Australian Education FTW

On November 25, 2009, the former NSW Premier Nathan Rees made an unprecedented intervention to waive regulations, giving year 5 & 6 students in 10 State schools the choice between SRE (Special Religious Education) and the trial of Ethics-based classes.

There are a small uprising by the SREonTrial.com site but when their arguments are that ethics aren't as important as scripture, and that the Ethics class doesn't clearly communicate that the teaching of such philosophers like JS Mill is based on secular humanism which dismisses any notion of God, you know that they have no argument.

They are so clearly not worried about teaching our children to think for themselves about what is right or wrong but instead very scared of losing out on the next generation of religious drones.

Well done Nathan Rees.

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Doctors to 'print' new organs for transplant patients

Although God may not like amputees enough to give them the limbs they desire (See WhyWontGodHealAmputees.com), we are fortunate enough to have real doctors and scientists to look after us.

I cannot understate that fact enough.

Yesterday I found out a friend of mine had been diagnosed with having a brain tumour. It sounds horrific, and frankly it is, but the doctors and nurses simply said, "You're going to be fine, its an easy operation and we'll do the surgery within 2 weeks; we'll cut away part of the skull, take out the tumour and put your skull back in place."

Think about that for a second. How easy do they make it sound.

That is how far we have progressed in our knowledge of the human body. No longer are we are the mercy of an invisible force who would take away peoples life without any warning.

We as a species have learnt so much about the human body and its inner workings that we are now able to diagnose and treat even the most terrifying ailment such as a brain tumour and pass it off as if you were having a fracture re-set.

Now we are, nearly, at the stage where if an organ of ours fails, for whatever reason, we can simply create the necessary cells using our DNA, manipulate them into shape and create a completely new organ.

Doctors might one day be able to 'print' living body parts they need for surgery, including blood vessels and entire organs.

The astonishing technique is known as bio-printing and it could make the transplant list a thing of the past.

Currently patients on the transplant list have to wait months or even years before a suitable organ becomes available.

Some religious people may say that we are only acting according to God's plan, and without the tools he put in front of us we'd never have succeeded.

If anyone honestly things this then they should be very very concerned, because I cannot imagine people worshiping a God who is fucking toying with us. A God who torments us, by killing our friends and loved ones, into spurring us on to find bigger and better ways of saving people.

Surely a world where in the vastness, possible infinite, of space lived an organism that evolved from single cell organisms to the point were we can manipulate the world around us so much that we can create new ways of ensuring we can keep on procreating, is much more likely than one where a God created us in all his love but for millions of years tortured and tormented us until only the strongest survived.

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Scientists find a ‘hint of life’ on Saturn’s moon Titan

Scientists have found evidence that there is life on Saturn’s biggest moon, Titan.
They have discovered clues that primitive aliens are breathing in Titan’s atmosphere and feeding on fuel at the surface.

The startling discoveries, made using an orbiting spacecraft, are revealed in two separate reports.

Data from Nasa’s Cassini probe has analysed the complex chemistry on the surface of Titan – the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere.

Its surface is covered with mountains, lakes and rivers which has led astronomers to call it the most Earthlike world in the solar system.

Organic chemicals had already been detected on the 3,200-mile wide planet. But the liquid on Titan is not water but methane and the scientists expect life there to be methane-based.