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'm a non religious British Jew and I feel very strongly that the UK is and should remain a Christian country.

I agree with you on points 1 and 3 - and I am a Christian. I am very anti faith schools. My dc attended one because it was the village school, so no choice. That is wrong. Government money should not be used to fund non secular schools.

And don't get me started on bishops in the HoL.

I don't agree with points 4 and 5. I'm.ambivalent on point 3.

I agree with some of what you have said but not all. I don't agree with faith schools and as long as all schools are subject to an Ofsted type inspection and have to follow specific rules I think privately funded faith schools are ok. Taxpayer money should not fund faith schools and the current Tory proposal to stop the requirement for faith schools to have a % of non /different faith is dangerous.

IMO religion is a source of control, all religions breach equality laws - why are there no women priests in the Catholic Church?(and how to Catholics justify this to their girls), why do Muslims line up for prayer with women at the back?

I don't have a problem with people wearing what they want as long as they abide by our laws eg I can't see how wearing a niqab is acceptable at airports).

@Scarletttulips too difficult to get off when needing the toilet. Maybe a simple tunic and trews?

I agree to a certain extent, points 1,2 and 3.

Do religious leaders actually believe it or is it just a way of getting the population to “comply”?
And let’s face it, it’s the cause of countless wars and the repression of women!

Not convinced there’d be fewer wars without religion. We’d just find different excuses to start them.

I'm not religious but nah fuck that, sounds a bit much.

How is that going to work with Islam?

I can't see Muslims taking very kindly or peacefully to your proposals.

Many entertainment venues are registered charities! Our local arts venues all are, local cinema is even.

My church provides the socially services the state fails to provide for a contact centre for separated parents to social clubs for adults with learning difficulties, toddler group, food bank, activities for older adults ... and no requirement to be a member of the church to use them. We don't earn money so no tax to pay. The gift aid we get helps us fund these as the service users are not charged

Goady McGoady thread.

Religion tends to be an excuse for war, not the root cause. The real reasons are generally power and money.

Step 4 and 5, definitely much too far, remember staunch atheism is the other side of the coin to evangelism, and a bit of a worrying suggestion,maybe getting carried away thefe.

Agreed step 1. Step 2, really? Churches are not entertainment venues, they serve the public on a different level, pastors and parishioners are there in bad times and good, a vicar will come to your house and pray for your dying relative. You might not need this, but spirituality is ancient and innate in human beings, the hundreds of 12th century churches, often built on earlier sites of spirituality over the UK attest to this.

Step 3, good arguments for and against this. I've viewed it as a positive - I can get my kids into a good school if I go to church regularly. But equally I can see the other side so I'm not sure tbh.

Having said all that, I'd be more worried about the extreme fundamentalist branches of any religion than the little old C.o.E and church schools.

An atheist and I think you are being massively unreasonable. I agree on the house of lords. I also agree on schools because I think it causes division. We can't educate people separately according to their religion then throw them into society together and expect them to get along. Better to have everyone educated together about all the major religions so that we all become more understanding of other's viewpoints. Your other ideas are way too far IMO.

So, it's very complex though isn't it? It's nuanced. I am a nominal Christian, but I don't believe in a God, and view religion as very dangerous at it's fundamentalist end. I think I put myself down as Humanist on the Census.

So, I think we should remain a nominally Christian country, as that is what our laws and morals are based upon. However, I do believe we should distance church and state, in all politics, education, and public services, and that does, by it's very nature limit the expression of faith practices and beliefs in those institutions eg: Michaela school prayer practices by Muslim students, and access to Abortion rights against Christian fundamentalist beliefs, as two examples.

This!

Definitely agree but 1, 2 and 3, but I don't think you can ban children - or anyone else - from attending worship on a private basis and I'm not comfortable about telling people how to dress, unless as PPs have said it's offensive

Basically I've every respect for individuals' rights to their belief; I just don't want them forming any part of public policy or being allowed to impose on others

I’m with you on 1&3. Faith has no place in state institutions

For 2 it depends on whether the church does charitable work

4&5 are ridiculous, nobody needs to be banned from doing anything, as long as they aren’t forcing others to participate.

My guiding principle is that everyone should be free to follow their own faith but not impose it on others (including by the back door eg faith schools).

God no. You're suggesting an intolerant state. I think there's already so much done lately with good intentions but unintended consequences. I'm an atheist, but lately started thinking about what humans loose from losing religion. Their humanity comes to mind...

What is described here isn't secularism. it's intolerance.

OP this would require the UK to withdraw from the European convention on Humans Rights and a complete rewrite of the Equality Act

So I shouldn’t be allowed to take my daughter to church with me and let her take part in Sunday School/nativity plays etc. all that she loves doing (she is 7 so is now old enough to be asked if she wants to come and has the option to go to her cousin’s house if not - she always comes).

This.

It just sounds a bit Stalinist Russia.

Do religions really cause so many issues?

I'm a Jew and we just quietly get on with life. We look after our elderly, disabled, and lonely. Nobody slips through the net and we do a lot for non-Jewish charities and causes.

Let's address point 4. At the minute it's not illegal to smack your child in England and Northern Ireland but it is in Scotland and Wales. Many people would argue that hitting a child is abuse and I would agree with them that it has no place in modern society. I see the brainwashing of children into a faith as an equal form of abuse which also has a long lasting detrimental effect on them.
Also some religions are able to completely disregard laws on equality. Is it right that they can discriminate against women and LGB people in their practises? If they want to be a private members club that sets it's own rules that's fine by me but that means they also lose out on the benefits they get from society.

How would you square this with the many, many people that don't follow a religion, but follow a belief set?

The closest I'd come to my beliefs is Wiccan and I wear a pentagram at all times. Would you ban that? What about the Triple Moon? The Triquetra? The Green Man? How about the Ankh? The Evil Eye? The Wheel? The Triple Spiral? The egg? Candles? Pumpkins?
There are so many symbols of belief all around us you'd have to ban almost everything in sight to comply with your last point.

And if you wanted to enforce your secular dystopia, would you also be prepared to lose your Easter and Christmas bank holidays? How about Whitsun holidays for our kids? Do we get rid of Valentine's Day?

Religion, especially of the Christian kind, but also many, many pagan beliefs are everywhere. You cannot ban them, our society is built around them. So are many of our laws.

This would be totally impossible to police... unless you were going to get social services to remove children who are born into religious families....which is quite a terrifying prospect.