Julia Gillard's observation that it is hard to understand Western literature without an appreciation of the Bible has resulted in claims that by extension the PM should back changes to the proposed national curriculum to include "the Roman conceptions of individual rights under law, the role of Christianity in shaping our values as well its role in education and hospitals, and the development of liberal democracies and capitalist society."
The link is clearly untenable. I could argue that an understanding of medical illness helps to understand criminal behaviour, but that would not result in the need to include psychology in an ethics course.
More generally, Gillard's position as a social and cultural conservative has been positioned as "in conflict with" her position as an unmarried atheist.
The reality is, as Christpoher Hitchens and others show, that you can find far more evidence of the Christian religion - especially Roman Catholicism - as being an opponent of democracy and the rights of law as you can of it being the source of our "values".
It was Roman law as applied by Christians that took the position that "evidence" from a commoner could not be regarded as reliable unless it was delivered under torture!
It is indeed nice to see in Julia Gillard a poster child for the idea that there is NOT an essential link between "conservative morals" and a religious disposition.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
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