New York, 2012. $120.