At first glance the idea of Fundamentalist relativism might seem strange. After all they believe in the inerrancy and literal truth of their holy book. They are right everyone else is wrong and because they believe so must you. Pretty absolutist so far, but watch what happens when the subject of creationism arises.

When seeking to get access to the classroom and thus the minds of the young creationists will start moaning about the tyranny scientific orthodoxy and insist that Darwinian evolution is “just a theory” and thus we can have alternative theories (Einstein’s theory of relativity is also “just a theory” but do they really doubt it?).

Epistemologically speaking this is relativism. Evolution is massively supported by the evidence and discoveries after Darwin died (most notably DNA) have only confirmed it. 150 years on from the publication of the Origin evolution has stood up to everything its opponents have thrown at it and come through with flying colours to be at the core of our understanding of biology, virology and so on – quite an achievement. The ideas proffered by creationists on the other hand are not tested and not testable (how does one prove that a god did anything without first proving that this god exists?) they fail to account for what evolution accounts for and we cannot make predictions based on it. Evolution can explain the emergence of new diseases, just in the last couple of decades Ebola, SARS, bird flu and swine flu have all come into existence where previously they did not exist; creationism cannot account for this fact. Evolution tells us that the emergence of new types of life is based on genetic mutations that are favourable to the organism thus we worry about whether bird flu will mutate so that human to human transmission is possible and attempt to make drugs to attack the virus. Creationism leaves us with an intellectually crippling ‘it must be God’s wrath’ non-explanation.

There are many other examples of the power of evolution’s explanations and predictions but the point is made. Creationism just can’t compete yet its proponents insist that it be given equal weighting in the science classroom with evolution. “There are other ways of knowing!” “Teach the controversy!” we hear. The assumption being that religion is just as good at explaining the natural world as science. Evidence be damned, equal time is the demand. Yet this is a call to set unproved and unprovable religious ideas alongside well tested and supported science as being equal as theories and thus equally true – the basis for this call is an a priori belief that the faithful are right and everyone else is wrong. You put in absolutism at one end and you get relativism at the other, the very thing Fundamentalists decry.

Strangely creationism has its secular defenders in the science studies area of the sociology departments of certain universities, their chief argument being the ‘imperialism of science’ in disproving alternative explanations. The most notable of these unusual people is Professor Steve Fuller of the University of Warwick. You can read more about these guys here.

As Richard Dawkins asked “if science is just a patriarchal western orthodoxy why is it that delegates going to a conference overseas on cultural relativism go by plane and not by magic carpet?”

I hasten to add most Christians are not creationists. However the ones who are are sufficient in number to be a problem, especially in the US where 40% of people claim to have been born again and a majority think the world is only about 6000 years old.

This week they have a stand-in host in the ACT Director Ben Williams. They rehash what he does and he tries to be more factual and less hyperbolic than the regular co-hosts.

Human Rights forum in Parliament House

Three days of consultations were held in Parliament House last week. They rehash what a Charter of Rights is and why they don’t like it. They mention Victoria and how it’s supposedly effecting their exemptions. This stuff has been discussed so many times before I won’t go into it further.

Jim Wallace’s talking points were that he was sceptical about whether a Charter would actually protect rights (mentioning that Victoria’s and the ACT’s Charter doesn’t give blastocytes a right to life is as much as he could muster on this point) and that it would be an activist’s Charter. He mentioned that some in the UK call their Charter a criminal’s Charter, his fear is that activist groups here like people who think that religion should not be able to impose its moral codes on others would be able to challenge unjust laws that are currently on the books.

No action.

Greens’ Marriage Equality Bill

A Galaxy poll last week found that 60% of Australians now support equal marriage (a fact that naturally they don’t mention) up from just 46% 5years ago. To give a bit of traction to the poll Senator Hanson-Young from South Australia as put up a private member’s Bill in the Senate to bring in marriage equality in Australia, similar to one that was put up a couple of years ago by then Senator Kerry Nettle (also from the Greens).

After a brief summary of the Bill they try to justify their position opposing it by a slippery slope argument asking why not allow polygamy after all people in polygamous relations might love each other too. The difference is of course there is a power imbalance in polygamous relationships that reinforces patriarchy and as numerous cases in the US show they are often very deleterious for both the women and the children in these relationships.

The will be a Senate enquiry about the Bill and they encourage people to make submissions where they start taking them.

Euthanasia Enquiry in Tasmania

There’s a Parliamentary enquiry in to euthanasia in Tasmania as a result of a Greens Bill seeking to legalise it. We get a snide comment from one of the regular presenters that the Greens seem to be less about trees and more about “undermining marriage and family” and “important issues of life” – not exactly a comment consistent with their claim to be partisan.

The deadline for submissions is 31st July and they want people to go to their website where they will have a campaign running on the issue. Non Tasmanians can also put in a submission.

A New Book on Girls’ Sexualisation

A new book called “Getting Real – Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls” is coming out in September on the sexualisation girls edited by a Director of the Christian Right lobby group the Women’s Forum of Australia, Melinda Tankard Reist.

After extolling Melinda they urge people to buy the book (cash for comment perhaps?). What they don’t mention is that the publisher of the book, Spinifex Press is run by Susan Hawthorne and Renate Klein, the latter being one of the best-known and longest-established 'pro-life feminists' in Australia. Interestingly they often publish books by lesbians 'across fiction, non-fiction and poetry’; something that I’m sure would horrify most of the listeners to the podcast.

New Delhi's High Court has issued a ruling that said the section of India's Penal Code that criminalised homosexuality (S377) was a violation of fundamental rights and unconstitutional. The laws were drafted by the British 150 years ago. Law minister Veerappa Moily said that the government would have to “examine the verdict” in which the Court recommended the formal abolition of Section 377 as it is unconstitutional.

The joy on this man's face says it all:

This week’s show partially continues in the vein of trying to show they care about things besides abortion, stem cell research and gay rights.

Asylum Seekers Being Charged for Their Stay on Christmas Island

Like me and I dare say most other Australians the ACL had no idea that our government was charging people $120 a day to stay in detention camps while they are being processed and had been doing so for 17 years when Keating was Prime Minister. Like me and I dare say most other Australians they were shocked to hear about it especially since it can leave people with debts of up to $45,000 – debts most people simply couldn’t afford to pay. 97% of all debts were not paid and it was costing fortune to get the remaining 3%.

They quote Petro Georgiou when he said “we don’t change drug deals, paedophiles or the most sadistic of murderers for their time in gaol and make them pay for that out of their own pocket, so why are we imposing this draconian regime on asylum seekers?” They point out how and unjustified and punitive this is.

They try to walk a fine line by keeping their Liberal supporters on side by saying we do need strong boarder protection but we need to be compassionate to people in detention.

Then we get the Right Wing bullshit that presumes that if you are seeking asylum you have to be poor, if you arrive on a plane in Indonesia you can’t possibly be fleeing your country in fear of your life, noooooo you’re too rich. It just shows where these guys belong politically – however non-partisan they pretend to be.

No action.

Fallout from the Auscar Affair

Like they say, pretty much all of the time Parliament sat last week was devoted to this stupid issue and serious debates on climate change were postponed until the spring session because Malcolm Turnbull didn’t check his sources. They try to say everyone looked bad at the end of it, again showing themselves to be true blue Libs since there was universal agreement in the press, even amongst those commentators who are ardently pro-Liberal that Turnbull stuffed up big time.

No action.

New Homelessness Enquiry

The Federal Government commissioned a White Paper on homelessness in Australia last year. As a result of this, the relevant standing committee of the House of Reps has set up an enquiry that is seeking input on new homelessness legislation and supported accommodation. Submissions are due by 14^th August.

No action.

British Judge Calls for Action to Stop Family Breakdowns

A Judge in England has called for a national commission to tackle family breakdowns and a stigma to be attached to the break-up of relationships and they tie this in with claims by a British sociologist they had at their annual conference last year who said basically strong families equals happy, wealthy communities and weak ones equal poor, unhappy communities. This of course is an extremely Right Wing analysis because it then shifts the emphasis from where should be – on what action the state can take to fix the problem and privatises social ills in an extremely simplistic manner (‘get your marriage sorted out and all will be well’). Then we get the saccharine closing comment that ‘of course we’re not judging people whose relationships have broken down’…perish the thought!

No action.

Equality Bill in Britain

I knew it couldn’t last, they had to revert to form sooner of later. A new Bill in England proposes to comprehensively ban discrimination. They claim the Bill could ban the display of crucifixes and religious symbols in hospitals, given their previous lies about tobacco advertising in Canada I find myself rather sceptical about this claim. The Bill also would remove the exemptions from anti-discrimination legislation for faith schools. Faith schools can no longer discriminate against gay and lesbian Britons (which makes sense, not just on its merits but also when you consider that fully 1/3 of schools in Britain are faith schools thanks to the policies of Tony Blair) the Bill seeks to widen it so that they can’t discriminate on the basis of faith. Naturally they have a bit of whinge about this.

No action.

They close by telling us they’ve got 14,000 signatures against a Charter of Rights, it seems to be petering out.

40 years ago this week the Stonewall Riots gave birth to the gay liberation movement. The tremendous success of what has been accomplished by activists and allies all over the world truly can only be described as a revolution. I think it only fitting celebrate this anniversary by quoting the speech given by Michael Kirby, then a Justice of the High Court of Australia at the opening of the Gay Games in Sydney in 2002:

Under different stars, at the beginning of a new millennium, in an old land and a young nation, we join together in the hope and conviction that the future will be kinder and more just than the past.

At a time when there is so much fear and danger, anger and destruction, this event represents an alternative vision struggling for the soul of humanity. Acceptance. Diversity. Inclusiveness. Participation. Tolerance and joy. Ours is the world of love, questing to find the common links that bind all people. We are here because, whatever our sexuality, we believe that the days of exclusion are numbered. In our world, everyone can find their place, where their human rights and human dignity will be upheld.

This is a great night for Australia because we are a nation in the process of reinventing ourselves. We began our modern history by denying the existence of our indigenous peoples and their rights. We embraced White Australia. Women could play little part in public life: their place was in the kitchen. And as for gays, lesbians and other sexual minorities, they were an abomination. Lock them up. Throw away the key.

We have not corrected all these wrongs. But we are surely on the road to enlightenment. There will be no U-turns.

Little did my partner Johan and I think, thirty years ago, as we danced the night away at the Purple Onion, less than a mile from this place, that we would be at the opening of a Gay Games with the Queen's Representative and all of you to bear witness to such a social revolution. Never did we think we would be dancing together in a football stadium. And with the Governor. And that the Governor would be a woman! True, we rubbed shoulders on the dance floor with Knights of the Realm, such as Sir Robert Helpmann and with a future Premier, such as Don Dunstan. But if an angel had tapped us on our youthful shoulders and told us of tonight we would have said "Impossible". Well, nothing is impossible to the human spirit. Scientific truth always ultimately prevails. So here we are tonight, men and women, indigenous and newcomers, black and white, Australians and visitors, religious and atheist, young and not so young, straight and gay - together.

It is put best by Corey Czok, an Australian basketballer in these Games:
"It's good to be able to throw out the stereotypes - we're not all sissies, we don't all look the same and we're not all pretty!"

His last comment may be disputed. Real beauty lies in the fact that we are united not in the negatives of hate and exclusion, so common today, but in the positives of love and inclusion.

The changes over thirty years would not have happened if it had not been for people of courage who rejected the common ignorance about sexuality. Who taught that variations are a normal and universal aspect of the human species. That they are not going away. That they are no big deal. And that, between consenting adults, we all just have to get used to it and get on with life.

The people of courage certainly include Oscar Wilde. His suffering, his interpretation of it and the ordeal of many others have bought the changes for us. I would include Alfred Kinsey. In the midst of the McCarthyist era in the United States he, and those who followed him, dared to investigate the real facts about human sexual diversity. In Australia, I would also include, as heroes, politicians of every major party, most of them heterosexual. Over thirty years, they have dismantled many of the unequal laws. But the first of them was Don Dunstan. He proved, once again, the astonishing fact that good things sometimes occur when the dancing stops.

I would also add Rodney Croome and Nick Toonen. They took Australia to the United Nations to get rid of the last criminal laws against gay men in Tasmania. Now the decision in their case stands for the whole world. I would include Neal Blewett who led Australia's first battles against AIDS. Robyn Archer, Kerryn Phelps, Ian Roberts and many, many others.

But this is not just an Australian story. In every land a previously frightened and oppressed minority is awakening from a long sleep to assert its human dignity. We should honour those who looked into themselves and spoke the truth. Now they are legion. It is the truth that makes us free.

I think of Tom Waddell, the inspired founder of the Gay Games. His last words in this life were: "This should be interesting". Look around. What an under-statement. I think of Greg Louganis, twice Olympic gold medallist, who came out as gay and HIV positive and said that it was the Gay Games that emboldened him to tell it as it was. I think of Mark Bingham, a rowdy Rugby player. He would have been with us tonight. But he lost his life in one of the planes downed on 11 September 2001, struggling to save the lives of others. He was a real hero.

Je pense a Bertrand Delanoe, le maire ouvertement gay de Paris, poignarde a l'Hotel de Ville au course de la Nuit Blanche. Il a fait preuve d'un tres grand courage - et il est un homme exceptionnel. When the gay Mayor of Paris was stabbed by a homophobe he commanded the party at which it happened to "Dance Till Dawn". Do that in his honour tonight. And in honour of the Cairo 52; the Sister movement in Namibia; Al Fatiha - the organisation for Gay Moslems and many others struggling for their human rights.

And I think of all of you who come together on this magical night to affirm the fundamental unity of all human beings. To reject ignorance, hatred and error. And to embrace love, which is the ultimate foundation of all human rights.

Let the word go out from Sydney and the Gay Games of 2002 that the movement for equality is unstoppable. Its message will eventually reach the four corners of the world. These Games will be another catalyst to help make that happen. Be sure that, in the end, inclusion will replace exclusion. For the sake of the planet and of humanity it must be so.

Amusez-vous bien. Et par l'exemple de nos vies defendons les droits de l'humanite pour tous. Non seulement pour les gays. Pour tout le monde.
Enjoy yourselves. And by our lives let us be an example of respect for human rights. Not just for gays. For everyone.

We get a glimpse of the ideology behind the ACL, an ideology that has nothing to with the bible and everything to do with a Right-Wing agenda masquerading as religion.

Youth in Crisis – Department of Community Services

They comment on recent reports about youth homelessness and youth mental health problems and the high percentage of the homeless among the young.

What they don’t mention of course is the very high percentage of homeless youth that are GLBTI and the specific policies that are needed to tackle homelessness in this group after all we wouldn’t want to legitimise their ‘lifestyle’ would we?

They say that this all boils down to divorce rates – if everyone got married and stayed married we’d solve these problems thereby individualising collective problems and exculpating the government from having to act. This of course is in line with the Hobsian ‘you’re all on your own’ philosophy that many Fundamentalists espouse.

Also we’re told that even though neither of the presenters is a psychologist that they know the source of mental health problems is a sexualised society and substance abuse, once again we’re told that they’re not psychologists but too many kids are missing out on self esteem that apparently can only be built up by two parents who married to each other. After all it’s not like they need any evidence for these claims we just know don’t we?

It seems incongruous that they should suddenly be blaming the bureaucracy and looking to the state government to do something given that they think it’s all a matter for individual families.

No action.

Changes to Help Sex Slaves

Changes to the law will now mean that the approximately 1000 women who are trafficked as sex slaves to Australia each year will not be sent back to their countries if they don’t want to; an excellent thing. They use this to argue that brothels should not be legal (failing to mention that the vast majority of sex workers are Australians) and talk about the Swedish model.

No action.

Update on the Charter of Rights

The petition they have running against a Charter has garnered 13,500 signatures and they want it to be the biggest petition ever or at least the third biggest (last year a petition is support of equal marriage got 30,000 signatures so they’ve got a way to go yet).