Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0
Photo of Peter Sellick

Peter Sellick

Peter Sellick an Anglican deacon working in Perth with a background in the biological sciences.
Miracles: the dead living ones and the living dead ones.
Religion & Spirituality - 29/06/2023 - 36 comments
God save the King!
Political Philosophy - 8/06/2023 - 10 comments
The freedom of the Christian
Religion & Spirituality - 19/04/2023 - 72 comments
Christmas, a time to welcome the creator of the world
Religion & Spirituality - 23/12/2022 - 70 comments
Let’s do the right thing!
Religion & Spirituality - 18/11/2022 - 59 comments
What has Christianity ever done for us?
Religion & Spirituality - 19/10/2022 - 27 comments
Evangelicalism and John Calvin
Religion & Spirituality - 28/07/2022 - 10 comments
Reading scripture in church
Religion & Spirituality - 26/05/2022 - 38 comments
The fragmentation of society by difference
Political Philosophy - 17/02/2022 - 18 comments
Preacher as prompter
Religion & Spirituality - 20/01/2022 - 3 comments
The beginning and end of human life: the view from Australia
Law & Liberties - 29/12/2021 - 68 comments
Why be joyful at Christmas?
Religion & Spirituality - 22/12/2021 - 14 comments
The chaos of politics
Political Philosophy - 9/12/2021 - 4 comments
The tomb of the rich
Religion & Spirituality - 13/10/2021 - 13 comments
The path to alternative truth
Religion & Spirituality - 9/09/2021 - 17 comments
Discerning the spirits
Religion & Spirituality - 12/08/2021 - 20 comments
How does God work in the world?
Religion & Spirituality - 2/07/2021 - 19 comments
If God is dead, why do we miss Him so?
Religion & Spirituality - 4/05/2021 - 27 comments
Why not evil?
Religion & Spirituality - 18/03/2021 - 10 comments
The pursuit of happiness
Religion & Spirituality - 3/02/2021 - 29 comments
Death and the Lords of the Universe
Religion & Spirituality - 18/01/2021 - 28 comments
Is culture enough? Christianity and art
Religion & Spirituality - 17/11/2020 - 4 comments
The battle of the narratives of origin
Religion & Spirituality - 14/10/2020 - 10 comments
Clinging to the wreckage
Religion & Spirituality - 23/09/2020 - 22 comments
Has consumer capitalism displaced faith?
Religion & Spirituality - 17/08/2020 - 41 comments
How the idea of liberty became Liberalism
Political Philosophy - 23/07/2020 - 10 comments
Atheism as self-murder
Religion & Spirituality - 20/05/2020 - 30 comments
The new pope
Religion & Spirituality - 2/04/2020 - 23 comments
Damascus: review
Religion & Spirituality - 14/02/2020 - 10 comments
The awful funeral II
Religion & Spirituality - 28/01/2020 - 8 comments
Facing an existential threat
Religion & Spirituality - 30/10/2019 - 7 comments
A sad tale of irresponsible journalism and a cowardly church
Media - 20/09/2019 - 10 comments
Wendell Berry on Pity and ‘Hurt Love’
Political Philosophy - 22/08/2019 - 5 comments
Two scholars battle it out over the resurrection
Religion & Spirituality - 26/07/2019 - 50 comments
Liturgical re-enchantment
Religion & Spirituality - 20/06/2019 - 14 comments
Frédéric Martel sets the cat among the pigeons at the Vatican
Religion & Spirituality - 29/05/2019 - 11 comments
Secular theology and artificial intelligence?
Religion & Spirituality - 20/05/2019 - 12 comments
Was Jesus a socialist?
Religion & Spirituality - 29/04/2019 - 22 comments
Mistaken atheism, mistaken theism
Religion & Spirituality - 28/03/2019 - 35 comments
The origin of facts
Religion & Spirituality - 20/02/2019 - 81 comments
Chalcedon and the Church's culture wars
Religion & Spirituality - 8/02/2019 - 20 comments
Resurrection: the vindication of the Christ
Religion & Spirituality - 25/01/2019 - 37 comments
A former dean of St George’s cathedral runs afoul of the evangelicals
Religion & Spirituality - 15/01/2019 - 144 comments
The miracle of Christmas
Religion & Spirituality - 24/12/2018 - 62 comments
Stoicism and the Invictus Games
Religion & Spirituality - 17/12/2018 - 5 comments
Scott Morrison's polarising of Australian society
Religion & Spirituality - 29/11/2018 - 16 comments
The knowledge of good and evil
Religion & Spirituality - 13/11/2018 - 54 comments
The expansion of a religious tyranny
Religion & Spirituality - 11/10/2018 - 23 comments
Marriage
Religion & Spirituality - 30/08/2018 - 49 comments
Marriage, divorce and the Bible
Religion & Spirituality - 10/08/2018 - 75 comments
Abortion and the human person
Law & Liberties - 9/07/2018 - 154 comments
Preparing for death
Religion & Spirituality - 15/06/2018 - 29 comments
Review: A Genuinely Theological Church
Religion & Spirituality - 1/06/2018 - 3 comments
The rise and fall of English Christendom
Religion & Spirituality - 27/03/2018 - 21 comments
The theology of Howard's End
Religion & Spirituality - 20/03/2018 - 3 comments
Sydney Anglicans and the new Archbishop of Perth
Religion & Spirituality - 26/02/2018 - 18 comments
The loss of the Church’s authority: nature
Religion & Spirituality - 12/02/2018 - 13 comments
The loss of the Church's authority: morality
Religion & Spirituality - 29/01/2018 - 46 comments
The loss of the eternal
Religion & Spirituality - 5/01/2018 - 43 comments
The loss of the Church’s moral authority
Religion & Spirituality - 5/12/2017 - 12 comments
Portrait of a serious atheist
Religion & Spirituality - 14/11/2017 - 32 comments
Is the idea of God 'perfectly logical'?
Religion & Spirituality - 2/11/2017 - 51 comments
The first person of the Trinity: the Father
Religion & Spirituality - 16/10/2017 - 15 comments
The second person of the Trinity: the Son
Religion & Spirituality - 11/10/2017 - 151 comments
The third person of the Trinity: the Spirit
Religion & Spirituality - 5/10/2017 - 89 comments
Augustine and the psychological analogy
Religion & Spirituality - 25/09/2017 - 2 comments
Life's boosters
Society - 15/09/2017 - 10 comments
The churches and gay marriage
Law & Liberties - 24/08/2017 - 44 comments
Should Christians read the Bible?
Religion & Spirituality - 11/08/2017 - 30 comments
God, the mystery of the world
Religion & Spirituality - 31/07/2017 - 31 comments
Paul Kelly and the decay of public trust
Religion & Spirituality - 13/07/2017 - 3 comments
The 2016 census: whence the church?
Religion & Spirituality - 4/07/2017 - 45 comments
Art wank
The Arts - 1/06/2017 - 3 comments
Popular belief in the hospital setting
Religion & Spirituality - 9/05/2017 - 2 comments
The emptiness of the idea of values
Religion & Spirituality - 24/04/2017 - 51 comments
Are we really secular or pagan?
Religion & Spirituality - 12/04/2017 - 27 comments
Crying peace, peace, when there is no peace.
Religion & Spirituality - 14/03/2017 - 9 comments
How faith supports the political process
Religion & Spirituality - 27/02/2017 - 13 comments
A new heaven and a new earth
Religion & Spirituality - 2/02/2017 - 8 comments
An America after Trump
International - 17/01/2017 - 27 comments
The deep mystery of consciousness
Religion & Spirituality - 4/01/2017 - 37 comments
Coetzee and moral principles
Religion & Spirituality - 19/12/2016 - 5 comments
Coetzee's novels about Jesus
Religion & Spirituality - 1/12/2016 - 2 comments
Liberal democracy: a path to nowhere
Religion & Spirituality - 8/11/2016 - 9 comments
Drama and virtue
The Arts - 12/10/2016 - 5 comments
Identity politics and the Enlightenment
Political Philosophy - 28/09/2016 - 11 comments
Preaching as though the world has already ended
Religion & Spirituality - 22/09/2016 - 8 comments
Conceptual art and the loss of painting
The Arts - 10/08/2016 - 5 comments
When Harry met Jerry
Religion & Spirituality - 29/07/2016 - 14 comments
The gleeful nihilists
Religion & Spirituality - 15/06/2016 - 68 comments
A jealous God
Religion & Spirituality - 27/05/2016 - 12 comments
Bad religion
Religion & Spirituality - 9/05/2016 - 15 comments
Interpreting the Resurrection II
Religion & Spirituality - 20/04/2016 - 11 comments
Interpreting the Resurrection
Religion & Spirituality - 7/04/2016 - 34 comments
The cry from the cross
Religion & Spirituality - 24/03/2016 - 7 comments
The spirit of preaching
Religion & Spirituality - 16/03/2016 - 18 comments
Galileo and gays
Law & Liberties - 1/03/2016 - 38 comments
D H Lawrence and pornography
Religion & Spirituality - 16/02/2016 - 14 comments
Why secularism must fail
Religion & Spirituality - 10/02/2016 - 12 comments
The Swan isn't dying yet
Religion & Spirituality - 13/01/2016 - 115 comments
Stranded in the present
Society - 4/01/2016 - 15 comments
God has a human face
Religion & Spirituality - 21/12/2015 - 83 comments
Rock bottom
Political Philosophy - 27/11/2015 - 39 comments
The gods of secular humanism
Political Philosophy - 17/11/2015 - 21 comments
Christianity as mother of western liberalism
Political Philosophy - 6/10/2015 - 49 comments
Despair and social disease
Religion & Spirituality - 14/09/2015 - 14 comments
Resurrection and time
Religion & Spirituality - 31/08/2015 - 93 comments
Secular humanism: Christianity without Christ?
Religion & Spirituality - 13/08/2015 - 42 comments
Abortion and moral discourse
Political Philosophy - 30/07/2015 - 5 comments
Fetal tissue sting
Law & Liberties - 24/07/2015 - 102 comments
The living dead
Religion & Spirituality - 10/07/2015 - 31 comments
On resisting mythological consciousness
Religion & Spirituality - 25/06/2015 - 68 comments
Supplanting the supernatural with the ultranatural
Religion & Spirituality - 10/06/2015 - 121 comments
I think, therefore I am not sure what I am
Religion & Spirituality - 18/05/2015 - 58 comments
Sport as the opiate of the people
Sport - 1/04/2015 - 12 comments
Scepticism and suspicion
Religion & Spirituality - 23/03/2015 - 160 comments
Angelism and bestialism: a division of the soul
Religion & Spirituality - 5/03/2015 - 8 comments
Scientism
Religion & Spirituality - 9/02/2015 - 138 comments
The visual arts today
The Arts - 28/01/2015 - 8 comments
What should Christian worship look like?
Religion & Spirituality - 7/01/2015 - 20 comments
In the beauty of the lilies
Religion & Spirituality - 15/12/2014 - 29 comments
Commemoration reticence
Religion & Spirituality - 25/11/2014 - 26 comments
Is Christianity 'true'?
Religion & Spirituality - 14/11/2014 - 131 comments
A materialist creed: uniting theist and atheist
Religion & Spirituality - 31/10/2014 - 8 comments
A materialist creed?
Religion & Spirituality - 27/10/2014 - 29 comments
Charitable funding of medical research: a great big con?
Law & Liberties - 16/10/2014 - 8 comments
Updike!
The Arts - 11/08/2014 - 31 comments
The Mandorla Art Award
The Arts - 15/07/2014 - 4 comments
On angels and myths
Religion & Spirituality - 30/06/2014 - 29 comments
What time is it?
Religion & Spirituality - 11/06/2014 - 11 comments
The end of ideology?
Religion & Spirituality - 7/05/2014 - 53 comments
Preaching in the 'absence' of God
Religion & Spirituality - 22/04/2014 - 22 comments
Building in the wreckage: the reconstruction of Christian theology
Religion & Spirituality - 9/04/2014 - 42 comments
Missiology in late modernity
Religion & Spirituality - 25/03/2014 - 29 comments
The awful funeral
Religion & Spirituality - 14/03/2014 - 154 comments
Lifestyle: the trivialization of aging.
Religion & Spirituality - 3/02/2014 - 11 comments
Natural theology and nature religion
Religion & Spirituality - 25/11/2013 - 23 comments
Family arguments
Religion & Spirituality - 28/10/2013 - 30 comments
The consolation of art
Religion & Spirituality - 4/10/2013 - 15 comments
God and art
Religion & Spirituality - 12/09/2013 - 32 comments
Does God require a special language?
Religion & Spirituality - 12/08/2013 - 82 comments
Human rights have no foundation
Religion & Spirituality - 12/07/2013 - 30 comments
Truth, justice and human rights
Religion & Spirituality - 11/07/2013 - 15 comments
The celebrity status of the Dalai Lama
Religion & Spirituality - 25/06/2013 - 13 comments
A resurgence of biblical literalism?
Religion & Spirituality - 3/06/2013 - 89 comments
Arts criticism today
The Arts - 9/05/2013 - 23 comments
The meaning of life?
Religion & Spirituality - 10/04/2013 - 51 comments
Creation is a more fundamental notion than nature.
Religion & Spirituality - 19/03/2013 - 145 comments
What happened to getting to heaven?
Religion & Spirituality - 26/02/2013 - 13 comments
The beauty of Christ
Religion & Spirituality - 6/02/2013 - 23 comments
Preaching to late modernity
Religion & Spirituality - 30/01/2013 - 14 comments
Why has so much contemporary art become so boring?
The Arts - 20/08/2012 - 47 comments
Gay marriage: an argument against
Law & Liberties - 1/08/2012 - 91 comments
The atheist convention: a missed opportunity
April 2012 Feature - 16/04/2012 - 46 comments
After a long battle with cancer
Religion & Spirituality - 2/04/2012 - 80 comments
The Edith Trilogy and rationalism
Political Philosophy - 2/03/2012 - 34 comments
Christianity for Atheists
Religion & Spirituality - 28/07/2011 - 83 comments
The exclusivity of Jesus
Religion & Spirituality - 25/05/2011 - 67 comments
Innate ideas and the God shaped hole
Religion & Spirituality - 17/02/2011 - 63 comments
What future for the fine arts?
The Arts - 4/01/2011 - 13 comments
Newton and the Trinity
Religion & Spirituality - 29/11/2010 - 63 comments
Taming the beast within
Religion & Spirituality - 1/11/2010 - 22 comments
Christian dogma changed by science?
Religion & Spirituality - 8/09/2010 - 36 comments
The end of politics
Domestic Politics - 30/07/2010 - 67 comments
Living out of control
July 2010 Feature - 7/07/2010 - 8 comments
The Uniting Church in dire straits
Religion & Spirituality - 29/04/2010 - 38 comments
Two ontologies of ‘being’
Religion & Spirituality - 29/03/2010 - 25 comments
The absence of Christian art
Religion & Spirituality - 4/02/2010 - 9 comments
‘Ockham’s Razor’, a program about science or a soapbox for prejudice?
Science & Technology - 5/01/2010 - 106 comments
The pros and cons of biblical criticism
Religion & Spirituality - 4/12/2009 - 45 comments
Is God the cause of the world?
Religion & Spirituality - 16/10/2009 - 371 comments
Monotheism: not as simple as you think
Religion & Spirituality - 14/09/2009 - 42 comments
How do we define human being?
Religion & Spirituality - 14/08/2009 - 406 comments
Are we safe?
Religion & Spirituality - 29/06/2009 - 46 comments
On being human
Religion & Spirituality - 25/05/2009 - 131 comments
The resurrection of Jesus Christ
Religion & Spirituality - 24/04/2009 - 147 comments
The trouble with liberalism
Religion & Spirituality - 30/03/2009 - 202 comments
The impossibility of atheism II
Religion & Spirituality - 27/02/2009 - 94 comments
The impossibility of atheism
Religion & Spirituality - 29/01/2009 - 298 comments
Mary as the figure of the Church
Religion & Spirituality - 24/12/2008 - 77 comments
'The Plumb Trilogy' and the modern world
Religion & Spirituality - 25/11/2008 - 30 comments
Our culture of death
Law & Liberties - 31/10/2008 - 85 comments
On preaching
Religion & Spirituality - 30/09/2008 - 17 comments
The truth of the Christian story
Religion & Spirituality - 29/08/2008 - 311 comments
The problem with modern art
The Arts - 4/08/2008 - 8 comments
Why Christians do not believe in morality
July 2008 Feature - 9/07/2008 - 31 comments
An age in thrall to enthusiasm
Religion & Spirituality - 13/06/2008 - 36 comments
God and Jane Austen
Religion & Spirituality - 5/05/2008 - 25 comments
Anti-dogmatism
Religion & Spirituality - 7/04/2008 - 82 comments
Is the Church high culture?
Religion & Spirituality - 29/02/2008 - 18 comments
Creator of Heaven and Earth
Religion & Spirituality - 4/02/2008 - 136 comments
The rationality of faith
Religion & Spirituality - 16/01/2008 - 61 comments
The failure of Protestantism
Religion & Spirituality - 7/12/2007 - 29 comments
The Church and management techniques
Religion & Spirituality - 5/11/2007 - 8 comments
The Enlightenment?
Religion & Spirituality - 1/10/2007 - 103 comments
The Australian Church, a church without martyrs
Religion & Spirituality - 27/08/2007 - 89 comments
The same tired old arguments from the unbelievers
Religion & Spirituality - 31/07/2007 - 144 comments
From seeing to hearing: a different kind of knowing
Religion & Spirituality - 18/06/2007 - 5 comments
Prostitution, a moral hazard
Religion & Spirituality - 7/05/2007 - 70 comments
The liturgy of the Church
Religion & Spirituality - 5/04/2007 - 117 comments
On confession
Religion & Spirituality - 13/03/2007 - 18 comments
The nonexistence of the spirit world
Religion & Spirituality - 12/02/2007 - 347 comments
The centrality of the body in Christian theology
Religion & Spirituality - 5/01/2007 - 116 comments
The rise of secular religion
Religion & Spirituality - 13/12/2006 - 177 comments
How does God exist?
Religion & Spirituality - 9/11/2006 - 246 comments
The predictable journey of outcomes based education
Education - 9/10/2006 - 28 comments
Bland, politically correct values
September 2006 Feature - 12/09/2006 - 48 comments
Is heaven real?
Religion & Spirituality - 16/08/2006 - 149 comments
Choice: the current mask of nihilism
July 2006 Feature - 7/07/2006 - 67 comments
Putting God back in the church
Religion & Spirituality - 13/06/2006 - 46 comments
Duped by secular rationalism
Religion & Spirituality - 15/05/2006 - 164 comments
The source of true self
Religion & Spirituality - 13/04/2006 - 88 comments
'The Expulsion'
Religion & Spirituality - 7/03/2006 - 40 comments
The polarisation of the church: liberalism and fundamentalism
Religion & Spirituality - 3/02/2006 - 38 comments
The problem with liberal democracy
Religion & Spirituality - 11/01/2006 - 34 comments
Preaching as art
Religion & Spirituality - 14/12/2005 - 10 comments
Apocalypse now: why we shouldn't fear if the end is nigh
Religion & Spirituality - 9/11/2005 - 50 comments
Church welfare takes the well-paved road
Religion & Spirituality - 11/10/2005 - 10 comments
Intelligent design - damaging good science and good theology
Religion & Spirituality - 9/09/2005 - 140 comments
Why Christianity’s particularity is better than John Lennon's universalism
Religion & Spirituality - 18/08/2005 - 108 comments
The perils of pornography
Religion & Spirituality - 18/07/2005 - 55 comments
The scandal of Christianity
Religion & Spirituality - 22/06/2005 - 122 comments
PETA: An example of extreme rationality
Religion & Spirituality - 24/05/2005 - 30 comments
Should we change for the church or should the church change for us?
Religion & Spirituality - 27/04/2005 - 54 comments
Religious feeling
Religion & Spirituality - 24/03/2005 - 4 comments
Separation of God and politics
Religion & Spirituality - 2/03/2005 - 63 comments
The metaphysics of the one-night stand
Religion & Spirituality - 25/01/2005 - 5 comments
Earthquakes and the objectivity of the world
Religion & Spirituality - 5/01/2005 - 8 comments
In the company of Mary
Religion & Spirituality - 21/12/2004 - 31 comments
Lot, his daughters and the abortion debate
Religion & Spirituality - 25/11/2004 - 6 comments
Book review: John Carroll and 'The Wreck of Western Culture'
Religion & Spirituality - 26/10/2004 - 4 comments
'God on our side: the real deal' - the disturbing side of Christian fundamentalism
Religion & Spirituality - 28/09/2004
The Olympics: A celebration of the human spirit but not a religion
Sport - 24/08/2004
Consequences of the Reformation: the post-Protestant church
Religion & Spirituality - 22/07/2004
Towards a dumb reading of the bible
Religion & Spirituality - 25/06/2004
What does Cardinal Pell think is wrong with Catholic education?
Religion & Spirituality - 27/05/2004
The Christian community’s order as a model of Western civil order
Religion & Spirituality - 29/04/2004
Islamic terrorism and the failure to separate the sacred from the civil
Religion & Spirituality - 6/04/2004
Managerial attitudes are slowly taking over our lives and putting us to sleep
Religion & Spirituality - 3/03/2004
Has secular sexual freedom sowed the seeds of social disintegration?
Religion & Spirituality - 5/02/2004 - 2 comments
The Christian Doctrine of Creation: dead duck or saving truth?
Religion & Spirituality - 8/01/2004 - 1 comment
A secular Christmas is hollow and therefore brings no lasting joy
December 2003 Feature - 1/12/2003
Kill Bill: Are we breaking back into paganism in the movies?
Religion & Spirituality - 18/11/2003
Is there a Christian response to the growth in medical technology?
Religion & Spirituality - 21/10/2003
Seek My Face
Religion & Spirituality - 23/09/2003
The practical difficulties of teaching 'religion' in the school system
Religion & Spirituality - 29/08/2003
How the Enlightenment made Christian belief impossible
Religion & Spirituality - 19/08/2003
The spiritual shortcomings of the God of the scientist turned theologian
Religion & Spirituality - 3/07/2003 - 1 comment
Obedience to the unenforceable is a statement of grace as old as the bible
June 2003 Feature - 9/06/2003
There is no earthly way to avoid the temper of this time between times
Religion & Spirituality - 7/05/2003
Is theology irrelevant in modern life?
Religion & Spirituality - 15/04/2003
Faith cannot be replaced by therapy or self-help manuals - there is more to life
March 2003 Feature - 11/03/2003
Christian community in the shadow of Hegel, Nietzsche, and Fukuyama
Religion & Spirituality - 10/02/2003
The horrors of Advent and the celebration of Christmas
Religion & Spirituality - 18/12/2002
The enduring beauty of Radical Orthodoxy
Religion & Spirituality - 13/12/2002
How celebrating Life displaces celebrating God
Religion & Spirituality - 21/11/2002
Environmentalists: the New Pharisees?
Religion & Spirituality - 30/10/2002
Who is responsible for the death of God?
Religion & Spirituality - 21/10/2002
The death of God: a retrospective
Religion & Spirituality - 15/09/2002
Sometimes, faking it is the only choice
Religion & Spirituality - 3/09/2002
Materialism and religion
Religion & Spirituality - 15/08/2002
Advertisement



About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy