I see that my comment in response to the media release by Catch The Fire Ministries - in which CTFM's Danny Nalliah blamed the Victorian bushfires on liberalisation of abortion laws - has still not appeared. I'm not the only one: I'd be willing to bet that CTFM has been inundated with dozens or hundreds of unwanted responses, condemning its callous, opportunistic exploitation of this tragedy.
I wonder whether they'll ever appear.
About Me
- Russell Blackford
- Australian philosopher, literary critic, legal scholar, and professional writer. Based in Newcastle, NSW. My latest books are THE TYRANNY OF OPINION: CONFORMITY AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM (2019); AT THE DAWN OF A GREAT TRANSITION: THE QUESTION OF RADICAL ENHANCEMENT (2021); and HOW WE BECAME POST-LIBERAL: THE RISE AND FALL OF TOLERATION (2024).
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Fundies blame abortion laws for bushfires
Pastor Danny Nalliah of Catch The Fire Ministries (CTFM) has suggested that the tragic bushfires in Victoria were a consequence of the Victorian parliament's recent decision to legalise abortion. I quote from the media release:
CTFM leader, Pastor Danny Nalliah said he would spearhead an effort to provide every assistance to devastated communities, although he was not surprised by the bush fires due to a dream he had last October relating to consequences of the abortion laws passed in Victoria.
He said these bushfires have come as a result of the incendiary abortion laws which decimate life in the womb. Besides providing material assistance, CTFM will commence a seven day prayer and fasting campaign for the nation of Australia tomorrow Wednesday the 11th February.
You can read the rest of this nauseating drivel for yourself. I made a comment on CTFM's website, which was still "in moderation" last I looked. I'll quote it here, just in case in disappears. Before I come to that, though, regular readers of this blog will be aware that CTFM is the organisation that was taken to court over alleged vilification of Muslims, and got bogged down in complex litigation with the Islamic Council of Victoria. In my opinion, the case that was pursued and the legislation under which it was pursued were both misguided. I support freedom of speech even for fundamentalist organisations such as CTFM. It doesn't mean I have to like them. My comment:
Mate, I’m another person whose support you had in the religious vilification case. I do support your freedom of speech. You are free to come out with the morally repugnant garbage in this media release, and I’ll defend your right to do so - just as I reserve my right to name it for what it is.
CTFM leader, Pastor Danny Nalliah said he would spearhead an effort to provide every assistance to devastated communities, although he was not surprised by the bush fires due to a dream he had last October relating to consequences of the abortion laws passed in Victoria.
He said these bushfires have come as a result of the incendiary abortion laws which decimate life in the womb. Besides providing material assistance, CTFM will commence a seven day prayer and fasting campaign for the nation of Australia tomorrow Wednesday the 11th February.
You can read the rest of this nauseating drivel for yourself. I made a comment on CTFM's website, which was still "in moderation" last I looked. I'll quote it here, just in case in disappears. Before I come to that, though, regular readers of this blog will be aware that CTFM is the organisation that was taken to court over alleged vilification of Muslims, and got bogged down in complex litigation with the Islamic Council of Victoria. In my opinion, the case that was pursued and the legislation under which it was pursued were both misguided. I support freedom of speech even for fundamentalist organisations such as CTFM. It doesn't mean I have to like them. My comment:
Mate, I’m another person whose support you had in the religious vilification case. I do support your freedom of speech. You are free to come out with the morally repugnant garbage in this media release, and I’ll defend your right to do so - just as I reserve my right to name it for what it is.
Sky Marsen on future identities
One of the articles in the current issue of The Global Spiral is Sky Marsen's "Conceptualizing Future Identities", which would be worth reading solely for its interesting reinterpretation of the movie GATTACA, usually taken as a dire warning about the use of advanced genetic technology.
While the dystopian ambitions of GATTACA are obvious, there are other points that can be made. Since GATTACA is a favourite text for senior high school students, it would be nice if they were directed to Sky's discussion, which concludes as follows:
The film shows what might happen with technological advancement, if other factors (especially discursive and conceptual factors) are not updated to keep up with this advancement. It does this through the textual strategy of constructing a society where genetic engineering has progressed considerably since the late 20th century, but where everything else seems to be lagging. For example, the definition of "physically fit" remains exactly the same as the one used in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Vincent is barred from his desired profession because he is deemed to be not physically fit. Yet, after a while one begins to wonder why he needs perfect vision and a strong heart for the kinds of tasks his job requires. The fact that he succeeds in them, despite his "defects," shows that the definition of the agent does not match the actions of the agent. It is also interesting that "keeping fit" is still imaged as running on a treadmill, which suggests that concepts and metaphors of physicality have not changed. So, another valuable lesson of the story is the importance of the ways people think and talk about things (as manifest in concepts, definitions, metaphors, and other discursive strategies), in enabling new forms of identity to emerge.
While the dystopian ambitions of GATTACA are obvious, there are other points that can be made. Since GATTACA is a favourite text for senior high school students, it would be nice if they were directed to Sky's discussion, which concludes as follows:
The film shows what might happen with technological advancement, if other factors (especially discursive and conceptual factors) are not updated to keep up with this advancement. It does this through the textual strategy of constructing a society where genetic engineering has progressed considerably since the late 20th century, but where everything else seems to be lagging. For example, the definition of "physically fit" remains exactly the same as the one used in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Vincent is barred from his desired profession because he is deemed to be not physically fit. Yet, after a while one begins to wonder why he needs perfect vision and a strong heart for the kinds of tasks his job requires. The fact that he succeeds in them, despite his "defects," shows that the definition of the agent does not match the actions of the agent. It is also interesting that "keeping fit" is still imaged as running on a treadmill, which suggests that concepts and metaphors of physicality have not changed. So, another valuable lesson of the story is the importance of the ways people think and talk about things (as manifest in concepts, definitions, metaphors, and other discursive strategies), in enabling new forms of identity to emerge.
Monday, February 09, 2009
Driving through smoke
Jenny and I have just spent a week in Newcastle, the city where we grew up and met, and where many of our loved ones still live. We have a vague (but increasingly less so) plan of shifting back there some time late this year.
Thus, we were 1000 kilometres away during the worst of the fires in Victoria over the weekend. When we're up in Newcastle, we tend not to be spending time watching TV or listening to the radio, or keeping abreast of things on the Internet, so we can get quite a few hours behind with the news. Although we knew that there were bushfires in Victoria (and, indeed, in New South Wales), we had no idea of the scale of what was happening. Of course, no one outside the affected areas really started to grasp the enormity of it until Sunday morning as the confirmed death toll started to mount.
On Saturday, we visited my father for a long chat over morning tea. Afterwards, we checked our emails and did some business over the net, then spent a while looking at houses in our current quest to get a good understanding of the Newcastle property market. We had a late lunch, spent a relaxing afternoon avoiding the summer heat, then went out in the evening, accompanied by lovely Amanda Pitcairn, to a local Japanese restaurant. During all this time, we pretty much avoided the news. We only started to get an idea on the Sunday morning.
Sunday was our day to drive back to Melbourne. We got past Sydney just fine, but had some car trouble during the afternoon - our old but normally reliable car has been overheating - and the result was that we didn't get as far as Gundagai until late in the day. The morning papers and the news reports on New South Wales radio stations were still not giving us a picture of the full scale of the tragedy that had been unfolding in Victoria, and Jenny's sister texted us a report that the Hume Highway was clear after having been cut at some point. As far as our own safety was concerned, we were confident, but we were getting more of an inkling of how bad things were.
The scene as we drove into the famous "Dog on the Tuckerbox" service station/fast food complex near Gundagai was eerie. The sky was filled with smoke and the western sun - still relatively high in the sky, with sunset at least an hour away - shone through blood red. We were driving into Mordor.
Running so late, we didn't approach the Victorian border until near-dark, the sun transforming to a pale purple-pink - very like a ball of burning gas, actually - as it sank behind the hills. We drove south through Victoria, peering through the dark and the smoke - never thick enough to be dangerous, but enough for us to smell it and see it was there - listening to Victorian ABC on the car radio. By now, we were getting a rolling report on the disaster; our ears were pricked for any warnings that suggested we might be in personal danger as we cruised down the highway (we weren't). At this stage, the worst was long over - temperatures had dropped from their Saturday peaks, many of the fires were under control, and we were travelling through the aftermath of the disaster, not the disaster itself. Still, as we listened to the rising count of confirmed deaths, the lists of school and road closures, the reports on events relating to particular fires and localities (oddly similar to an election-night round-up of local battles lost and won in electorates hither and thither), it was a sombre experience. Again and again, we hummed down long stretches of road without saying a word, just absorbing what the voices on the radio were telling us.
A couple of millimetres of nuisance rain fell. Truckies drove like maniacs on the empty road. Two or three bolts of lightning from a dry electrical storm split the sky near Shepparton. We stopped now and then, taking things easy after the particularly difficult drive between Sydney and Gundagai, what with our distracting car troubles. We were tired but not at all cranky, often communicating with just a hand on the other's knee. Fortunately, the old Integra was now performing just fine in the somewhat cooler air of the evening.
At about 1 a.m. on Monday morning, we arrived home safely ... never having been in any personal danger or having felt any real concern for ourselves. But what do you say in such situations? What can I add to what has already been said many times? Of course, there have been far worse disasters in other parts of the world, with enormously greater loss of life. But there is still something especially sobering when you come close to the disaster yourself (we would have had real difficulty getting home 24 hours before, and we nodded to each other as we passed burnt areas along the road, before it became too dark and we could see no more than the occasional glowing ember). There's something that especially affects your emotions when it's your own society that's been harmed, and the people killed are almost your neighbours.
It's all grim, but for those who've been wondering, we personally were never endangered by the fires, and we're completely safe now, no matter what happens this week, living in the middle of a huge international city.
But of course, we're keenly aware of all the less fortunate people, out in the countryside, not that far away from us city mice. So many have lost loved ones or family homes, lived through unimaginable terror or survived with awful burns or other wounds. My thoughts are with them this summer morning.
Thus, we were 1000 kilometres away during the worst of the fires in Victoria over the weekend. When we're up in Newcastle, we tend not to be spending time watching TV or listening to the radio, or keeping abreast of things on the Internet, so we can get quite a few hours behind with the news. Although we knew that there were bushfires in Victoria (and, indeed, in New South Wales), we had no idea of the scale of what was happening. Of course, no one outside the affected areas really started to grasp the enormity of it until Sunday morning as the confirmed death toll started to mount.
On Saturday, we visited my father for a long chat over morning tea. Afterwards, we checked our emails and did some business over the net, then spent a while looking at houses in our current quest to get a good understanding of the Newcastle property market. We had a late lunch, spent a relaxing afternoon avoiding the summer heat, then went out in the evening, accompanied by lovely Amanda Pitcairn, to a local Japanese restaurant. During all this time, we pretty much avoided the news. We only started to get an idea on the Sunday morning.
Sunday was our day to drive back to Melbourne. We got past Sydney just fine, but had some car trouble during the afternoon - our old but normally reliable car has been overheating - and the result was that we didn't get as far as Gundagai until late in the day. The morning papers and the news reports on New South Wales radio stations were still not giving us a picture of the full scale of the tragedy that had been unfolding in Victoria, and Jenny's sister texted us a report that the Hume Highway was clear after having been cut at some point. As far as our own safety was concerned, we were confident, but we were getting more of an inkling of how bad things were.
The scene as we drove into the famous "Dog on the Tuckerbox" service station/fast food complex near Gundagai was eerie. The sky was filled with smoke and the western sun - still relatively high in the sky, with sunset at least an hour away - shone through blood red. We were driving into Mordor.
Running so late, we didn't approach the Victorian border until near-dark, the sun transforming to a pale purple-pink - very like a ball of burning gas, actually - as it sank behind the hills. We drove south through Victoria, peering through the dark and the smoke - never thick enough to be dangerous, but enough for us to smell it and see it was there - listening to Victorian ABC on the car radio. By now, we were getting a rolling report on the disaster; our ears were pricked for any warnings that suggested we might be in personal danger as we cruised down the highway (we weren't). At this stage, the worst was long over - temperatures had dropped from their Saturday peaks, many of the fires were under control, and we were travelling through the aftermath of the disaster, not the disaster itself. Still, as we listened to the rising count of confirmed deaths, the lists of school and road closures, the reports on events relating to particular fires and localities (oddly similar to an election-night round-up of local battles lost and won in electorates hither and thither), it was a sombre experience. Again and again, we hummed down long stretches of road without saying a word, just absorbing what the voices on the radio were telling us.
A couple of millimetres of nuisance rain fell. Truckies drove like maniacs on the empty road. Two or three bolts of lightning from a dry electrical storm split the sky near Shepparton. We stopped now and then, taking things easy after the particularly difficult drive between Sydney and Gundagai, what with our distracting car troubles. We were tired but not at all cranky, often communicating with just a hand on the other's knee. Fortunately, the old Integra was now performing just fine in the somewhat cooler air of the evening.
At about 1 a.m. on Monday morning, we arrived home safely ... never having been in any personal danger or having felt any real concern for ourselves. But what do you say in such situations? What can I add to what has already been said many times? Of course, there have been far worse disasters in other parts of the world, with enormously greater loss of life. But there is still something especially sobering when you come close to the disaster yourself (we would have had real difficulty getting home 24 hours before, and we nodded to each other as we passed burnt areas along the road, before it became too dark and we could see no more than the occasional glowing ember). There's something that especially affects your emotions when it's your own society that's been harmed, and the people killed are almost your neighbours.
It's all grim, but for those who've been wondering, we personally were never endangered by the fires, and we're completely safe now, no matter what happens this week, living in the middle of a huge international city.
But of course, we're keenly aware of all the less fortunate people, out in the countryside, not that far away from us city mice. So many have lost loved ones or family homes, lived through unimaginable terror or survived with awful burns or other wounds. My thoughts are with them this summer morning.
Saturday, February 07, 2009
New issue of The Global Spiral
I'm away from home for a couple of days so I will just briefly direct readers to the new (February 2009) issue of The Global Spiral, which contains essays by ten thinkers associated with the transhumanist movement - among them yours truly.
My own defence of transhumanism is milder, more equivocal, than some, but I nonetheless believe that much of the criticism in the earlier issue on transhumanism was unfair and ill-informed. This new issue should restore the balance.
Comments welcome.
My own defence of transhumanism is milder, more equivocal, than some, but I nonetheless believe that much of the criticism in the earlier issue on transhumanism was unfair and ill-informed. This new issue should restore the balance.
Comments welcome.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Kudos to Daniel Fogel
I believe that he has handled the controversy over Ben Stein in a very classy way. It's good to see someone acting quickly, decisively, and competently, and admitting an error of judgment.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Self-explanatory open letter to Dr Daniel Fogel
TO: Dr Daniel Fogel
President, University of Vermont
Daniel.Fogel@uvm.edu
Dear Dr Fogel
BEN STEIN COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS
I was astonished when I heard that the University of Vermont has invited Ben Stein, an up-front enemy of reputable science, to deliver its commencement address. I do hope that you, or whoever else might have made or endorsed this decision, took into account that Mr Stein has publicy blamed the Darwinian account of evolution for the Nazi Holocaust in his efforts to undermine well-corroborated biological science. He has been the front man for a meretricious campaign attempting to demonstrate that proponents of Intelligent Design are somehow being victimised in the academy. These claims have repeatedly been shown to be without substance. See for example the excellent "Expelled Exposed" website:
http://www.expelledexposed.com/
I hope you imagine the embarrassment of your science faculty at the prospect of your giving such a person a prominent soapbox for his views.
The invitation to Mr Stein has tended to bring the University of Vermont into disrepute. Unfortunately, the university is now in a no-win situation: if you revoke the invitation, Mr Stein will claim that he has been "expelled" from the academy and his freedom of speech suppressed. Of course, he has ample opportunity to put his views in many forums; you are under no obligation to provide him with another, highly prestigious, one. Although there is now an obvious downside, I urge that you seriously reconsider the invitation. The danger to your university's reputation if you go ahead outweighs even the propaganda value for Mr Stein and his allies if withdraw the invitation and find another commencement speaker.
Yours sincerely
Russell Blackford
www.russellblackford.com
President, University of Vermont
Daniel.Fogel@uvm.edu
Dear Dr Fogel
BEN STEIN COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS
I was astonished when I heard that the University of Vermont has invited Ben Stein, an up-front enemy of reputable science, to deliver its commencement address. I do hope that you, or whoever else might have made or endorsed this decision, took into account that Mr Stein has publicy blamed the Darwinian account of evolution for the Nazi Holocaust in his efforts to undermine well-corroborated biological science. He has been the front man for a meretricious campaign attempting to demonstrate that proponents of Intelligent Design are somehow being victimised in the academy. These claims have repeatedly been shown to be without substance. See for example the excellent "Expelled Exposed" website:
http://www.expelledexposed.com/
I hope you imagine the embarrassment of your science faculty at the prospect of your giving such a person a prominent soapbox for his views.
The invitation to Mr Stein has tended to bring the University of Vermont into disrepute. Unfortunately, the university is now in a no-win situation: if you revoke the invitation, Mr Stein will claim that he has been "expelled" from the academy and his freedom of speech suppressed. Of course, he has ample opportunity to put his views in many forums; you are under no obligation to provide him with another, highly prestigious, one. Although there is now an obvious downside, I urge that you seriously reconsider the invitation. The danger to your university's reputation if you go ahead outweighs even the propaganda value for Mr Stein and his allies if withdraw the invitation and find another commencement speaker.
Yours sincerely
Russell Blackford
www.russellblackford.com
Thursday, January 29, 2009
The hottest day I've ever experienced
I guess it's worth recording these things.
The temperature here today passed 44 degrees Celsius - that's well over 110 Fahrenheit for all of you guys who think in the Fahrenheit scale. This is the hottest day in Melbourne since a long time before I was born, let alone lived here in Melb (the record was actually back in 1939), and I'm sure I've never experienced a day this hot anywhere else. When I was a kid, back in Newcastle where I grew up, and we still thought in Fahrenheit in Australia, there were sometimes heatwaves with day after day over 100 degrees, but never a day that hit 110 degrees or more. In more recent times, I've experienced 43 degree Celsius days. But this has got to be my personal record. Some other cities in Australia hit even higher temperatures at different times in the last few days.
So I guess I have a good excuse for the lethargy that I'm feeling at the moment as I sit here with sweat dripping.
The temperature here today passed 44 degrees Celsius - that's well over 110 Fahrenheit for all of you guys who think in the Fahrenheit scale. This is the hottest day in Melbourne since a long time before I was born, let alone lived here in Melb (the record was actually back in 1939), and I'm sure I've never experienced a day this hot anywhere else. When I was a kid, back in Newcastle where I grew up, and we still thought in Fahrenheit in Australia, there were sometimes heatwaves with day after day over 100 degrees, but never a day that hit 110 degrees or more. In more recent times, I've experienced 43 degree Celsius days. But this has got to be my personal record. Some other cities in Australia hit even higher temperatures at different times in the last few days.
So I guess I have a good excuse for the lethargy that I'm feeling at the moment as I sit here with sweat dripping.
Crackpot of the day
I think I'll provide examples of amusing crackpots writing to the freedom of religion exercise. Here's a good one.
Do bear in mind that such naive submissions, even if not taken seriously, accumulate to give some impression of current community anxieties. So I encourage the sensible readers of this blog (yes, I mean the sensible ones!) to have their say. It shouldn't be too difficult now that you have until the end of February.
****
Edit: I've now read almost all of the submissions that have been published so far, and I must observe that the standard really isn't high. But a few are worth reading, like this one.
Do bear in mind that such naive submissions, even if not taken seriously, accumulate to give some impression of current community anxieties. So I encourage the sensible readers of this blog (yes, I mean the sensible ones!) to have their say. It shouldn't be too difficult now that you have until the end of February.
****
Edit: I've now read almost all of the submissions that have been published so far, and I must observe that the standard really isn't high. But a few are worth reading, like this one.
Teaching for first semester - "The ethics of global conflict"
I've just accepted some part-time teaching for first semester this year, starting in a month or so. I'll be taking three tutes in a subject called "The ethics of global conflict". It's a very timely issue to be examining in an undergraduate course, so I'm really looking forward to sinking my teeth into this one.
The course description says: "When, if ever, is warfare justified? What about humanitarian intervention? What about violent revolution and terrorism? Why should civilians be protected in conflict? This unit will introduce students to theoretical approaches to the ethics of conflict that will allow them to answer these difficult questions. It will also serve to introduce students to basic ideas in moral and political philosophy. No background in philosophy is required: merely an interest in rational argument applied to global conflict."
In second semester, I'm planning not to take on any teaching, as I want to spend a lot of time overseas. Where life will lead me after that is entirely unknown, so this may be my last stint of teaching for awhile.
The course description says: "When, if ever, is warfare justified? What about humanitarian intervention? What about violent revolution and terrorism? Why should civilians be protected in conflict? This unit will introduce students to theoretical approaches to the ethics of conflict that will allow them to answer these difficult questions. It will also serve to introduce students to basic ideas in moral and political philosophy. No background in philosophy is required: merely an interest in rational argument applied to global conflict."
In second semester, I'm planning not to take on any teaching, as I want to spend a lot of time overseas. Where life will lead me after that is entirely unknown, so this may be my last stint of teaching for awhile.
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