Australia’s new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has confirmed she is an atheist.
This morning during a Melbourne radio interview, the new Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard was asked point blank:
“Do you believe in God?”
Her reply:
“No I don’t, John”
And if all the lies Christians loved to tell were true, Australia would quickly be led into genocide, eugenics, and all sorts of other nasty consequences. But atheism is not a philosophy. Nothing normative concludes from atheism. It’s a descriptive position. And Australia is a democracy, not a dictatorship. Gillard is going to be led by the politics of her party, her own ethical system (which I’ll hazard is somewhat libertarian, but maybe someone from Australia will read this and be more specific and/or accurate), and – thankfully – not religion. In other words, reality is firm in her mind.
Filed under: Atheism/Humanism, News, Politics and Social | Tagged: atheism, Australia, Julia Gillard |
For the Sake of Science 
I’m so very pleased that Australia has finally elected not only a woman, but an atheist as well. Perhaps now we can stop the over zealous religious bullying that goes on with Christians pushing their faith-based agendas in the schools. Keep that ridiculous nonsense in churches. Or better yet, eliminate it all together for the betterment of all mankind.
Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
This is the best news I’ve heard during this campaign. I respect peoples religions, BUT, ones personal deep inner understanding on these matters is just that, PERSONAL. There is no place in a modern world for this to be mixed up with politics. Take a lesson from the fact that YOUR country is at WAR with the Taliban if you disagree.
This is a sad admission on the part of PM Gillard. And in some way, I wonder if it’s actually true. Did someone take her comments out of context just to make your pitiful atheistic point more credible?
I must say, those who believe we all arrived on this Earth by happenstance and by some coincidence has far more faith than any Christian who ever lived. All we need is a mustard seed…
Shane, Julia Gillard has long been an atheist, and is well known as such in Australia. Unlike some other countries, this is not a particularly controversial position for an Australian politician to hold. Many extremely successful Western democracies are led by people who are atheists, or are of no known religious belief. The US is very much an outlier among industrialized nations in regards to the religiosity of the public sphere.