Comments for Free Society Institute

Comment on South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms by Hans Pietersen

Hans Pietersen — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:16:26 +0000

This charter has received wide publicity in the Afrikaans press:
Radio RSG, Sondagaktueel 17/10/2010
Radio RSG Praat Saam 3/11/2010
Rapport paper 14/11/2010
Beeld newspaper 4/1/2011
Radio RSG Kruis en Dwars 29/1/2012.

No doubt there will be others that I have missed.

Comment on South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms by Thys Human

Thys Human — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 12:35:53 +0000

By ‘n onlangse byeenkoms (iets van ‘n totaal ander aard) het dr Christo Landman wat een van die voorste onderskrywers van die beoogde handves is, aangedui dat daar binnekort dinge rondom die kwessie gaan gebeur. Ek het nie geleentheid gehad om hom verder hieroor uit te vra nie, maar kan dit dalk binnekort kry.

Comment on South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms by Jacques

Jacques — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 15:12:16 +0000

It’s pretty much nowhere, Thys. A “Council for the Protection and Promotion of Religious Rights and Freedoms” was established to pursue the legal steps towards getting this before Parliament, but at this stage it hasn’t even reached a Parliamentary committee. While I suspect the initiative might have lost steam, we’re certainly keeping an eye out for its reappearance.

Comment on South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms by Thys Human

Thys Human — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 15:03:33 +0000

Waar staan hierdie kwessie? Daar is sowat ‘n jaar gelede aangedui dat daar vroeg in 2012 stappe in die Parlement kan kom om hierdie akte/handves in wetgewing vas te maak.

Comment on Stop Secrecy Week by Michael Moss

Michael Moss — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:43:05 +0000

A belated vote of thanks for supporting Secrecy Week….it was a great success and it was initiatives such as this which made that so.

Let us hope its momentum continues to build following Black Tuesday

Much appreciated.

Michael

Comment on Sam Harris, ‘new atheism’ and alleged Islamophobia by Josh

Josh — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:38:41 +0000

To paraphrase Bill Maher, when a gap exists between human action and unhuman/divine vindication, our messed up little head excels at filling the gap with its greed and tendency towards violence. Think of it as the Milgram experiment where in the place of the researcher/authority figure lies instead an omnipotent father-figure. Result? Complete dissolution of personal responsibility. In this way, the very existence of the afterlife is potentially dangerous and destructive and Islam is at once the vehicle and enabler of this phenomenon.

After reading Harris’ “The End of Faith”, I believe has some good points and some very bad ones too. My qualms with him pertain mostly to his beating of a dead horse (Utilitarian ethics), and the “soft-spot” he has for some pseudo-scientific ideas, but I won’t go so far as to call him Islamophobic.

Comment on Religion at South African universities by Graham

Graham — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 12:16:04 +0000

All in agreement that “Addressing barriers to learning” is something of a trojan horse for a religious agenda.

On the other hand, there are better books out there – for example “The Human Search For Meaning” (see here: http://www.kalahari.com/books/Human-search-for-meaning/632/33303992.aspx) also published by Van Shaik described as “An introduction to religion and multireligion education at tertiary institutions. Includes sacred traditions and scriptures, teachings, ethics, history, religion and society, and religious experience.”

I’m reading it right now (read the sections on African Religions, Hinduism, so far) – and its well-balanced, plainly stating and explaining the core aspects of each major religious system without passing judgement. That is to say, it approaches religion as a human phenomenon. This makes for a much better read than if it took a realist approach by ending description of supernatural belief with the words “which is of course, false”

Comment on Religion education in SA schools by Religion at South African universities | Free Society Institute

Religion at South African universities | Free Society Institute — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 11:10:09 +0000

[...] are willing to ignore the National Policy on Religion and Education (pdf). As previously observed, certain schools routinely violate the requirement that religious instruction needs to focus on religion in general [...]

Comment on The National Interfaith Leadership Council by Jacques

Jacques — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 08:51:37 +0000

Hehe. Indeed, if they offered lessons in close reading I might have to.

Comment on The National Interfaith Leadership Council by Marius Oosthuizen

Marius Oosthuizen — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 08:49:48 +0000

Dear Jacques, maybe you ought to rethink your assumption about the ‘redundancy’ of NILC in the light of Rev Mathysen’s comments?