lev.lafayette's blog

Recently a PEW study surprised many by its announcement that most atheists know more about religion that those of strong belief, despite the fact that a majority consider religion to be "very important" to their lives. In other surprise figures, a sizeable minority of Protestants cannot name the gospels and a similar figure of Catholics are unaware of the sacrament of transubstantiation.

Service to an address by Lyle Allen, December 12, 2010

Opening Words

Presentation to the Melbourne Philosophy Forum, 7th of November, 2010

1.0 Teleology; Intrinsic and Extrinsic

Service (opening words, reading, closing words) to an address by Kelvin Thomson, Federal Member for Wills. October 31, 2010

Opening Words

The Los Angeles Times has reported Obama's speech for 9-11, where he claims that it was the perversion of religion, rather religion itself that was the cause of terrorism. This is a challenging statement and whilst politically expedient, it certainly should be subject to scrutiny. After all, it is often in the name of religious justifications that some of the greatest secular crimes have occurred.

Presentation to the Melbourne Philosophy Forum, 5th of September, 2010

A Moment Wisdom Of From The Torah ...

Originally this address was going to be on the Australia's Future Tax System Review, more commonly known as the Henry Review, and in particular on the subject of the mining tax which has generated significant public debate. However as events have taken their own priority, as they often do, an opportunity has arisen to take a step back and look at the entire package within the context of public finance and draw a parallel with a wisdom found in first books of of the Christian Bible or the Jewish Torah.

A longer version of the above 'blog commentary that was published in the ANZUUA newsletter.

THOUGHTS ON A UU SEMINARY IN AUSTRALIA

By Lev Lafayette

A surprise study published in The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion and reported by Scientific American suggests that the so-called Generation X group are more loyal to their religious background than the "Baby Boomers". By the same token the survey of some 37,000 Americans also noted that the number with no religious affiliation doubled in the 1990s and continues to increase.

Pew has conducted a poll which reveals that 18% of U.S. residents believe that Barack Obama is Muslim, up from between 11% from March 2009 to August 2010, whilst the number who believe he is a Christian has declined from 48% to 34%, whereas the number who don't know his religion has increased from 34% to 43%.