Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Australian PM Julia Gillard Does Not Believe in God


From ABC News (Australia)
Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she has no intention of pretending to believe in God to attract religiously-inclined voters.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd was a regular at Canberra church services and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is known as a devout Catholic.

In contrast, Ms Gillard says that while she greatly respects other people's religious views, she does not believe in God.
Read more
(via RichardDawkins.net)

27 comments:

  1. The dam is breaking!  Lets hope it spills over here to America.

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  2. The host keeps saying "admitted" with respect to atheism, and "say" with respect to Christian.

    I don't 'admit' to being an atheist.  It's not something I'm embarrassed or ashamed of.

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  3. The US bible belt has huge dikes and very stupid people. But we can only hope.

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  4. An open atheait against gay marriage in high ranking political office... I have to admit that I'm curious.  This seems so out of the ordinary.  Then again, maybe it's not so much for Australia.

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  5. Being an Atheist is nothing to be ashamed of, quite contrary in fact. And I've always found people confessing a strong belief in the supernatural to be embarrasing instead.

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  6. Then again, you don't have to be progressive or even liberal to be an atheist. You can be a conservative traditionalist and have no belief in a god.

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  7. Christine from CanadaJune 30, 2010 at 4:35 PM

    Damn.  And I really liked her for a minute!

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  8. Bad news, Hichens has been diagnosed with cancer:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/30/christopher-hitchens-canc_n_631429.html

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  9. There's always something isn't there?

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  10. Esophageal cancer is a near certain death sentence. A friend of the family died of it last year. If it is not too advanced already, he has perhaps 2 years.

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  11. I really do think the damn is breaking.  Even here in the US, things are changing.  They trumpet their old statistics as much as they want, but when I talk to normal people, more and more are putting the dogma where it belongs.  In the trash.

    I love how he nails the morals point so eloquently.  I was expecting him to get tripped up when he went into the Crusades, but as soon as he mentioned the bible supporting slavery, he hit the bullseye and nailed the other interviewee to that proverbial cross.

    He was really good.  So happy to see that.  

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  12. Yeah, read something similar. And since chemos are recommended it probably was found at a late stage. Damn.

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  13. She's the first woman PM, who came to the position between elections through a leadership contest, displacing the former Christian, anti-gay marriage PM, in the middle of a policy crisis. 

    To declare herself an atheist and put gay marriage on the agenda, in the middle of all that, with no mandate, would be political suicide.  I'm giving her until after the next election to show us her real feelings on gay marriage.  Maybe that's wishy-washy, but I'm inclined to cut her some slack.

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  14. As long as people with civil union have exactly same rights as married people, it does not matter if she opposes marriage

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  15. I don't understand, what's her argument against gay marriage then? Of course I didn't assume all atheists are ok with it but can someone reply with the basic overview please, I'd very much like to know.

    So yh, Atheists against Gay marriage, someone explain please, thanks :D

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  16. I believe if you WANT TO RUN a country, you have to be in some sort of religion. Where you have rules and know what not to do. She does not believe in god, this means she does not believe in after life, she can do anything to this country and not have a religious break-down.

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  17. BigBrotherIsNotGreatJuly 1, 2010 at 9:21 AM

    How does adding delusions help with running a country?

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  18. Why not follow a secular philsophy instead?  You can be a Confusionist, Objectivist, Marxist, Stoic, etc... All have moral guidelins like religions, but without belief in Gods or an afterlife.

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  19. Pure political pragmatism, nothing more. Opinion polls in Australia suggest that there is majority support for gay marriage, but it is a controversy she would prefer to avoid right now.

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  20. Yeah she damn hot and inteligent. Thanks god for Julia Gillard...

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  21. I think things might be slowly evolving. I don't count on things changing overnight.

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  22. however, I fail to see where being an atheist, someone who doesn't believe in a deity, a god, immediately means you cannot be homophobic. There's plenty reasons why people don't like gays, and not all stem from the bible or any other religion. Maybe the love of her life turned gay at one point and she took issue with that, or her mother did and robbed her of a baby sister. 

    Jokes aside, expecting you should be pro-gay when you're an atheist is as silly as being anti-gay because you're a catholic.

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  23. Either you're trolling or you're delusional. But I'll humor you.

    Believing in a god didn't stop those priests from raping kids. 
    Believing in a god doesn't stop the Maffia (of which a great number are devout catholics) from doing god aweful stuff to their fellow human beings
    Believing in a god didn't stop Bush from marching the USA into an economic disaster zone.

    NOT believing in a god allows me to judge people on their actions, regardless of their conviction, without any preconceived ideas about their moral codes.
    NOT believing in a god allows me to love all human beings, not just the ones who subscribe to my personal delusions
    NOT believing in a god frees up time and head-space to really help people where they need it, not just where I can point and say "look poppa, look how pious I am, can I now play in your garden please?"

    Oh, I can make long lists like these...

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  24. Julia is a smart woman, she treats religion like a good meal, she keeps it to herself and doesnt shove it down other peoples throats

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