El pecado original sostiene que todos nacemos pecadores. Todos tenemos la necesidad de hacer cosas malas y desobedecer a Dios. Según la enseñanza, el pecado original es la condición espiritual y psicológica normal de los seres humanos. Incluso un bebé recién nacido, que no ha hecho nada en absoluto, está dañado por el pecado original. […]

In some ways the policies Labor took to the last election were the most progressive policies it has adopted for years. But in other ways Labor policies conformed to economic orthodoxy. For example: the federal government’s budget should return to surplus as soon as possible; in order to be economically responsible, all new spending programs […]

Some time, around 2005 or 2006, Bill Shorten was seeking to knock off the sitting member for Maribynong Bob Sercomb. They were both members of Labor’s right. But for various reasons the left, or parts of it, wanted to block Shorten’s pre-selection. Shorten gained a front page headline in ‘The Australian’ calling for Australia’s top […]

Labor may need to refine an important aspect of its childcare policy. Extra subsidies to parents will not be of sufficient benefit to parents if they result in price hikes from childcare providers. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) cannot be relied upon to prevent these price hikes, at least given its current suite […]

(This article is a slightly revised extract from a longer article entitled ‘Animals’.) Modern debates about how humans should treat animals can be traced to the ancient world. Aristotle thought that human beings were superior to other animals because only human beings are capable of reasoning.  Jewish, Christian and Islamic teaching is that that God […]