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Monday, December 20, 2004
The Right to Refuse
Renee is a young, single Sudanese refugee who has recently moved
to Australia. She discovers she is pregnant, and an ultrasound shows she has twin babies in her womb. Renee has no money and
is still adjusting to Australian culture. Her family is no better off. She feels overwhelmed. Renee’s doctor recommends an
abortion; it is safe and will solve all the problems her mistaken pregnancy has brought on. It is the only solution.
read more...
by Sherrin Ward
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Australian Peter Singer “most influential ethicist alive”
"This world-renowned Australian may
well be the most prominent professor his country has ever produced; by many measures, he's the most influential ethicist alive,"
a professor of philosophy at New York University, wrote in a letter to the Wall Street Journal.
“No other living philosopher has had this kind of influence,” notes the New
York Times of Professor Peter Singer.
Australia is often called a “young” country. Because of this and our small
population, we love hearing about the successes accomplished by Australians. The fact that an Australian is now Professor
of Bioethics at Princeton University's Center for Human Values might be a cause for a little spark of national pride.
Before
we fan this into a flame, we should ask: What are Singer’s ethics? What is his philosophy? Here is Singer, writing
in the Oxford Companion to Philosophy:
“…Not all human beings are autonomous, or capable of seeing themselves as having
a past and a future. Infants, and the profoundly intellectually disabled, for example, are not. Chimpanzees, on the other
hand, appear to be persons in this sense. Hence it is an implication of this view that, other things being equal, it is worse
to kill a normal chimpanzee than a profoundly intellectually disabled human being. Of course, to arrive at a final judgement
about the wrongness of killing any being, we need to consider also the effect of the killing on relatives and friends, and
on the community as a whole.” The above is a relatively mild passage from Singer’s
body of work, one which I obtained from his very nice official website.
It’s easy to go through Singer’s works
and pick out more horrifying statements to brandish in people’s shocked faces. However, it is better to have a firm
grasp on where this subversive mild-mannered professor is coming from. Without this, you have very little hope of sensibly
opposing a Singer-influenced perspective when you encounter it.
For a quick introductory course on Singer, click
here for an interview with him from the November 27, 2004, issue of WORLD magazine. http://www.worldmag.com/displayarticle.cfm?id=9987
Even
better, get your hands on a copy of the Australian book Rethinking Peter Singer
– a Christian Critique. http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=2682 )
read more...
C.S.
11:28 pm est
Saturday, December 4, 2004
Project Greenlight in Australia
The “free market” is historically more
receptive to expressions of Christianity than State-controlled organisations. A competitive opportunity for an amateur
Australian filmmaker to receive $1 million in private funding and huge exposure could prove advantageous to filmmakers who
have objections to Government funding or feel marginalised by the funding process.
Click
for Project Greenlight
Thursday, December 2, 2004
Redeeming the airwaves
As of today, the Australian Christian
Channel is beamed to the homes of both Foxtel and Austar subscribers at no extra cost. The ACC is now part of the minimum
subscription package – a fantastic opportunity to grab channel-surfers rather than just the people who might have paid extra
to view the channel. Australian Christian filmmakers should take notice: there is now a potential 24-hour forum for
their work. Click for website
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So...why does 100KY have an email list and why should I be on it?
Sometimes we've felt like Elijah. (I Kings 19) You know the feeling. Wondering where the other 99,999 are.
100,000 is alot of people. There are things happening in Australia that 100,000 people can change.
Just by sending an email.
We can let you know when things come up that can be changed that way. They don't come up every day.
You can let the other 99,999 know if you come across something first.
M.S.
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