Atheism can ease the difficulties of a troubled world

I don’t believe in God, or gods; I don’t believe in luck, good or bad, I don’t believe in things being fair or unfair; I don’t believe in supernatural entities or happenings; and nor do I believe in the many superstitions that presently wrench at our world.
However, I do believe that it is “the believers” in these fanciful fantasies, and act on them, who are at the root of what troubles humanity.
It unsettles me that many have what appears to an uninhibited belief in such things as peace, equality, sharing, honesty and integrity but pressed, for whatever reasons, quickly abandon those values to become a “raw” person operating on base human survival instincts.
Attendance at the recent 2010 Global Atheist Melbourne Convention illustrated that atheism is more than the adherence to the belief that God, or gods, do not exist as at its core, atheism is about freedom – freedom of religion, freedom from religion, freedom of speech, freedom of choice and freedom from superstition.
We die for perceived freedoms; atheism delivers them all at no more cost than how you think.
Atheists, just like those believers in those things I’m uncomfortable about, are mostly decent people. Naturally, in whatever circles you mix, you will find people who don't equate with any understanding of moral correctness.
I do believe in anything that is measurable and understandable, while the faith that gods, supernatural happenings or superstitions demand adherence to qualities that defy rationality, empiricism and reason.
Nothing is fair or unfair, rather it just “is”; luck is neither good nor bad as all circumstances that lead to whatever has happened can be explained.
An accident of more than a decade ago opened death’s door and so to simplify the conversation, some say I was lucky to survive – it wasn’t luck, rather it had to do with exactly what happened in the accident, excellent subsequent medical attention and then the follow-up help and advice.
Does my atheism make me a better or worse person? Not necessarily either, but I identify with Hypatia of Alexandria who said: “All formal dogmatic religions are fallcious and must never by accepted by self-respecting persons as final"

Letter to Australian PM Kevin Rudd

The Hon Kevin Rudd MP,
Prime Minister,
Parliament House,
Canberra ACT 2600.
Monday, March 2, 2009.


Dear Kevin,

On Friday I spoke with the Federal Member for Murray, Dr Sharman Stone, about doing what we can to inculcate peace among Australians. She urged that I write direct to you and subsequently here is the resultant note.
Conscious that you are a busy man and that this topic could with ease be long and extremely complicated, I will attempt to keep this short.
Violence and wars presently ricochet around the world causing many deaths and endless injury, devastating entire countries leaving communities wounded and struggling to survive.
Beyond that, the infrastructure of those affected countries is seriously dislocated and to further complicate the issue, food security is destroyed as is the particular and broader environment.
This present decade (2001-2010) has been declared by the United Nations and UNESCO as The International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World.
Weary of waging war, people everywhere are seeking ways to peace and with that in mind, I am convinced we need to establish a Department of Peace led by a Minister of Peace in the Australian Federal Government. I absolutely believe that this is an idea whose time has come and that there exists widespread, untapped public support for the concept.Given the escalation of violent conflict and insecurity across our world today, there has never been greater urgency nor a better window of opportunity to seed this intent in Australia.
She or he would advance an agenda of individual and collective security based on the principle of the responsibility to protect life through activities promoting a culture of peace and assertive non-violence.

'The Minister of Peace would also work to create a culture of peace in our society'

The Minister of Peace would also work to create a culture of peace in our society. Drawing inspiration from similar initiatives in US, UK, Canada and other countries, I anticipate that the Minister’s mandate would include the following objectives:
1: Work to see Australia emerge as a global role model in the areas of peacemaking and peace-building;
2: Promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights and the security of persons and their communities, consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, other related UN treaties, conventions and the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace (1999);
3: Promote disarmament and strengthen non-military means of peacemaking;
4: Develop new approaches to non-violent intervention, and utilize constructive dialogue, mediation and the peaceful resolution of conflict at home and abroad;
5: Address matters of concern both domestic and international in scope
6: Make annual reports to Cabinet and Parliament on the sale of arms from Australia to other nations, with analysis of the multiple impacts of such sales and how they affect peace;
7: Encourage the development of peace initiatives from local communities, faith groups and NGOs;
8: Facilitate the development of peace and reconciliation summits promote non-violent communication and mutually-beneficial solutions;
9: Fund the development of curriculum materials for use at all educational levels; and
10: Work to create regular discussions about peace throughout the country and encouraging participants to better understand peace, the dynamics of what erodes it, how people can personally live more peaceful lives and what they can do with and through their community to make peace possible.
In pursuing this initiative I recognize that the crisis facing humanity is not only social, political, economic and environmental, but also spiritual in nature. I believe that creating peace is an ongoing and long term process (thousands of years), but it is my hope to see the tide turn within my lifetime.
Ultimately, I would like to see the diminution of our armed forces to the point that it is a true defence force and a portion of the existing near $20 billion defence budget be attributed to the creation of a civil-based team that works solely on community building projects throughout Australia. That same team, equipped with both the resources and knowledge presently available to our defence forces, would also be readily available to help out with such natural difficulties as Victoria’s recent bush fires and Queensland’s floods.
The budget for her/his works and that of the Department of Peace would initially be just five per cent of the Department of Defence budget with an amount of five per cent the cost new equipment to be added every time a decision is made to re-equip, in any way, Australia’s Defence Forces.
I intend to write similar letters to Julie Gillard in her role as Minister for Education in the hope that peace and how it is achieved it is achieved would become a part of the educational curriculum; the Minister for Defence, Joel Fitzgibbon; and the Governor, Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC.Dr Stone and I agreed that “Ministry of Peace” would, in our current culture, undoubtedly draw an abundance of critics and doubters and so your idea people would need to think long and hard about a name for the new organization that existed solely to lead us toward peace and away from what was the mark of the 20th century and is quickly becoming a way of life in the 21st century.
Should you, or any on your staff, wish to discuss this more I can be contacted by phone or email. Also, I more than happy to visit Canberra to discuss my proposal.
Thank-you for your time.

Live Where You Live

The idea that we should Live Where We Live seems to exceed the understanding of most.
It simply means that everything in our lives, including schooling, work, shopping, education, government services, leisure and recreation should be within easy walking or cycling distance. This would need, or demand, a complete reshaping of the way we live and so we have to turn our attention back to our immediate community.
This idea has excercised my mind for a few years now and in a recent visit to a free community seminar at Melbourne University I had a chance meeting with University staffer/researcher Kirsten Larsen and she pointed me toward Tansition Towns - an idea that is only a few years old but is sweeping through parts of the world.
Eager to introduce the idea to Shepparton people, I first mentioned it to Al Gore trained climate change Bunbartha orhardist, John Pettigrew, and the serendipity continued as he quickly embraced the idea and invited me to a meeting of small group that very night in Tatura that he embarked only a few months earlier on a Transition Towns project.
My interest piqued, I'm investigating the idea of working towards Transition Towns Shepparton.