Why should religion have any influence on our lives?

[Mudhammam]

I think you'd be surprised. Certainly the schools our children went to gave a lot of time to other faiths (and organised visits to places of worship, and had speakers from other faiths), and it's from a position of respecting faith. I think a Catholic, for example, is perhaps more likely than an atheist to respect the Hindu or Islamic faith - because they (we) 'get' faith. There's something I share with a devout Muslim that I don't, and can't, share with an atheist. And I don't need to try to find the things we (the Muslim and I) have in common; in a way I feel more connected to those trying to go as deep as they can into their own faith than with those who are looking for commonality between the faiths. We frequently meet each other by going 'down' rather than 'across' I think, if you see what I mean.

That's probably true. I wasn't speaking about respecting a person's faith. I was only speaking about learning of religious history, tradition, rules, practices, etc., which I suspect an atheist is more likely to properly analyse in the broader spectrum of human experiences, alongside Catholicism, whereas a Catholic is apt to esteem those faiths in lieu of Church dogma.