Latest Journal
-
A Peek Inside the Special Branch’s Declassified File on the Rationalists
Part One: “Rationalist diatribe, with an occasional flash of sound argument” Last year I visited Archives New Zealand in Wellington with Bronwyn Rideout, the current Chair of the NZ Skeptics. We were there because she had arranged for us to have access to a document that I’d heard about a while ago; a file that the Special Branch of the NZ Police, later the…
-
End of Life Choices
The End of Life Choice Act 2019 came into force on 7 November 2021. It provides a legal framework for New Zealanders to access assisted death under specific circumstances. A government review of the legislation is now on the operating table and both supporters and critics of the Act are prepped to take a scalpel to the legislation. David Seymour, the Minister who led…
-
New Zealand’s First Christian
Christians are wont to sentimentalise over Samuel Marsden as New Zealand’s first Christian. Nineteenth-century accounts loved to portray him as the Augustine of South Britain. As Augustine was hailed as the man who brought Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons in 597 CE, so Marsden was mythologised in the same way. This is problematic for two reasons. First, Marsden was a thoroughly unlikeable man, making it…
-
Bertrand Russell’s last message
This statement on the Middle East was dated 31st January, 1970, and was read on 3rd February, the day after Bertrand Russell’s death, to an International Conference of Parliamentarians meeting in Cairo. The latest phase of the undeclared war in the Middle East is based upon a profound miscalculation. The bombing raids deep into Egyptian territory will not persuade the civilian population to surrender,…
-
How religious beliefs about race and slavery made colonialism possible
The Portuguese from the 15th century to Christopher Columbus 1451-1506, were all in the profit of the slave trade. As the practitioners of torture and all the attendant horrors, this was justified by the slavers as being their due reward as being bestowed on them from their Lord God reclaiming lost souls for Christ. Columbus saw himself as Christophorus, the “Christ carrier” to seek…
-
A Rational and Sri Lankan view of time
The Sri Lanka that I grew up was an entirely different place to what it is now. Life was relatively easy and simple. There was poverty as in any 3rd world country, but no food hunger as far as I know and remember. There was and still is a Sri Lankan view of time – its half way between mañana and never getting it…
-
EA & AI
For those who haven’t heard of Effective Altruism (often shortened to just EA), it’s a fairly simple concept. As the name suggests, people who subscribe to EA want to be altruistic, and they want to do it in an effective way. As the Centre for Effective Altruism helpfully describes it on their website: “Effective altruism is about using evidence and reason to figure out…
-
Thoughts on Historical Literacy
I finally made it to Waitangi. I took my girls on a summer road trip, ostensibly to show them a bit more of their home country but the unspoken objective being to get as far away from sad and sorry Wairoa as possible. The visit to the Treaty Grounds was an if-we’ve-got-time add-on that turned into the most moving highlight of our holiday. You…
-
Between Theocracy and Democracy
Australian states and New Zealand A theocracy is a nation ruled by patriarchal religious leaders, or a nominal parliament with clerical oversight. There is little or no freedom of association, free speech, free media, rule of secular law, or political parties with policies that might contest clerical rule. That list would define the Vatican, but it describes itself as a constitutional monarchy with the…
-
Will dementia sufferers ever be able to access assisted dying?
Retired medical geneticist and End-of-Life Choice Society member, Dr Mac Gardner, explains why the recent discovery of a potential delay in the progression of Alzheimer’s isn’t really the breakthrough it may seem to be. Possible dementia breakthrough drug may delay degeneration: Otago Daily Times Online News (odt.co.nz). He pleads for our End of Life Choice Act 2019 (the Act) to be expanded to allow…
-
Why constitutional monarchy is a good system of government
This article is offered as a reply to the criticisms of monarchy which appeared in the previous issue of The Open Society, one of them by my friend Max Wallace. It will, I hope, be understood as my contribution to the debate among friends and colleagues – one of the key indicators of an open society. This is purely my personal opinion and I…
-
2500 years of freethinkers, scientists, and religious believers
When I was eight years old at school I wrote that when I grow up I wanted to be a scientist. As a teenager in Auckland, I was told by my ‘uncle’ that I should not believe anything scientists tell us. He was a fundamentalist Baptist Church elder. I challenged him, shocking his family, which of course had repercussions. His views included odd ideas…
