Take Your Partners for the Fifth Annual Vic Skeptics Trivia Extravaganza
La Notte Restaurant
140 Lygon Street Carlton
Monday 18th May 2009
at the special time of 7.30 pm .
or join us for the traditional Third Monday meal at 6pm.
Lotsa individual and team prizes!
A donation is requested from each participant.
A Short Biography
Ian Robinson is President of the Rationalist Society of Australia and for a number of years edited the Australian Rationalist. He worked for more than twenty years as a senior curriculum officer, researcher and professional development officer with the Victorian Education Department and wrote their basic curriculum document, The Primary School Curriculum: A Guide for Victoria Schools (1979). Before that he was a Tutor in Philosophy at the University of Melbourne and then Lecturer in Education at Coburg Teachers’ College. He has a long list of educational publications. He was Buckley in the cabaret group “Buckley, Hope and Nun” performing at the Flying Trapeze Cafe and elsewhere. He has acted in and directed a number of plays including at La Mama and the Pram Factory. His one-act play “The Fountain of Love” won the 2006 National Playwright Competition; his fantasy story “The Crypt of Fleeting Hope” was published by Penguin; and he wrote the chapter on Bruce Doull in Footy’s Greatest Players. He is married to Logie-winning actress and artist Maggie Millar. He currently teaches Story Structure, Scriptwriting and Myths & Symbols at Chisholm Institute.
March, 2009
“Rudolf Steiner and the Anthroposophy Cult”
a talk by Ian Robinson to the Victorian Skeptics Monday 20 April, 2009 Summary:
First I will give a brief outline of Steiner’s life from his early infatuation with Goethe and German nature mysticism, through his involvement with Theosophy, to his final break with the latter and his establishment of the Anthroposophy cult and the inauguration of its exclusivist esoteric and secretive inner-circle know as “First Class“.
Then I will outline his eccentric and implausible Manichean world view, based on his own idiosyncratic mystical revelations, with its racist overtone.
I will show that, despite the protests to the contrary by its supporters, there is absolutely no doubt that Anthroposophy is to all intents and purposes a religion.
Finally, I will examine the two main areas where anthroposophy has insinuated itself into secular life in Australia: the “educational philosophy” known as the Waldorf school movement; and the allegedly planet-friendly system of cultivation known as biodynamic agriculture. I will conclude by making some suggestions for action that needs to be taken.