Dealing with Dichotomies

In a previous blog I mentioned the problem outlined by religious historian, Karen Armstrong, in interpreting religious writings. She maintained that there was always tension between Logos and Mythos. Much of the wisdom of the world has been transmitted by myth, fable, allegory or parable (Mythos). When we get into trouble is when we start […]

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What’s Love Got to Do with It?

In our little book republished as The Myth of Nine to Five, the late Dr Phil Harker and I argued that despite the illusion we have of free will, in fact the only real choice human beings have is whether to choose to live with a worldview of fear or a worldview of love. (If […]

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The Primacy of Consciousness

As I sit here in my office I can see the small tree in the front yard. It is a favourite place for the bull-finches to sit before they venture down to the bird bath. This might seem to be just the start of a casual conversation but it has already introduced many philosophical concepts. […]

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The Spiritual Evolution of Mankind

The figures move about a bit with the continuing years of research, but on the evidence it is fair to say the universe is a little less than fifteen billion years old. The first vestiges of life on earth seemed to appear some one and a half billion years ago. Hominids have been around for […]

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Waking Up To Wokeness


We are being overwhelmed by the cult of “wokeness”. It has many faces but I am increasingly beguiled by the “wokeness” disciples and their strident objections to “cultural appropriation”. I am not sure I completely understand the concept, but it seems now that it is deemed wrong for anyone to depict or seek to interpret […]

November 10, 2021

Voices That Should Be Heard


The “woke” elite that run the cancel culture in Australia believe that they have the inalienable right to determine what might be put forward in debate in Australia. If this is allowed to continue only debate affirming identity politics and left wing ideals would be admitted into the public domain. Tony Abbott appears to be […]

October 24, 2021

Moving Beyond Fear


There are now glimmers of hope that we are stumbling out of the Coronavirus mire. It has been a distressing time for many Australians. Not only have we had to deal with the impacts on our health of a persistent, virulent and sometimes deadly virus, but we have also had to deal with the draconian […]

October 1, 2021

Forging a Shield to Thwart the Climate Catastrophist Hammer


  “As is the custom these days whenever weather surprises us the term ‘climate change’ is bandied around to describe the event” Steven E Koonin Unsettled President Biden has just finished a tour of districts recently impacted by Hurricane Ida in the United States. Following the tour he has made a statement to the press […]

September 16, 2021

Sleepwalking to Totalitarianism


George Orwell, author of the astonishingly prescient book 1984, in 1940 wrote: Almost certainly we are moving into an age of totalitarian dictatorships – an age in which freedom of thought will be at first a deadly sin and later on a meaningless abstraction, The autonomous individual is going to be stamped out of existence. […]

August 29, 2021

Time for Some Plain Talking Part 2 – Racism and Gender Politics


This is the second essay of two where I am trying to encourage ordinary Australians to speak up and have their say in the face of the opposition from the politically correct. I am protesting in my own little way about the restrictions that we face because of political correctness and cancel culture that contrive […]

August 15, 2021

Time for Some Plain Talking Part 1


Part 1 – Covid and Climate Change Most Australians, I fear, are reluctant to take part in the public debate on many important issues. This is because we suffer from political correctness, cancel culture and even infantilisation by the governments we have elected supposedly to represent us. As a result of these various subterfuges we […]

August 1, 2021

Become What You Want To Be


For some time I was on the Council of my local University, the University of Central Queensland. CQU’s motto is Be what you want to be! I was somewhat bemused by this well-meaning but misguided maxim. No doubt it was supposed to promote learning and the notion that University study provided a path to our […]

July 11, 2021

Climate Change as a Weapon in International Relations


It is easy to see how surreal the climate debate has become when half the world seems to be in the thrall of a Swedish teenage environmentalist activist named Greta Thunberg with no scientific qualifications but powered by youthful idealism and misinformation. Having failed to convince sufficient adults to worship at the altar of climate […]

June 29, 2021

The Cleaving of Labor


I come from a rusted-on Labor family. My father was a Labor councillor on our local council. My sister-in-law was a Labor state member. My father was a strong unionist. His hero was Bob Hawke. He fervently believed in many of the union dictums like “one man – one job”. This philosophy eschewed multiskilling and […]

June 7, 2021