God Forbid

The White House has a cage fight on the Whitehouse front lawn while, somewhere, a father rose at 3am to feed a crying baby.     In 2026, what does it mean to be a good father, or a good man?  Does God, or any religious tradition, see men as something distinct? Or is “be a good man” just “be a good person”?  The manosphere claims religious sanction. Is that a corruption of these traditions, or an e...

Do to a dog what we do to a factory-farmed pig, and you’d be arrested.  Do it to ten thousand pigs in a shed, and it’s breakfast.  Most of us say cruelty to animals is wrong.  And then most of us are happy to have them killed and eat them.  Both our panellists think the way we treat animals is a moral catastrophe.  But they get there by opposite roads. One says animals matter because they suffer....

We are, it turns out, a species that refuses to believe its own birth certificate.  Australia is ageing, fast. This is not new here, or in Europe and North America where the trend has existed for decades.  But even in China and now India, the fertility rate has dropped below replacement levels – even the two most populous nations on earth are getting older.   Yet we’ve built a world — our economie...

You heard that someone had come unstuck. A rival. A bully. Someone overconfident, or two-faced, or just a bit too pleased with themselves. And something in you was glad.  You won't say it out loud. You might barely admit it to yourself.  But the Germans have a word for it. And it turns out, so did the ancient Greeks.  Schadenfreude. The pleasure we take in others' misfortune.  Is it a moral failin...

Whether or not you believe in - or even know about "the Rapture", "the Tribulation", "the End Times", and "Armageddon", your life is influenced by the idea that Jesus Christ will not only return, he’ll go to Jerusalem, and from there, for exactly one thousand years, he’ll rule the world.  Yet, this concept is not in the Bible...at least not directly.  But a bible, published in America in 1909, and...

Most of us spend most of our waking hours working, paid and unpaid.  From housework to paid work, most of our lives are dominated by work. It's so ingrained that losing our true selves in work can feel unavoidable.   Yet, many also find purpose, value, and joy in work – even if it's not their dream job.  Work is less a place and more a concept, the line between work and home can be blurred. And yo...

Halloween, in the western Christian tradition, remembers the dead – saints, martyrs, and all the faithful departed.  But why do so many believe the departed return?  Regardless of the place on earth, or time in history, people say they see strange apparitions and ghostly figures. And as for things unseen, even more profess a belief in genies, spirits, angels and supernatural entities.  All these i...

The government has removed favourable tax settings for investors to make home ownership just a bit more achievable for Millennials and Gen Z’s priced out of the market.  The Prime Minister has spoken about the importance of giving young people access to housing so they have “a stake in the economy” Is tinkering with, or even an overhaul, of the housing market really the only answer to growing weal...

From climate disasters to economic collapse, pandemics to political unrest — some people prepare for the worst long before it happens.  But is prepping a sign of prudent foresight or a loss of faith in society? And how do ethics and religion shape ideas of survival?  In this episode we explore the growing culture of preppers and survivalists, from community resilience to billionaire bunkers.  Are...

Falling in love with a machine is supposed to be the stuff of science-fiction. About a decade ago, Spike Jonze made the film Her, about a lonely man Theodore, played by Joaquin Phoenix, falling in love with his operating system, Samantha.  And the world renowned psychoanalyst Esther Perel recently counselled a man and his romantic partner, a chat bot!  Is romantic love just in our hearts and heads...

Since the Stone Age we’ve used, and abused, drugs and alcohol. And some cultures believed their mood-altering effects brought you closer to God.   But if you go to an Alcoholics Anonymous or AA meeting today, you’ll be told that getting closer to God means getting away from the drink. AA also welcomes atheists, of course, as the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. But as...

Pope Leo XIV has recently slammed the use of God's name to justify what he terms as the "absurd" pursuit of war, specifically challenging military leaders who describe operations in Iran as a holy war "in the name of Jesus Christ".  Is a "holy war" antithetical to the teachings of Jesus Christ?   Sister Brigid Arthur, Rev Tim Costello and Rev Michael Woolf certainly think so.  All of them have bee...

Fairytales are among the oldest forms of human storytelling, with their roots in the oral traditions of pre-literate societies.  Over centuries, these tales have been reworked to suit the religious, moral and political order of the day. They are instructive, entertaining and sometimes terrifying.  Why is there this ongoing appeal – indeed a revival – of fairytales among young and old alike?   Gues...

It’s Eastern Orthodox Easter this weekend, where the faithful will announce to each other Christos Anesti. Christ is Risen. Also risen? The fortunes of Eastern Orthodoxy among men – though this is contested. Over the last 50 years, the numbers of people around the world identifying as religious have dropped. But the numbers of Christians seem to have stabilised, just in the last few years. Why?

If you go to the movies, or turn on your TV, you’ll find it hard to avoid the medieval fantasy genre. With its castles and fortresses, cloaks and crowns, and even dungeons and dragons. The stories are fantastical but of course, fictional in their portrayal of medieval Europe and the Islamic Golden Age. But how can a better understanding of what actually happened, in a rapidly changing Europe and M...

Evolving digital technologies have supercharged our anxieties about privacy and surveillance.  These concerns may feel new, but they have always existed.  Access to privacy is central to human dignity and intimacy - but it is also conditional in a society which values openness and accountability.  So what should remain seen and unseen?  When does surveillance become intrusive?  And can privacy sur...

"Don't judge me" is the unofficial commandment of our secular liberal society. We're told so long as you’re not hurting anyone, live however you want. But online, judgement is relentless and cruel. Have we lost the ability to wisely judge, and — eventually — forgive? Or did we never really have it in the first place?

These days, we want Rights, not religion. Choice, not Church. Pleasure, over prayer.  In Australia, and the world  increasingly, the market is the Messiah, and the self is the saviour.  But, if we’re the freest people who’ve ever lived, to choose our partners, careers, genders, and Gods or no God, free to buy anything, stream anything, be anything...why then do we seem to be unravelling?    In a w...

What is the state of women in Australia and globally in 2026?    Mainstream social media is increasingly clogged with misogyny, there's the horrendous revelations around Jeffrey Epstein, a rise in women killed by their partners and online harassment of women is at a peak. Are we going backwards?  Guests: Ginger Gorman is a journalist and author of Troll Hunting: Inside the World of Online Hate and...

Why would you trade the visible for the invisible?   And experts believe in the census later this year – for the first time ever - those ticking “no religion” will surpass Christians.  And it’s happening across the global north - even the US – where 95% believed in something 30 years ago – today, nearly 1-in-3 American’s say they’re atheist or agnostic or no religion in particular.  So why in this...

If forgiveness is a gift to yourself, what do you give when the harm is unforgiveable?  And it’s hard to believe, but some families endure unspeakable harm and somehow remain intact, while others fracture over what seems like nothing at all.  How do we hold space for the reality of suffering, even trauma – but also the possibility of redemption?  Our culture justifies righteous anger – the victim...

Imagine losing the only person who never judged you, never walked away, always made you feel safe.  Our culture, and our religions, can make us believe human loss is different to animals dying.  But tell that to someone who believes one of the most important relationships in their life is with their pet.  GUESTS: Dr Millie Cordaro, Professor of Psychology at Texas State University Dr Daniela Rizzo...

Credit and debt — borrowing and lending — have long been a part of life. Mortgage holders are all too familiar with the challenge of meeting their repayments and juggling the household budget — a challenge made even more difficult by the recent Reserve Bank decision to increase interest rates. But are financial commitments purely economic obligations, or do they come with a significant moral burde...

Of course, you believe you WOULD save a drowning child.  But that doesn’t make you a saint – in fact, depending on how you live the rest of your life, it could well make you a sinner.  For 50 years, PETER SINGER has been making uncomfortable observations like that. Peter is perhaps the world’s most influential philosopher - he’s shaped the way we think about animals and bioethics, abortion and eut...

After the targeting of Jews in the worst terrorist attack in modern Australian history – a Royal Commission into antisemitism has been announced by the PM. And many Australians refused to believe the something like Bondi could happen here.   But other Australians –Jews and Gentiles – warned the terror was not an isolated act, but a foreseeable progression – antisemitic thoughts leading to words le...