An Evening with George Ellis

As being part of ISCAST, a group of Christians in the sciences and technology, I had chance to have desert, coffee and conversation with George Ellis. George is a mathematical physicist from South Africa, a Quaker, a peace activist and a Templeton scholar. He is a softly spoken, gentle man with a broad interest in science and theology.

The evening ranged over climate change (asking my opinion and that of another meteorologist present), environmental extremism, emergence and forestry managment, the nuclear industry, complexity and consciousness, Christology, soteriology and the Trinity. A casual evening's chat.

He shared some very interesting material on how bees can learn and use symbolic systems to navigate mazes (work being done at the Australian National University). He also advocates the use of nuclear power to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, something I remain unconvinced on. There is hope in pellet reactions (not sure on the details) and the suggestion of dumping waste in subduction zones, to be reprocessed into the mantle (so long as nowhere near volcanoes?)

Other interesting tidbits. Costa Rica has no army (but I guess under the watch of the US) and can spend more on other programs (health, education, etc). Bhutan has a gross happiness product, not a GDP. What a measure! Hard to calculate but infinitely more holistic.

When pushed on theological issues, George shows his Quaker reticence on creedal formulations, or indeed pushing any theological model too far (far less than he'd push a scientific one!) I tried to point him to NT Wright's Evil and the Justice of God, SPCK 2006, which far from pushing a "child abusing" God, advocates a Christus Victor model of atonement. George sees the cross largely in kenotic terms, from which he draws his ethics as in Murphy and Ellis, On the Moral Nature of the Universe (of which I know have an autographed copy).

God is to be thanked for George Ellis' clarity of thought in many areas, and to be prayed for in his personal convictions.

Pirate Australia

The immigration debate continues in Australia and there isn't much I have to add for the moment. However, something funny in a peverse sort of manner struck me about the idea of offshore detention and processing (I notice in a recent newspaper piece, former Prime Minister Malcom Fraser referred to detention centres as jails - too true).

If we excise the entire country from the immigration zone, imprison people offshore and if they are found to be refugees, encourage them to go elsewhere - what have we done? Have we made our fair land "Fortress Australia"? Yes, but not a good enough label. In an episode of "The Goodies", Grahame becomes insane (what's new) with meglomania and decides to tow all of England outside of the 5-mile limit to create a pirate country. That is what this present government is trying to do - take Australia outside of its own immigration zone so refugees (legitimate or otherwise) have no rights that should be accorded to refugees.

So, pirate immigration policy. But wait, there's more. Small buisinesses have been towed outside of unfair dismissal laws - pirate buisinesses. And we let Australian citizens sit in Guantanamo bay, not as enemy combatants but as persona non grata - pirate jails. What next? Perhaps having a majority in the senate after we vote once for a package deal is pirate politics.

I'm off to watch Pirates of the Carribean now!