Religious Freedom
Published - The Australian Monday, January 09, 2006
I hope atheist Pamela Bone (Jan 9) realises that most Australian theists support her position that religion must be neither suppressed nor promoted by the state. Religion reaches into the realm of the non-obvious, so there are inevitably many versions. On top of that, religious views are often adhered to with great conviction. Conclusion: it is downright dangerous to human welfare to give any denomination the clout of state authority.
This said, there is no democratic justification to invalidate the vote of an individual citizen or elected politician on the grounds that he or she believes in God. There is nothing intrinsically more legitimate about a preference based on another ideology - or on nothing at all.
Philip O'Carroll