It is always painful to see Catholics fulminate about life in a secular society. What exactly do Catholic Scholars imagine life was like BEFORE the advent of state neutrality and a commitment to free, compulsory and secular education? What more, exactly, do people want than the right to worship and believe in the way they choose?

This comment, left on the AGE Education Resource Center, manages to get just about every lame and illogical argument into one dense screed, so it is worth dismantling piece by piece. The reason I say it is so annoying is that it seems to come from a Catholic writer educated at a Catholic University.

Australia did more to give Catholics a fair go than almost any other place in the WORLD.

How ungrateful is it for a Catholic to say that growing up in SA made them feel “discriminated against” … it is almost an insane thing to say. Of all the states, South Australia was most strongly committed to “religious freedom”, which of course meant that religion was something for the church and its members to do, not for the government to manage. Read here what they don’t seem to include in the curriculum at ACU . Much of this was done FOR the Catholics!!

Re: Religious education in government schools I think the teaching of Jesus have foundationally shaped Western civilisation in a profound and enduring manner. I fully support the rights of children to learn about Jesus. As someone who was denied CRE in the SA school system, I felt robbed and discriminated against. I doubt whether in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and other majority Muslim nations that they are having a debate about whether Islam should be taught to children. I totally support their right to teach their children about the faith that has influenced and shaped their societies. Equally, since the teachings of Jesus have shaped and influenced Australia, children have the right to learn about that. This whole campaign run by The Age is one verging on religious vilification and utterly intolerant. It has been a systematic smearing of a reputable and ethical organisation such as Access Ministries. The truth of the matter is that children are not forced to learn about the Christians faith. Secondly, any religious group can offer classes. Furthemore, it is ‘dog-whistling’ in order to increase intolerance toward those of Christian faith. If such a campaign were run against any other group, faith, or race, it would be rightly condemned. I urge that this unfair and biased campaign against be stopped. Nicholas, 2 May 2011, Tertiary – Australian Catholic University

I’d like to invite our readers to pick a line or idea in this and respond to it below … by doing this we can pretty much deal with 90% of the arguments that seem to keep coming no matter how illogical or absurd.

Thanks for your feedback … we will be calling up ACU to see who is in charge of teaching both Catholic history in Australia, and logic.