We should be moving towards a secular country.

[titbumwillypoo]

In the last census a third of the country identified as having no religion. This is a trend that is likely to increase in the future. I believe we should be moving towards having a complete separation of Church and state.

1. Removal of any religious leaders from the House of Lords. Believing in an invisible man is no qualification for having influence on the laws of our country.
2. Removal of charity status for all religions. Other entertainment venues don't get charity status, why should they? If they have a good business model for their club then the membership should be enough.
3. Removal of Faith schools. We don't let children drink or smoke or drive cars until they are mature enough to make that choice for themselves so why is it ok to allow them to be indoctrinated into these cults from such a young age?
4. Ban children from organised worship - See point 3
5. Ban religious symbols and dress from our streets. We don't allow nudists to wander around our city centres expressing their beliefs because it can cause offence so why do religions get to do it? What people do in their own home is up to them but publicly displaying your gang colours is divisive to a wider society. AIBU - Religion has a place in society AINBU - Religion is on the out and the faster it's gone the better.

I agree on number one. Number two doesn't make sense- lots of 'entertainment venues' other than religious places of worship are also registered charities, look at the many arts centre up and down the country.

Unsure on three.

Opposed to the others, I am a practising Christian and believe in religious freedom.

We can't afford to remove faith schools.

They were set up by various churches on land the churches owned and built by the churches.

The state pays money to them to act as state schools but the land and the buildings are owned by the churches that set them up.

If the government said that state education now had to include no religion then one of two things would happen

• the churches who own the schools would decide to go back to their original aim and educate children for free without support from the state (so would become effectively private schools that charged no fees)

• or the government would need to buy the land and buildings from the various churches to turn the schools into actual state schools which it cannot afford.

Neither of these options is good. So it will not happen.

I'm with you on the House of Lords, and (state funded) faith schools.

I have no issue with religious symbols and dress in public.

I think when people say "ban religion" they mean "ban Christianity" don't they? They'd probably be happy to imprison Christ if he returned.

Our fair, tolerant and just society has been built on what Christianity gave to us when it first arrived on our shores. And before anyone brings up the evils of the RC church, we didn't start off by being RC, the ancient Church was not RC and RC doesn't represent Christianity.

Fill your boots and get rid of it though if that's what makes you happy.

Then see what replaces it. That's already starting to make the population cry into their milk.

So you’re not going to celebrate Christmas or Easter then?

I remember years ago an air hostess was sacked for having a cross on display on a necklace.

She won her case at the European court of human rights.

So how do you work that in reality? Why do children need protecting from it? For most it is simply part of the family life. Some young people will grow up and make the choice to follow the same religion into adulthood others will make the choice to move away.

in your push for “secular” society your actually taking away people’s right to individual beliefs. Your views are more damaging than any religion.

@AllPrincessAnneshorses Tom Holland persuasively writes “this country swims in Christian waters”. And on reading Dominion I have come to agree

“People in the West, even those who may imagine that they have emancipated themselves from Christian belief, in fact, are shot through with Christian assumptions about almost everything. . . All of us in the West are a goldfish, and the water that we swim in is Christianity, by which I don’t necessarily mean the confessional form of the faith, but, rather, considered as an entire civilisation.”

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role_of_Christianity_in_civilization#:~:text=Christianity%20has%20been%20intricately%20intertwined,player%20in%20politics%20and%20religion. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role_of_Christianity_in_civilization#:~:text=Christianity%20has%20been%20intricately%20intertwined,player%20in%20politics%20and%20religion.]]]]

I don’t believe Christianity is naturally fading out in this country. Many people who come to live and work here from other countries are practicing Christians. The churches in my City are thriving

The link details what Christianity brought to the UK.

I voted YANBU but I think your points 4 & 5 are too draconian. We must still have freedom of belief and of expression.

Love this.

YABU OP. I'm an atheist.

1 and 2 I completely agree with. 3,4 and 5 sound intolerant, needlessly inflammatory and impossible to enforce.

I’m also an atheist and regard religion as a net negative in public life. I don’t believe we should have an established faith. I certainly don’t think it has any place in government.

But removing people’s rights to worship and a religious education is a very dangerous precedent.

@titbumwillypoo totally with you

The only way this will work is - NO indoctrination of children into Religion, communism, capitalism, nationalism, multi-culturalism, veganism etc etc until old enough to make up their own minds. (As parents couldn't be trusted to do this all kids to raised by the neutral state).

Everyone to wear uniform - the same uniform and the same haircut and facial hair. (No religious symbols).

All education run by the state and all teachers forced to teach without reference to religion, (this would exclude most history and literature as it wd be impossible to teach). But who needs it?

Committees set up to rule on what could and couldn't be done. (OP could be on one!)

Bodies to police the internet and all other interpersonal comms - just in case

Committees to define "religion"

Invisible men - inc Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, "The Government", "They" (As in "they wouldn't let that happen" , Amazon (that magic God of All Things), the Bank/ Pension Fund Manager who promise to pay..... (and we believe, we have faith) etc etc, all banned.

And all the other countries in the world would be delighted to take all the people from here who didn't want to live like that.

I'm beginning to enjoy this! Such fun times ahead.

OP: you across as intolerant and totalitarian.
I am a practising Catholic and my children go to Catholic schools and I relieved my daughters are not being taught that changing sex is possibility and the use of are single sex bathrooms enforced.
It strikes as ironic that the Catholic Church seems to be teaching proper biological science.
I pay taxes and I want my children to attend a Catholic school. I have brought them up in the faith so that when they are adults, they make an informed decision about whether to follow or unfollow their faith.

Nailed it.

We already live in a fascist dictatorship OP

I’m not religious but removing charity status tells me you have no clue the charitable work the church does in our communities. Christian’s against poverty is just one example and they help anyone from any background/religion so it’s for all. They also run most baby groups round here providing a safe space for parents to meet with their children. I found them invaluable when dc were small. I think you might be underestimating the good they do.

No 5. Every day when I step out of my house, I am bombarded with the sight of people flouting their religious imagery and clothing in my face. Wall to wall crucifixes, rosaries, statues of the Virgin Mary being carried aloft, you name it. Only yesterday, I tripped over a massive Mormon pair of religious undergarments some unthinking missionary from the Church of the Latter Day Saints had dropped in my front garden. Nearly broke my neck. Sometimes I can barely get past the massive pile of Watchtower leaflets on my front door step. As for the constant nuns' habits flapping about in my face whilst I do my Adli shop, stopping me from getting to the cheese, well, it's just got to stop. Burn them all at the stake. I'll also help you dismantle every single church, chapel, synagogue, mosque and spiritualist meeting room in the country, brick by brick.

Where has the OP gone??

@whoneedssixteen I think I love you. 😉 😂

Sounds overly controlling to me.

In my ideal world all religion would be wholly eradicated off the face of the earth. In this real world, I don’t think banning works. Education, proper education, means that regardless of what faith someone is brought up in their more likely to come to an atheist perspective than not. So it’s about attrition and resources really. Thankfully the UK is going in the right direction and will be minority religious in my lifetime. Other countries worry me a lot more.