Reclaiming the “Middle Ground”: Secularism Australia Conference 2023
National Secular Lobby Media Brief
The National Secular Lobby is a co-sponsor and co-organiser of the Secularism Australia Conference, to be held in Sydney on Saturday 2nd December 2023.
Reclaiming the “Middle Ground” – Landmark National Secular Conference
Headline speakers include Michael Kirby, Jane Caro, Fiona Patten, Leslie Cannold, Van Badham, Chris Schacht, and many more. They will set out a vision for a truly secular Australia and will highlight areas where rational changes to social policy are required for improved outcomes.
The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), and religious rights groups, are driving divisive agendas that are harmful to the nation.
We believe we need public policy based on equality and reason, including on issues such as:
- Why Christian prayers in all parliaments are socially and politically divisive and destructive to religious freedom, and should be replaced with alternatives.
- The use of doctrine by religious providers of public health services to deny women’s rights.
- How current VAD (Voluntary Assisted Dying) laws exclude thousands who demand humane access.
- Challenging States that allow evangelical networks to religiously “harvest” public school children via chaplaincy.
- Why the Census question on religion is biased and substantially understates “No Religion”.
The inaugural Secularism Australia Conference is being organised by the NSW Teachers Federation, Humanists Victoria, Rationalist Society of Australia, and the National Secular Lobby, and is sponsored by several of Australia’s leading pro-secular organisations.
Where: NSW Teachers Federation Conference Centre, 37 Reservoir St, Surry Hills, Sydney NSW
When: Saturday, 2nd December 2023, 9:00am – 4:15pm
For full details please visit the conference website.
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10 comments
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Douglas Pritchard
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Phil Pryor
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Michael Taylor
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Phil Pryor
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Michael Taylor
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GL
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Roswell
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wam
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B Sullivan
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Peter M.
Return to home pageThere is sanity in our midst.
Most times the sky fairy people seem to hold the stage.
And watching prayers at a local council meeting is straight out of the middle ages.
Telescopes, microscopes, best ever, right now.., and they indicate what we can see, what we know. No fantasy, fraud, fiction, fable or fibs are needed about what has never existed. Yet some will fight and die for the old lies…
But, Phil, what about the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Don’t tell me you think he’s just a fake god. 😲
😉
M T, I actually ATE that “monster”, with a little grated pecorino…gone!
I’m sure they’ll create a new god, Phil.
As Newton, and then Marx said, “God didn’t create man. Man created God.”
We can’t leave out Cthulhu.
I don’t believe in imaginary beings that live in the sky.
This is my god:
The kids have a clear answer, at the department stores, in december. God cannot be seen nor heard but Santa is real.
ps
Phil you didn’t cite your sauce??
Where is the middle ground between the bondage of religion and the freedom from religion? This magical halfway point between reason and ignorant belief where all the really sensible people are supposed to hang out. What would actually be reclaimed? is there really a middle ground between slavery and freedom, or between truth and falsehood or between light and darkness? What is to be gained by reclaiming this ground? I wonder if the term middle ground is just a euphemism for toleration. Which may seem fine until you realise just what it is that you have agreed to tolerate.
B Sullivan, secularism is the middle ground — where religion is accepted, lack of religion is accepted, and neither is privileged or disadvantaged in legislation.