"Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning."
C.S. Lewis
"The fingers of your thoughts are molding your face ceaselessly."
Charles Reznikoff
"Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere."
G.K. Chesterton
"Humility enforces where neither virtue nor strength can prevail, nor reason."
Francis Quarles
"Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil."
C.S. Lewis
Resistance Thinking Society
'Society' is a term used to describe a grouping of individuals and outlines the structures employed to ensure that the individuals within a society relate to each other in an appropriate fashion. Different societies may have distinctive cultural behaviours and different institutions. In this society section you will find news, articles and reviews that relate to Australian society, or more specifically, individuals who live in Australia.
Topics in this section will cover: science and technology - stem cell research, IVF, cloning, intelligent design, evolution etc.; politics - ideologies (communism, anarchism, totalitarianism, capitalism etc.), state and federal politics, the free market, the United Nations etc.; sociology - globalisation, prisons, welfare, government; environment - global warming, alternative energy etc.; and moral issues - poverty, homosexuality, euthanasia, abortion etc.
The role of the Christian within society is to stand for truth, for justice and most importantly, to represent God's agenda on the earth. As the Resistance Thinking journey continues, our aim is to stimulate engaging dialogue exploring the complexities of how followers of Jesus should engage with society in our day and age.
The title states the question posed by many on the pro-abortion side, should men actually get a say in the abortion debate? Should they have a voice? Or is it only women who have the right to say anything about whether abortions should be legal or not?
In the first instance this argument (posed as a question) is faulty. It is faulty because procreation requires two people, a man and a woman. Pregnancy does not happen with a woman in a vacuum. And if it takes more than a woman to create life surely it is undermining the role of the male by terminating the pregnancy without him having a say.
According to Tom Waterhouse's mum he is receiving unfair criticism by the press, politicians and some celebrities. Horse trainer Gai Waterhouse believes everyone should stop criticising her boy. This criticism and scepticism is on the back of Tom being barred from commentating on sporting events because he has “blurr[ed] the lines between bookmaker and commentator”.
I must confess for feeling very little sympathy for Tom Waterhouse at the moment. He has set up a betting agency, making himself as the figurehead, in a way that I can't recall ever having been done in Australia. Sure there has been other betting agencies for a long, long time but this is the first one that is centred around an actual identity. Now I work at the races and bookmakers are a reality in the industry. But I must confess that my heart drops every time I go past them. Now I don't think I am better than these men. I am just disappointed that we have slick processes in place to encourage everyday people to risk their money in exchange for money that others have lost. Gambling is the pure epitome of greediness and we have men and women who believe there is legitimate business to be had by pocketing these people's money.
Tom Waterhouse, as slick as his advertisements might be, is just a glorified bookie. But now, presumably, he runs a company of bookmakers, whose sole task it is to earn money for the company from people gambling against the odds at sporting events. Now I love football and I have a great affinity to horse racing as well. But the integrity of the industry is tarnished by the very existence of a betting culture that functions so succinctly with the governing corporate bodies. No wonder Racing Victoria is having such problems with dishonesty and transparency. There exists large incentives for people who should not be gambling to do just that.
So the “civil rights” battle of our day has come to a head. With two cases presented in front of the U.S. Supreme Court we may now see the end to traditional marriage in America as a new version of marriage is created.
For young adults my age this is considered a great thing. Apparently 81% of 18-29 year olds support marriage equality (link here). The Human Rights Campaign has decided to really stir up a frenzy by creating a logo which is being shared via those on social media (predominantly teenagers-30 yr olds). It looks like this:
"For Christians, the issue of marriage is not merely a legal or constitutional issue. The Bible reveals marriage to be the sacred union of a man and a woman for a lifetime. The goods of marriage are revealed to be intimacy, union, companionship, friendship, procreation, children, and a host of related gifts. Christians must see marriage as essential for human flourishing and not open for human negotiation.
The very fact that the march for same-sex marriage has reached this point is telling. It reveals a fundamental confusion at the very heart of our society. The ideological support for same-sex marriage is deeply embedded in a host of ideas that are driving our society to the point of moral breakdown.
The U.S. Supreme Court may well decide the future of marriage as a legal institution, but the church must hold to marriage as far more, but not less than, a legal reality. Marriage is one of God’s most gracious gifts to humanity. It will be the Church’s responsibility to honor marriage, no matter what the Court may decide....."
Tom Waterhouse, as slick as his advertisements might be, is just a glorified bookie. But now, presumably, he runs a company of bookmakers, whose sole task it is to earn money for the company from people gambling against the odds at sporting events. Now I love football and I have a great affinity to horse racing as well. But the integrity of the industry is tarnished by the very existence of a betting culture that functions so succinctly with the governing corporate bodies. No wonder Racing Victoria is having such problems with dishonesty and transparency. There exists large incentives for people who should not be gambling to do just that.