Friday, April 29, 2005
The report, which contains no recommendations, has been published on a dedicated select committee website, a first for a New Zealand Parliament. Only 48 submissions were received in the committee's initial inquiry (maybe, because we were only given a couple of weeks to submit, which was ludicrous on such a complex topic).
The growing secularisation of Scottish society has forced one of the country's leading universities, Stirling University, to scrap its undergraduate honours degree in religious education. As a result of a steady decline in student numbers over the past decade, the religious studies department - which covers a range of faiths including Christianity, Islam and Buddhism - will now be merged with modern languages and culture.
A major new NZ website promoting life-related issues has just been launched. So far there are 1000+ pages of resources and growing at www.life.org.nz
More on how the digital age is reshaping culture. First we had Blogging, a combination of personal diary and backdoor news dissemination. Podcasting (highlighted in the Briefing earlier this week) is the audio equivalent. Now emerging from under the radar is internet TV, but not TV as you've known it. (It's so new that no-one has a name for it yet). Several major ventures have just been launched. This is all happening at such break-neck speed that it's impossible to tell what the end impact will be.
"Kids today are growing up without any understanding of the incremental steps of getting to know each other,” says the author of a new study into young people's sexual behaviour and attitudes. Throughout popular culture, bodies simply collide like runaway railway cars. Armstrong Williams explores some of the consequences.
Another study confirms that abstinence education works: A comprehensive look at the Best Friends program found participants are six times less likely to have sex than their peers. The curriculum is designed for elementary, middle and high school girls.
What exactly did Andrea Dworkin (the radical feminist who died earlier this month) actually stand for? She is often credited for campaigning against pornography and violence, but Cathy Young says this masks her complete hatred of men and vitriol against all heterosexual sex.
There are very few excuses for missed assignments that Mike Adams hasn't heard over the years. Here are some of his responses, plus an open letter to his university colleagues. "Dear Colleagues: Have you ever thought that having so many liberal professors causes students to develop a skewed view of the world? Do you ever think about the consequences of teaching students that there are no absolutes and that there is no free will? Do you see any link between these teachings and their refusal to accept your answers as right and theirs as wrong? Do you see any link between these teachings and their refusal to take any responsibility for their actions?"
The postmodern mind does not seem to appreciate how many the ideas and values it holds are contradictory. For example, the Walt Disney company is building a new theme park in Hong Kong, and to placate local religious sensitivities it has engaged feng shui masters to consult on design, and is burning incense ritually as each building is finished. At the same time, Disney finds no difficulty in insulting Christians back home with practices at Disneyland and in the films it makes.
Tail-out: Actually, three for the price of one today, as I didn't include one yesterday! 1) Two women who gave their life savings to an apocalyptic religious group sued the church because it failed to make good on promises that in return for their money the women get land and see Christ face-to-face.
2) Derrinallum, a tiny farming town in Victoria, Aust, has been given permission to create what is believed to be Australia's first vertical cemetery, burying its dead on their feet, without headstones, in environmentally sound body bags.
3) An Indian who became a man to marry a female relative was dumped after the surgery.
