Australian Jedis

[Ken Gargett]

12 minutes ago, perkinke said:

This is what happens when people lose their sense of humor. But hey, worked for L. Ron, why not George Lucas? How much government money is allocated for religions in Australia? I mean is this a real problem or just an annoyance for statistics nerds?

more to the point, why on earth is the government giving any money to any religion. separation of church and state looking a smidge sick?

if i ever earn enough to pay tax, i'll be monumentally pissed if the idiots that supposedly run us go and give it to something so utterly destructive (and yes, i know but seriously?).

[gweilgi]

2 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

more to the point, why on earth is the government giving any money to any religion. separation of church and state looking a smidge sick?

if i ever earn enough to pay tax, i'll be monumentally pissed if the idiots that supposedly run us go and give it to something so utterly destructive (and yes, i know but seriously?).

If you ever earn enough to pay tax, your tax advisor is rubbish...

 

Seriously, though: religious affiliation is a shorthand for all sorts of behaviours that can be of serious interest to governments and may have practical consequences for government policies and spending.  Think of willingness to support charitable causes both in money and volunteerism, levels of support for certain social policies (gay marriage, the family as an institution, abortion, etc), or the correlation between certain religions and the level of educational attainments and consequent household income and health which certainly has an impact on government spending.  And of course the one religion they really do want to know about is Islam: is it rising, and how fast?  

[Ken Gargett]

47 minutes ago, gweilgi said:

If you ever earn enough to pay tax, your tax advisor is rubbish...

 

Seriously, though: religious affiliation is a shorthand for all sorts of behaviours that can be of serious interest to governments and may have practical consequences for government policies and spending.  Think of willingness to support charitable causes both in money and volunteerism, levels of support for certain social policies (gay marriage, the family as an institution, abortion, etc), or the correlation between certain religions and the level of educational attainments and consequent household income and health which certainly has an impact on government spending.  And of course the one religion they really do want to know about is Islam: is it rising, and how fast?  

i understand that perspective but this is where i struggle (or one of the areas where i struggle) with religion. to me, i see absolutely no real correlation with charity/volunteering and religion. i do understand that there is some cross-over but some of the most amazingly generous people i know would be mortified to be called religious and some of the most miserable, twisted, ungenerous people think of themselves as extremely religious. i would suggest that this comes from the fact that a number of religious folk believe they are more charitiable and giving (some certainly are) and this is pushed out there as though it is status quo when reality is not quite so clear.

religions may have a view on certain social issues and i do follow that but plenty of non-religious people hold similar views. and vice versa. that said, this isn probably an area where your argument does have more validity.

but i do really struggle with the concept of educational attainments and religion (i went to an anglican school, if that means anything). largely because the more education, the more likely it is that people will see what a fraud the entire thing is.

and i am not touching the issue of islam and the census with the proverbial 40 foot pole.

 

[perkinke]

I would agree with Ken, I was raised in a Protestant church here in the states that was filled with some of the most self-centered greedy people I've ever seen in one place (and I worked in criminal justice for almost a decade, just for reference). On the flip side, my aunts church is the most giving, community minded group I've seen. Religion contains far too many variables to make sweeping generalizations.

I work I local government here in the states and the only time religion matters in our policy decisions is ensuring we are behaving neutrally and in building decisions to ensure there isn't a negative impact on surrounding properties from traffic or noise.