This article in The Age today (Abbott-feels-heat-on-Jesus-claim) has sent my blood burning! I am passionate about education and passionate about free enquiry; however, I am also passionate about preventing children being told unsubstantiated facts by people without either a background in what they are talking about, nor a background in education!
Tony Abbott claimed to year 5 and 6 students at Trinity Gardens Primary School on Friday that the Earth was warmer 2000 years ago in "the time of Julius Caesar and Jesus of Nazareth." Now let us stop for a moment and consider this statement; it is an easily testable statement. Scientists have a very rigorous way of determining what the climate was like in the past. The use of ice cores from the North and South poles, mud coring from lake and sea beds, tree rings and even historical records! All of which can be confirmed against current real records from the recent past. So Tony Abbott is making a very testable claim, that is patently and undeniably false given our current yet extensive understanding of climate history.
What I am most offended by is not that Mr Abbott believes such statements as fact; after all, one can only assume he does because he has not stated anything Else publicly on record to make us believe he doesn't; but the fact that he is spouting this fact to children! Children are very impressionable and take statements authority very seriously. What are they to think when a man like Tony Abbott walks into their classroom followed by a gaggle of reporters and cameras and then hear him make such claims? They will likely think he speaks truth, after all why else would people want to listen to him if he spoke lies?
Mr Abbott is quite plainly trying to recruit children to his way of "sceptical" thinking. This is truly appalling and is not the sort of thing I expect from a leader of any political persuasion of this nation.
Mr Abbott, leave the education of our nation's children to trained educators! Your Jesuit education might have left you disadvantaged when it comes to true rational enquiry, but do not seek to place that same disadvantage on today's generation of students.
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Great start to your new blog! I agree. Abbott has shown clearly that he is loose with the truth and not beyond lying to children in order to prop up his own religious and political biases. On this issue Abbott is simply parroting the Catholic Church's view on global warming - particularly that of Cardinal George Pell who is reportedly, 'deeply skeptical about man-made catastrophic global warming'. What makes Pell more of an expert on man-made global warming than the vast majority of earth scientists who support the theory, I don't know! The 2005 Bald Archy was awarded to Tony Sowersby for his painting of Abbott as Pell's ventriloquist's dummy. Seems not much has changed since then.
ReplyDeleteIt's scary stuff alright Scott ... I fear Australia is sliding slowly but surely in the same direction as the US, with all their nut-job religos. And it'l be really slim pickings for us come election time .. thankfully we still have the Greens, otherwise it would be a lost cause. Keep up the good work .. we need people like you & Chrys bringing these things to our attention, to make sure the rest of us don't become apathetic.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post.
ReplyDeleteI just don't know if I could handle living in the Australia created by an Abbott government. I hope the Greens become the LibDem's of Oz.
Thanks for the support everyone it is much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteI believe my next blog will be about what we can do as individuals; it's surprising a lot.
I agree Scott. We have to speak up even if we think we're just shouting into the wilderness. I live by two creeds.
ReplyDeleteThe first, probably falsely bot most commonly attributed to Edmund Burke is:
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
The second, attributed to Pastor Martin Neimoller speaks of how good German people allowed the holocaust to happen:
"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up."
Chrys
Hi there Scott. nice blog! Wow what a pillock is Abbott. So he wants to indoctrinate the young with religion and climate change denial!
ReplyDeleteOh Their God!
This happened in Adelaide! It's clearly part of a strategy to make our city even more of a provincial backwater than east-coasters have been claiming it is. Of course it isn't and hopefully these kids will have this misinformation corrected by their teachers quick smart.
ReplyDelete