Warning: anti religious rant

It's times like this last week or so that I am thankful for my rational upbringing and my clear and unencumbered mind. Whatever fiction based brand of religion you follow, you are limited by irrationality, indignation and tedious (and often ancient, outdated) pseudo morality.

A war is brewing because one group of religious fanatics said something mean about a dead guy who is revered by another group of religious fanatics. Sounds like a two thousand year old fable, but we're still stuck in that same old groove.

i am praying that religious education will be removed from the Victorian state school curriculum

When I was a child, I had a note from my parents that excused me from religious instruction. This was mainly due to my mother's wishes. She was as staunch an atheist as anyone I have ever met. I believe the class was somewhere from half an hour to an hour a week, during which time myself, a Japanese kid and another boy who I now assume was Jewish, would sit and draw or read. 

It wasn't exactly wasted time, as I have fond memories of how quiet and relaxing it was. A much more effective alternative however would have been to have the whole class sit through a session on ethics, rationality and morality as applied to society as a whole, taken by a real teacher.