Why should religion have any influence on our lives?

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I was talking about schools as well Fidel (have a re-read - I specifically mentioned schools for both Christians and Muslims as examples). Both our children went to brilliant faith (Catholic) schools where worship, prayer and teaching of Christian faith were warp and weft through the school day (10% of the curriculum, from aged 5 to 16). This is the precious freedom we have in the UK, and parents (who pay for the schools through their taxes) love and want this freedom to choose schools that fit with their beliefs (or lack thereof) and values.

Do you support this freedom that we have in the UK?

I do not support publicly funded faith based schools. They should be banned as they are an affront to the secular values society holds and serve to create more disunity than unity.

If religions want to set up their own faith schools they can use their own (often substantial) wealth to do so. They should not be using the tax revenues generated by people who the majority of which do not hold or accept their religion.

I went to a secular grammar school where no religion was taught as true. Our student body was around 25% Muslim. How many children who follow Islam attended your children's faith school?

You're also kidding yourself if you think parents love the schools because of the religion; they love them because of the generally higher grades that children get who attend faith schools. Consider that the number of faith schools has been rising whereas the number of people adhering to those same religions has in almost all circumstances been falling.

Also, there are no 'lack of belief' schools.