* Abrahamic Religious Tradition
* Aboriginal tradition

Christianity has usually been friendly to the Open Society. Why can’t the supporters of the Open Society return the favour?

That’s a peculiar view of religion’s role in modern history - I would have said that organised Christianity was the principal western opponent of an Open Society right up until the mid 20th century, when communism and fascism took over.

Perhaps you’ve read Hume and his distinction between Enthusiasm and Superstition (he thought the former objectively helpful and the latter objectively harmful to liberty, and like you cited the American revolution as evidence). I wasn’t convinced by him on this and I’m not by you, Jack.

Where christianity favours an open society, I’ll be ‘friendly’ to it. But as a matter of objective political fact the influence exerted by this disparate collection of superstitions organised to keep people in subjection to self-appointed authority still tends to close, not open up, society.

On the citizenship test, what Andrew Bartlett says.

We have record numbers of residency visas being issued (whihc is something I don’t have a problem with), so if we genuinely want to make sure all those new residents integrate better, we could put that money to far better use assisting them when they first arrive, rather than give them a multiple choice test a minimum of 4 years after they’ve got here.

The federal government has leaked to a newspaper a sample of the questions they are allegedly planning to put on their new citizenship test.
One of the lesser noticed measures in the Budget was the announcement that an extra $123 million will be spe…

And when did this happen, exactly - 1960? Between 1963 and 1966?

Given the fact that shops selling goods directly to paying consumers had existed side-by-side with thriving churches for centuries, and the phenomenal growth in the Pentacostal churches is happening when hippies like Hugh MacKay and Clive Hamilton are telling us we’re more materialistic than ever, your case isn’t exactly strong, Jack.

You might also want to incorporate into your theory such phenomena as: Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’; the disillusioning effect of the meaningless mass slaughter in the First and Second World Wars; and growing contact (as a result of imperialism) with non-Christian cultures who had done very well for millenia without ever hearing of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

I’m sure there are more reasons. But ‘consumer capitalism’ ain’t one of them, and including it in your list risks placing you in the ‘Clive Hamilton set’.

I’m interested to hear how people’s faith in the creator of the universe and saviour of mankind from eternal damnation was eroded by Thursday late night shopping.

People found that they could get what they wanted (gee whiz goods) and not get what they didnt want (extra pregnancies) by material rather than spiritual means. So no need to employ a Deistic Santa or Devilish Scrooge dispensing these blessings and curses from the sky.