Politics and religious beliefs

While I have commented occasionally on political matters on this blog I have not, until now, given religion any blogtime (one doesn't need to, they have enough nuns, monks, priests, vicars, bishops and talk-back radio hosts to look after that).

Of course some politicians do make a point of their faith, even ones who admit to telling porkies to win their case.  The politician covered in that link is widely known to be a staunch Catholic.  While that is not a description that has ever been attached to me (I'm a lapsed Anglican at the strongest) I see that as his business and probably reckon it is good that he's out of the closet on that one at least!

So we now find the same politician objecting to Emissions Trading as a ''so-called market in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no one''.

Lets have a slightly re-ordered  look at the components of that statement:

• "a so called market": a market is simply a system for trading.  Very few people would, in 2013, expect it to be a physical location, but perhaps this politician's ideas are a little (in geological scales) behind the times.
• "non-delivery": don't focus on the negative Tony! It is about the delivery of  of clean air - preventing the bad stuff is simply a mechanism.
• "to no-one".  even by his standards this is bullshit for emphasis.
• "an invisible substance": I will admit that you can't see clean air or oxygen or carbon dioxide.  You can see carbon particles however - they go under the general description of "smoke".  However my main point is that religion is also involved with something invisible.  When I used to attend Sunday School a favourite hymn began with the words "Immortal invisible ....".

Even by this politician's standards a statement with 4 elements, every one of which is either daft or against his previous views is a very low achievement.  One lives in hope that this is the giant clanger for which we have been waiting since 1 December 2009.  Bring back Malcolm Turnbull !