Annie Jacobsen is a bold investigative journalist and the author of a string of portentous books on the military and intelligence institutions of the United States and on the acute dangers humanity at...

A senator asked the Australian Bureau of Statistics whether it thought a community campaign encouraging people to mark ‘No religion’ if they were not religious was “lawful” and “risked the integrity” ...

In the final weeks of the 2025 federal election campaign, I was asked by a senior Liberal Party official to meet two men described to me as small business people who wanted to assist local federal cam...

In my youth, somewhere in the late 1990s, when I was a goth or a punk or something, I had a t-shirt proclaiming, “Ignorance should not reproduce”. Along with the text there was a provocative image, wh...

The Rationalist Society of Australia is calling on the Cook government to prioritise the wellbeing needs of Western Australia’s public schoolkids, instead of the coffers of religious labour-hire agenc...

Charles Darwin, the famous naturalist, suffered debilitating, relapsing illness for most of his adult life. Early symptoms of this illness were present even when he was a student and were evident befo...

Observing Christian prayers in parliament allows non-religious and non-Christian people to “understand the Christian language” embedded in Australian laws and institutions, the Australian Christian Lo...

Commissioner Virginia Bell has been asked to inquire into the antisemitism which resulted in the murder of 15 Jews on Bondi Beach in December 2025. From what is public knowledge, one can only wonder i...

The West Australian Governor’s promotion of religious chaplaincy has pitted him against the state’s public school communities which have called for an end to religious-based discrimination in the fund...

The push for a federal faith advisory body that would give religious clerics a privileged voice in the policy-making process appears to have stalled, with a government department confirming that no wo...

The Museum of Contemporary Art announced that the Divine Playhouse would return and reunite more than 50 artists for a three-night celebration in October.

One of my favourite movies, even though the ending is fantastical, is The Martian. Its hero is a botanist. He decides to “science the shit” out of the problem when he is stranded alone on the planet Mars. The ‘martian’ states that “Mars will come to fear my botany powers!” Not many heroes are botanists.

Pentecostal pastor Margaret Court has called on the West Australian Labor government to continue requiring the observance of Christian prayers at the opening of every day in parliament and had argued for the Ten Commandments to be in schools. In a video message posted to her church’s Facebook page recently, Pastor Court told her followers

In a speech praising Hanson, the Exclusive Brethren leader also told his flock Australia should use its uranium to “build a few bombs”.

Catholic school authorities that "cautioned" parents against voting a certain way during the 2025 federal election period appear to have so far avoided scrutiny in the federal parliament’s inquiry int...

A parliamentary inquiry may subpoena Exclusive Brethren leaders to force them to answer questions about the church’s secret “election influence campaign” with the far-right for the Coalition.

The Victorian Labor government has spent more than $300,000 of taxpayers’ money this year hosting fancy dinners exclusively for religious communities. Documents obtained by the Rationalist Society of ...

When two popular science magazines – out of about 17 in circulation – ceased publication in the same year, one commentator said: “The science magazines didn’t shake out. They fell apart.” The general ...

The Queensland regulator that launched an investigation into two Christian schools over concerns they were teaching religious stories as part of science classes says it will not be taking action again...

Leaked messages reveal the full story of how the Exclusive Brethren secretly recruited far-right agitators and neo-Nazi associates to harass MPs at the election.

After almost two years of delays, the government’s respectful relationships and consent framework secretly removed a recommendation for an explicit approach to sex education.

How important is it that kids learn to tell right from wrong? Businessman and former university chancellor David Gonski recently called for ethics classes to be rolled out in all Australian schools to...

Melbourne’s city council has acknowledged an increase in religious street preachers using “excessive amplification” through the use of microphones and loudspeakers in recent years in apparent contrave...

A national organisation set up by the Christian Brothers that runs 61 Catholic schools across Australia is considering severing its ties with the order amid mounting tensions over abuse payouts.

Not even a stunt orchestrated by activist group GetUp! could derail One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s first appearance at the National Press Club in 30 years. While Hanson’s 1996 maiden speech was a ...

Councillors at a local council in New South Wales pleaded for their colleagues not to re-introduce Christian prayers as part of formal meetings, arguing that it was “unreasonable” and “exclusionary” t...

A Brisbane school has been forced to address parents' concerns after a trainee church worker allegedly told students that being gay could lead to hell.

The West Australian government is giving several millions of dollars annually to cover the administration overheads of religious organisations that recruit chaplains, while public schools are increasi...

Before a visa is granted, most applicants over 18 must sign a short declaration. It is called the Australian Values Statement, and it commits them to respect the freedom and dignity of the individual, freedom of religion, freedom of speech and association, the rule of law, parliamentary democracy, equality of opportunity, a “fair go”, and

Heated arguments as council restores prayer to meetings

Voluntary assisted dying laws have passed the Northern Territory Parliament tonight, in a move that will legalise the practice across Australia.

The author of the seminal Gonski review into education funding has told the royal commission that antisemitism education should begin in preschool.

The Rationalist Society of Australia has questioned a New South Wales council about how much public money was spent on installing a six-metre, five-tonne marble statue of Mother Mary in a local park. ...

How we think and feel about science develops from an early age – and we never know where that early interest might take us. Take Hannah. As a young child, she was fascinated by the way a glass prism can split sunlight into different colours. At university she studied the way light can interact with liquids.

Several public schools have been pleading with the West Australian government to be allowed to use federal funds to directly appoint wellbeing professionals instead of having to use labour hire firms,...

The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church says it did not pay or coordinate with far-right influencers to harass and intimidate candidates during last year's federal election, following allegations publi...

A digital trail of evidence and political and church insiders have revealed how the wealthy Christian sect mobilised influencers around the country to track and heckle candidates.

Archbishop Anthony Fisher has accused the ABC of breaching its own impartiality standards through what he describes as one-sided coverage of proposals to expand voluntary assisted dying (VAD) access v...

In early June, in this magazine, I expressed exasperated astonishment with Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical on artificial intelligence (AI) and the human future because its entire text contains not a single citation from any research on AI as such, whether from a technological or from a socio-economic point of view. Instead, it refers exclusively to