Monkey see, monkey do

A recent post noted the claim by the Governor of Australia's Reserve Bank (ie the man heading the nation's central bank) that his skills were god-given - apparently by the Christian god - and that if Christ wasn't "who he claimed to be" (a matter I suspect is unlikely to be resolved empirically) Mr Stevens was a "living in a fool's world". Meltdowns in global financial markets - oops, don't let's mention Iceland, Lehman Bros, Ireland and other nasties - suggests that there is indeed some foolishness in the world, including foolishness involving very clever economists, regulators and investment managers.

Perhaps it's the weather, as a friend has now pointed me to a piece in the Melbourne Herald-Sun by ex-footballer Gary Ablett, the man referred to by his many fans as God and criticised several years ago for the sort of unpleasantness that damages the public profile of elite athletes (too many fans, too much money, too much pressure = lawyers and PR people to the rescue). As he notes, "People also know and remember me because of some of my off-field moments, which were not so successful".

Mr Ablett, allegedly with the help of cutting & pasting from a US fundamentalist site (plagiarism apparently isn't a sin if you are voicing a jeremiad), denounces the wickedness of contemporary society and the nonsensical nature of evolution. The piece would be a hoot if it wasn't so sad.

He states that -

Today, our newspapers, televisions and computer screens are full of shocking and horrible crimes, detailing a very serious decline in morals and values in our community. We read stories that describe a rapid deterioration in standards of behaviour wherever we look. Our culture struggles under the massive weight of increasing problems associated with hatred, anger, violence, alcohol and drug abuse, depression and suicide, family breakdown, the devaluing of human life and dignity, and a growing disrespect for law and order, to name just a few - all of which work together to create and subsequently feed an enormous and expanding hole in the moral fabric that once upon a time held our society firmly together. We have lost our way. We have lost our direction and many have lost hope, and we need to rediscover who we are and where we are going. We need to realise that this current behaviour is only a symptom of far deeper issues within our society and the real problems must be identified and resolved. The need for truth and clarity has never been greater or indeed more obvious than it is right now.

We need to bring in a defined halt to the degradation of our society by restoring the foundations of a strong and effective culture. What are these foundations and how do we begin to restore the brokenness we see all around us? I believe without a doubt that our nation is in crisis and is in its current predicament because we have deliberately disconnected ourselves from our Christian heritage and history. We are a nation that was originally founded upon the word of God and established on the authority of biblical truth. Our political system, our judicial system and most of our schools and hospitals were begun by godly men and women who based their lives and work on godly principles.

Well, actually no, many of the founders were not "godly" and people can behave properly without adherence to Christian doctrine, but let's move on.

Mr Ablett, after a deliciously silly 'debunking' of evolution (relax, readers, we are not descended from apes and we can forget about inconveniences such as fossils), states that -

Western civilisation has embraced the "lie" of evolution as fact, and we have been completely blinded to the profound effect and impact it is having upon our society and nation. We tell ourselves and our children that it was all just an accident and we are nothing more than "cosmic orphans", with no real purpose, value or destiny, completely without hope for a great future and then wonder why our country is "self-destructing" and our society's attitude has become "Let's eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die". And, if life gets too hard or painful let's just end it. And that's just the beginning. No wonder our society if out of control, the consequences are horrendous. Man can live without many things but he cannot live without hope. The Bible reveals a very different reality.

I look forward to a more detailed exposition, ideally with an exegesis of some of the more inconvenient passages in Leviticus.

One correspondent has more generously commented -

You've got to love a state where sports legends play the role of unassailable moral authority; it's so authentically Australian!