Notes: Wednesday, August 1-Tuesday, August 14, 2012

1. "the introduction of no-fault divorce, child support payments, anti-discrimination laws, government funding for childcare and a paid parental leave system": Another summary of the victories of Feminism

The quotation in that headline comes from "'Gender tax' a grim reality - Summers", from The Sydney Morning Herald's website, by Stephanie Peatling, dated July 29, 2012:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/gender-tax-a-grim-reality--summers-20120728-232te.html

Labels: feminism

2. "New data from last year's census shows that women aged 40-44 years in 2011 were nearing the end of their reproductive years with 1.99 children each", which "makes them the first cohort of women to reach this age group with fewer than two children on average"

The quotation in that headline comes from "Second child one too many for career mums, census figures show", from The Australian's website, by Patricia Karvelas, dated June 30, 2012:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/two-kids-proves-too-many-for-career-mums-census-figures-show/story-fn59niix-1226412748535

(That article came to my attention via the version of it which was published as "Second child one too many for career mums", by the same author, pp. 1 and 7, The Weekend Australian, June 30-July 1, 2012, Second Edition, No. 14849, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

Labels: demography, families, social trends

3. "I[, Christine Forster,] want you to know I'm a small 'l' liberal and a big 'L' Lesbian"

The quotation in that headline comes from "Ready, steady, creditors", from The Sydney Morning Herald's website, by Margot Saville, dated July 28, 2012:

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/private-sydney/ready-steady-creditors-20120727-23049.html?skin=text-only

(That article came to my attention via the version of it which was published as "A Moore or less worthy line-up", by Margot Saville, the "PS PRIVATE SYDNEY" section of p. 22, The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, July 28-29, 2012, No. 54542, ISSN 0312-6315.)

Labels: Christine Forster, G.L.B.T.

4. The findings of some research into tiredness among mothers up to eighteen months after giving birth

"Physical Health and Recovery in the First 18 Months Postpartum: Does Cesarean Section Reduce Long-Term Morbidity?", by Dr. Hannah Woolhouse et al., in the journal Birth, DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-536X.2012.00551.x; the article was first published on-line on July 3, 2012, and some information on it is available here:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-536X.2012.00551.x/abstract

See also "New mums struggle with exhaustion for months", from the Sydney Daily Telegraph's website, by Susie O'Brien, dated July 31, 2012:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/new-mums-struggle-with-exhaustion-for-months/story-fndo2dsc-1226438890073

(which came to my attention via the version of it which was published as "DREAMING OF SLEEP", no by-line, p. 03, the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Tuesday, July 31, 2012, Vol. 1, No. 2606, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd.) and also the press release "One in five new mothers experiencing exhaustion", from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute website, dated July 31, 2012:

http://www.mcri.edu.au/news/2012/july/one-in-five-new-mothers-experiencing-exhaustion.aspx

Labels: economics, families

5. Mr. Palmer is "[a] practising Catholic who says he attends Mass weekly"

The quotation in that headline comes from "Thoughts of Chairman Clive", from The Sydney Morning Herald's website, by Deborah Snow, dated August 4, 2012:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/thoughts-of-chairman-clive-20120803-23ks6.html?skin=text-only

(That article came to my attention via the version of it which was published as "LUNCH WITH CLIVE PALMER", "Thoughts of Chairman Clive", by the same author, p. 5 of the "News Review" supplement in The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, August 4-5, 2012, No. 54547, ISSN 0312-6315.)

Labels: Clive Palmer

6. "It is the first time that a prime-time Aussie drama[, viz. House Husbands,] has featured a gay couple raising a child."

The quotation in that headline comes from "Grantley brings down house in new role", from the Sydney Daily Telegraph's website, by Siobhan Duck, dated August 6, 2012:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/tv/grantley-brings-down-house-in-new-role/story-e6frexlr-1226443410397

(That article came to my attention via the version of it which was published as "Gyton's new role is a gay change of pace", by the same author, p. 10, the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Monday, August 6, 2012, Vol. 1, No. 2611, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd.)

Labels: G.L.B.T., House Husbands, social trends

7. Some points of interest from "Call for free abortions as needy women priced out of procedure", from The Sydney Morning Herald's website, by Adele Horin, dated August 6, 2012:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/call-for-free-abortions-as-needy-women-priced-out-of-procedure-20120805-23o1u.html?skin=text-only

• Women receive a Medicare rebate for terminations but out-of-pocket costs are high for many.

• Marie Stopes International (Australia), the local arm of a worldwide, not-for-profit women's health service, runs 15 clinics, including five in NSW.

• For women on Centrelink benefits with a healthcare card, the out-of-pocket cost of a surgical abortion starts at about $340 under 12 weeks' pregnancy and rises with each week to about $610 at 14 weeks and $1365 at 19 weeks.

• A $30,000 fund from the Bessie Smyth Foundation was used for several years to subsidise abortions for poor women and to provide advice and referrals. But the funds, derived from the sale of an abortion clinic, ran out at the end of 2007. Attempts to secure government assistance failed.

• Ms[ Margaret] Kirkby[, "spokeswoman for the Women's Abortion Action Campaign",] said NSW was the only big state to lack a government-funded information and referral service, similar to Queensland's Children by Choice.

Labels: abortion

8. Mr. Muehlenberg on the aims of Gay and Lesbian activists

"When the Activists Spill the Beans", by Bill Muehlenberg, dated August 1, 2012:

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2012/08/01/when-the-activists-spill-the-beans/

Labels: education, G.L.B.T., marriage

9. A. N. "Wilson is among those to see in Hitler the triumph of enlightenment or scientific rationalism; the enlightenment's tool of abstraction is fundamentally dehumanising and what Wilson describes as the "reverence for the starry heavens above us and the moral law within" do not register with it. Wilson is also right when he explains Hitler as a thoroughgoing creature of modernity from his appropriation of technology to his anti-clericalism."

The quotation in that headline comes from "Accidental dictator of Wagnerian scale", from The Australian's website, by Baron Alder reviewing A. N. Wilson's Hitler: A Short Biography, dated August 11, 2012:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/accidental-dictator-of-wagnerian-scale/story-fn9n8gph-1226446807405

(That review came to my attention via the version of it which was published under the same headline and by the same author, pp. 24-25, the "review" supplement of The Weekend Australian, August 11-12, 2012, Second Edition, No. 14883, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

Labels: Adolf Hitler

10. More on a new initiative for propagating the Darwinist worldview

Following are some points of interest from "Thinking big", from The Australian's website, by Bernard Lane, dated August 11, 2012:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/thinking-big/story-e6frg8h6-1226444008323

(That article came to my attention via the version of it which was published under the same headline and by the same author on pp. 20-23 of The Weekend Australian Magazine, inserted in The Weekend Australian, August 11-12, 2012, Second Edition, No. 14883, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

• This is Big History, a bold attempt to create the first universal syllabus of history, able to be taught anywhere in any language. It starts with the Big Bang and compresses 13.7 billion years into a one-year course. Kids encounter space dust before humans, and Homo sapiens before the warring tribes of French, Germans or Australians. Its mission is to try to explain the remarkable success, and looming problems, of the human race. To do this, the course zooms in for "Goldilocks" moments, when conditions are just right for, say, farmers to edge out hunter-gatherers or for the scientific revolution to make things awkward for the Church. Big History is a storyteller's pitch to the imagination of kids otherwise turned off by school. It's an attempt to surprise them into critical thinking as they piece together fields of knowledge typically disjointed across the curriculum.

• "The response of many historians and anthropologists has been to think that the big picture itself is toxic," [Prof. David ]Christian[, Big History's author,] says. "That's completely wrong; we desperately need the grand narrative." If classrooms serve up only fragmented pieces of the story, he says, students will look elsewhere. "Why is creationism alive and well in the States? Smart students want the big picture, they go to their church and someone is offering the big picture. It's a big mistake for people in the sciences and humanities not to look for what unifies modern knowledge."

• On his blog, [Bill ]Gates turned evangelist: "My favourite course of all time is called Big History, taught by David Christian. Big History literally tells the story of the universe, from the very beginning to the complex societies we have today. It shows how everything is connected to everything else. It weaves together insights and evidence from so many disciplines into a single, understandable story

• Gates sought out Christian, who happened to be teaching in the US and was on the point of returning to Macquarie. It was a meeting of like minds, at the end of which Gates declared that Big History really ought to be taught in school. "I'd thought that for years," Christian says. The historian and the businessman-turned-philanthropist joined forces in the Big History project, which is run out of a small office in Seattle, Washington. They hope to have the first universal history syllabus available free online towards the end of next year.

• Today it's origin stories or creation myths, those grand, improbable narratives spun by peoples to explain how their civilisations came to be. "It gives you a broader perspective, and makes you realise one person's perspective isn't everything," says [one of the pupils taking the course].

• In creationist circles, his course may seem, well, unChristian. The project website highlights the conflict even as it seeks to defuse it: "Big History takes up the same profound questions that many religions wrestle with - how the universe, Earth and humanity came to be. The course offers explanations for these questions based on scientific evidence, which we consider important for all students to understand independent of their religious views." So far, the project says creationism hasn't been an obstacle.

• [Big History] got approval in NSW as a philosophy course, a story in itself and one to do with curriculum politics. The traditional subjects may stay but [Bernie ]Howitt's hunch is that Big History kids will approach them differently, with a sharper eye for evidence. "We were doing origin stories and one of the girls - she's a B-stream kid - asked me, 'How can people believe in religion if you're using all this evidence?' I said, 'That's the idea of faith.' I can't see what's going on in their heads but for her to ask that question shows me that the idea of thinking critically is starting to permeate."

See also item 6 of this Notes post.

Labels: David Christian, education, evolution, history, secularism

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Vigil of the Assumption of Our Lady, and the feast of St. Eusebius, Confessor, A.D. 2012

Notes: Thursday, July 7-Tuesday, July 12, 2011

1. Dr. Biddulph on paternal involvement in families

Father love is known in countless studies to help children grow happy and strong. It is the key to boys feeling motivated and believing in themselves, that being a good man is something to strive for. It gives daughters self-esteem and a sense of their intelligence and a value beyond mere sexual attraction. In families where mothers would otherwise do all the emotional heavy lifting, an involved dad provides the missing key to everyone's mental health. Women love a good father. They often wish they had had one themselves.
[http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/goodbye-to-the-distant-authority-figure-hello-to-handson-dads-20110705-1h0oo.html?skin=text-only]

Labels: families, parenthood, social trends, Steve Biddulph

2. Associate Professor Craig on, among other things, Australian "work-family balance strategies and parents' time in paid work, domestic work and childcare"

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/fathers-left-alone-can-spread-load-of-parenting-20110706-1h2d9.html?skin=text-only

Labels: families, parenthood, social trends, work

3. "'That's racist' as a punch line"

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-0707-goldberg-20110707,0,1863723.story

Labels: racism, social trends

4. "the FSSP ... have a general indult to use both the 2nd confiteor and St. Joseph in the canon"

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/07/wdtprs-poll-the-2nd-confiteor/#comment-283797

Labels: F.S.S.P., T.L.M.

5. Ms Irvine and Mr. Penberthy on, among other things, marriage

I highlight here the two articles in question for some of the facts and figures which they report. From Ms Irvine:

... Two thirds of marriages in Australia are performed by civil celebrants rather than religious ministers. ... In the mid-1980s, 60 per cent of the population aged 15 and over were married. By the early noughties, this had fallen to 55 per cent.

The proportion of the population who will never marry increased from 29 per cent to 32 per cent.

Meanwhile, the probability of marriages ending in divorce has risen. The Bureau of Statistics estimates about 28 per cent of marriages entered into in the mid-1980s could be expected to end in divorce. By the early noughties, this had risen to 33 per cent. ...
[http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/equality-for-all-parents-straight-or-gay-20110701-1gv6u.html?skin=text-only]

Mr. Penberthy had more on the relative proportions of civilly- and religiously-celebrated weddings:

... ABS figures released this month show that religious wedding ceremonies are now very much in the minority for couples tying the knot. Almost two-thirds of all wedding ceremonies are now conducted by celebrants. In 1969, 90 per cent of couples opted for church weddings. In 1999 it was 50 per cent. In 2009 it was just 35 per cent. That’s a decline of 15 per cent in the space of one decade.
[http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/free-to-believe-in-god-free-to-keep-quiet-about-it/]

Labels: divorce, marriage, social trends

6. A new initiative for propagating the Darwinist worldview

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/big-history-to-give-students-big-picture/story-fn59niix-1226081625657

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/big-picture-showman-puts-history-lessons-up-in-lights/story-fn59niix-1226080801441

Labels: David Christian, education, evolution, history, secularism

7. More on 'sleeping rough' by the homeless

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), on Census night in 2006 the homeless population in Australia was 105,000. There are more than 27,000 living in NSW, a figure that has seen no decline since 1990 (ABS 2009).

The bureau’s most recent report on homelessness – Counting the Homeless, 2006 (which includes data from the 2006 Census and other sources, such as the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) – found that primary homelessness, such as ‘sleeping rough’ or in an improvised shelter, accounted for 16 per cent of all homelessness in Australia.
[http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=1&subclassID=2&articleID=8471&class=Latest
News&subclass=CW National]

See also the editorial:

http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=2&subclassID=6&articleID=8481&class=Comment&subclass=Editorial

(Again, I ask you not to jump to conclusions about why I'm posting this. And note that the inverted commas in this item's title are not scare quotes; I'm just following the usage of the linked article.)

Labels: homelessness, poverty

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. John Gualbert, Abbot, and of Sts. Nabor and Felix, Martyrs, A.D. 2011

Notes: Wednesday, June 22-Wednesday, June 29, 2011

1. A couple of items regarding women in the paid workforce

1.1 Mr. Thompson on several points regarding women in the paid workforce

Here is an excerpt from an article entitled "They have babies, pay them less" and which appeared on page three of the print edition of the Sydney Daily Telegraph on Friday, June 24, 2011:

Alasdair Thompson, chief execu-tive of the New Zealand Employers & Manufacturers' Association, also claimed women were less pro-ductive because they took career breaks to have babies.
"Why do they take the most sick leave? Women do in general. Why? Because once a month they have sick problems," Mr Thompson said during a live radio interview to argue against a law aimed at reducing the wage gap between men and women.
"The fact is women have babies, they take time out with their careers," he added, admitting his statements were "contentious".
[...] Mr Thompson later tried to hose down the controversy, apologising for his comments.
[dashes in the original, my square-bracketed ellipsis]

I wonder what the evidence is for whether women take more sick leave than men, whether, if they do indeed take more sick leave, it is because of women's problems, and whether maternity leave hampers women's productivity?

Related web-pages:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/gender-row-exec-has-a-point-expert/story-e6freuyi-1226081435028

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/kiwi-employers-head-castigated-over-claims-women-take-more-sick-days-than-men/story-e6frev00-1226080815733

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/new-zealand-employers-group-chief-says-women-dont-deserve-equal-pay/story-e6frg6so-1226080763729

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/kiwi-employers-head-castigated-over-claims-women-take-more-sick-days-than-men/story-e6frez7r-1226080755986

Labels: economics, gender differences, work

1.2 Some facts and figures regarding women in the paid workforce and children in childcare

http://www.smh.com.au/national/childcare-rebate-put-paid-to-staying-home-longer-20110624-1ghsr.html?skin=text-only

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/numbers-add-up-as-mothers-return-to-work-sooner-20110623-1ghjk.html?skin=text-only

Labels: economics, work, youngsters

2. Darwin on something which would invalidate his theory of evolution

This is an extract from a very small article entitled "Insights unveiled as Darwin's scribbles enter the digital era" and which appeared on page twenty-four of last weekend's (June 25-26, 2011) edition of The Sydney Morning Herald:

Darwin wrote alongside this: "If this ["that there were definite limits to the vari-ation of species"] were true adios theory."

Labels: evolution

3. "Russian Orthodox Church to tinker with its liturgy"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37841

Labels: R.O.C.

4. A couple of recent reported facts regarding the death penalty

4.1 "Since 1978, [Californian] voters have consistently opted to widen the capital punishment net so that the state now has the most sweeping laws in the country, with some 39 eligible crimes"

http://www.smh.com.au/world/executions-cost-300m-each-in-california-study-20110621-1gdfu.html?skin=text-only

Labels: death penalty

4.2 "Australia ... annually co-sponsors a resolution of the UN Human Rights Commission that calls for all nations to abolish [capital] punishment"

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/subtle-shifts-offer-hope-of-abolition-20110626-1glm2.html?skin=text-only

Labels: death penalty

5. "A Bibliography of the Current Crisis in the Catholic Church"

http://truerestoration.blogspot.com/2011/06/bibliography-of-current-crisis-in.html

That came to my attention via this AQ thread:

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37842

Labels: modernism, N.O.M., Vatican II

6. "Liechtenstein archbishop in Mass 'boycott'"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37862

Labels: Church and State

7. "Students get insight into Holocaust horrors"

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=26928

This bit was particularly evocative:

This year three Santa Maria College students ... prepared a liturgical movement in response to ... Walter Rapoport, Chairman of the Council of Christians and Jews Victoria.

(In the Australian Conciliar church, "liturgical movement" means liturgical dance.) It brings to mind pagan dancing girls swirling around an idol of "The Holocaust".

Labels: Jews

8. "Kremlin eliminates Putin challengers"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/kremlin-eliminates-putin-challengers/story-e6frg6so-1226080860884

Labels: Russia, Vladimir Putin

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, A.D. 2011

Notes: Tuesday, June 7-Tuesday, June 14, 2011

1. "Private prestige university on the way"--"reportedly being funded by millions of pounds from private investors secured by the eminent British philosopher A. C. Grayling"; "[f]ourteen leading academics are backing the project and will teach at the university, including evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins"

http://www.smh.com.au/world/private-prestige-university-on-the-way-20110605-1fnb2.html?skin=text-only

Labels: education, N.C.H.

2. Jewish-to-Catholic convert and State-of-Israel citizen named as a Prelate Auditor of the Roman Rota ("the Holy See’s highest appellate court")

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37641

http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2011/06/pope-appoints-fanatical-zionist-to.html

http://www.ucanews.com/2011/06/03/jewish-convert-named-to-top-vatican-role/

(The last of those three web-pages came to my attention via this CathNews page.)

Labels: David Jaeger, Roman Curia, State of Israel

3. Fr. Zuhlsdorf on, among other things, the myth of the origin of 'vernacular' Catholic liturgy

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/06/critics-of-the-new-corrected-translation-would-have-back-in-the-day-resisted-also-the-king-james-bible/

Labels: Latin, liturgy, vernacular

4. "Remarks [from a "Deputy Assistant Secretary" of the U.S. Department of State] for LGBT Pride"

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/rm/2011/165264.htm

(That web-page came to my attention via this comment at AQ.)

Labels: G.L.B.T., pride, U.S.A.

5. "[In The State of Israel,] there are more than 20 individual laws that discriminate between the Jewish and non-Jewish population"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/mandela-factor/story-fn558imw-1226073258456

Labels: discrimination, Jews, State of Israel

6. An article on evolution which (article) contains some interesting points from a Creationist perspective

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/a-grey-matter-of-size-brains-arent-what-they-used-to-be/story-e6frg8y6-1226073980121

Labels: evolution, neuroscience

7. Four viewpoints on whether "people [should] be able to use the sperm or eggs of their dead partner"

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/should-people-be-able-to-use-the-sperm-or-eggs-of-their-dead-partner-20110603-1fkir.html?skin=text-only

Labels: I.V.F., medicine, morality

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Pentecost Tuesday, A.D. 2011

Notes: Saturday, July 31 to Tuesday, August 3, 2010

"Probe into 54 baby deaths rejected by Victorian Parliament"

http://members7.boardhost.com/CathPews/thread/1280475251.html

Mr. Warner on the problems with Anglicanorum coetibus

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32847

Counterpoint to "Neuroscience suggests heterosexual monogamy is best"

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/were-just-swingers-after-all-20100730-10zsn.html?skin=text-only

I link to the article in question because it's wise to be aware of the arguments which opponents of the natural law and its dictates in these matters will raise, though the article is rather weak and unbalanced--the author cites double the number of pro-polyamory/polyamory-sympathetic sources relative to anti-polyamory sources, and he fails to ask the obvious question of how even in the (false) Darwinian account of man's origins it can be the case that nature would select for behaviour which, by fuelling 'sexually-transmissible infections' (as I understand the correct term now is), is at least in that way destructive of the species. One doesn't have to be an expert for that problem to occur to him, and the journalist's apparent failure to think of it is all the more inexcusable given this extract from his article:

Rather than jealousy (which in severe cases, can be treated, Ford says, "like a phobia"), polyamorous people are said to experience something they call "compersion", which means, in simple terms, to take pleasure in your partner's pleasure. Such an arrangement is reasonably common among gay male couples, who, as Ryan writes, recognise that "additional relationships need not be taken as indictments of anyone".

Well you know what else is 'reasonably common among gay male couples'? Genital warts. Syphilis. H.I.V./A.I.D.S. (see ACON's website for more). For a more critical response (though one with which I still don't fully agree, because of its Darwinist perpective) see the letter entitled "Multiple partners may be natural, but so is arsenic" in the letters section of today's Herald.

"There's no harm done being a working mum"

"MUMS can return to work within a year of giving birth without harming their babies' development, a landmark report shows."
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/theres-no-harm-done-being-a-working-mum/story-e6frf7l6-1225899728657

I want to keep that article for future reference, though as you might expect I dispute the findings (well, except for things like "[w]orking mums have higher income, ... than their stay-at-home counterparts"--they needed a thousand-child study to tell them that mothers earning money earn more money than mothers not earning money?!).

Findings of a study on I.V.F.-conceived children's health risk factors

From the Pulse column in the Health section of last Saturday's edition of The Weekend Australian's Weekend Professional supplement:

Bad week for . . . [sic]

CHILDREN conceived by IVF: Swedish research indicates they have an increased risk of cancer. The study followed 26,692 children born after IVF during 1982-2005. These children had 1.42 times the risk of developing cancer than children not conceived after IVF. That risk equated to 53 cases, compared with an expected figure of 38. High birth weight and premature delivery were among other risk factors found by the study, online in the journal Pediatrics.

Pediatrics

2010;doi:10.1542/peds.2009-3225

(Kallen B, et al)
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/good-week-for-mothers-pregnancy/story-e6frg8y6-1225898707091]

Reginaldvs Cantvar
3.VIII.2010

Notes: Wednesday, July 14, 2010

More on the firing of a Catholic university lecturer for stating--simply stating, apparently regardless of whether he agreed or disagreed with it--Catholic/natural-law doctrine on morality

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32491
http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32436
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=22376

According to those reports (this quotation comes from the last of the three),

An unidentified student sent an e-mail to religion department head Robert McKim on May 13, calling Howell's e-mail "hate speech." The student claimed to be a friend of the offended student. The writer said in the e-mail that his friend wanted to remain anonymous.

"Teaching a student about the tenets of a religion is one thing," the student wrote. "Declaring that homosexual acts violate the natural laws of man is another."

So apparently Dr. Howell was not, as I suggested in yesterday's edition of Notes, fired for openly agreeing with the natural law's prohibition of sodomy, but simply for stating it! Of course, the problem with the complainant's objection is: What if "the tenets of a [certain] religion" declare "that homosexual acts violate the natural laws of [more precisely, the natural law pertaining to/binding on] man"?

More on Church of England moves towards having ladybishops

http://www.smh.com.au/world/church-of-england-paves-way-for-female-bishops-20100713-109ha.html?skin=text-only
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=22378

New A.B.C. Religion and Ethics portal

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=22379

U.R.L. for the portal: http://www.abc.net.au/religion/

H.H. The Pope declares "Religious freedom, the path to peace" to be the theme for the 2011 World Day of Peace

The only item in today's Vatican Information Service e-mail bulletin:

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, THE PATH TO PEACE

VATICAN CITY, 13 JUL 2010 (VIS) - "Religious freedom, the path to peace" is the theme chosen by Pope Benedict XVI for the celebration of the 2011 World Day of Peace.

"The World Day of Peace", reads a communique on the subject released today, "will therefore be dedicated to the theme of religious freedom. It is well known that in many parts of the world there are various forms of restriction or denial of religious freedom, from discrimination and marginalisation based on religion, to acts of violence against religious minorities".

"Religious freedom is authentically realised when it is experienced as the coherent search for truth and for the truth about man. This approach to religious freedom offers us a fundamental criterion for discerning the phenomenon of religion and its expressions. It necessarily rejects the 'religiosity' of fundamentalism, and the manipulation of truth and of the truth about man. Since such distortions are opposed to the dignity of man and to the search for truth, they cannot be considered as religious freedom".

The communique recalls words Benedict XVI's pronounced before the United Nations General Assembly in 2008: "Human rights, of course, must include the right to religious freedom, understood as the expression of a dimension that is at once individual and communitarian - a vision that brings out the unity of the person while clearly distinguishing between the dimension of the citizen and that of the believer".

The text continues: "Today there are many areas of the world in which forms of restrictions and limitations to religious freedom persist, both where communities of believers are a minority, and where communities of believers are not a minority, and where more sophisticated forms of discrimination and marginalisation exist, on the cultural level and in the spheres of public, civil and political activity. 'It is inconceivable', as Benedict XVI remarked, 'that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves - their faith - in order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one's rights. The rights associated with religion are all the more in need of protection if they are considered to clash with a prevailing secular ideology or with majority religious positions of an exclusive nature'".

The communique concludes by highlighting how "man cannot be fragmented, and separated from what he believes, because that in which he believes has an impact on his life and on his person. 'Refusal to recognise the contribution to society that is rooted in the religious dimension and in the quest for the Absolute - by its nature, expressing communion between persons - would effectively privilege an individualistic approach, and would fragment the unity of the person'. It is for this reason that: 'Religious Freedom is the Path to Peace'".
.../ VIS 20100713 (470)

Sad. Fortunately this is only an act of the Ordinary Magisterium; for the teaching of the Ordinary and Universal--and hence infallible--Magisterium, see the comments by "Pax Vobiscum" at this AQ thread on the matter of the 2011 World Day of Peace theme.

Interesting AQ thread on Creationism:

Particularly the comments by "Blandina":

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32468

Reginaldvs Cantvar

Feast of St. Bonaventure, Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of the Church, A.D. 2010

On a worthy attempt to advance the Catholic case against evolution

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0805667.htm

I read an interesting C.N.S. article, carried in yesterday’s Sydney Catholic Weekly, about what seems to be an otherwise unpublicised gathering of Catholic scientists opposed to the evolutionists’ account of the origins of the human race:

One group of detractors [from the Darwinian account of man’s origins] came to Rome Nov. 3 to offer its opinions and evidence that Darwin's theories of natural selection and the appearance of complex organisms out of simpler beings are outdated, erroneous hypotheses that prevent the discovery of the real origins of life and humanity.

With the help of Hugh Owen, founder and director of the U.S.-based Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation, the French-based Center for Studies and Prospective on Science organized a conference dedicated to "A Scientific Critique of Evolution."

The French center invited five Catholic scientists to reveal "the bankruptcy of the evolutionary hypothesis," said a Kolbe Center press release.

Via a Google search I found a bit more information. Apparently the dissenters’ conference was to be hosted by Rome’s La Sapienza University and its five speakers were:

• Guy Berthault, on ‘Experiments in Stratification do not support the Theory of Evolution’
• Josef Holzschuh, on ‘The Second Law of Thermodynamics and Evolution’
• Pierre Rabischong, on ‘The Concept of Evolution in Biology’
• Jean de Pontcharra, on ‘Are Radio-dating Methods reliable?’
• and Maciej Giertych, on ‘Impact of Research on Race Formation and Mutations on the Theory of Evolution’
  (http://www.knightsofourlady.org/Newsletters/Hugh_Owen_Flyer.pdf)

Interestingly, one of the scientists speaking at the conference was from Australia, according to a letter from the Kolbe Centre’s director, Dr. Hugh Owen, posted at the Catholic Answers Forum: http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?p=4307503. Does anyone know any more about the proceedings of this conference? I’d be particularly interested in knowing who the Australian participant is.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop, Confessor, 2008 A.D.