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.

And parents have views on all sorts of subjects that their children are influenced by. Politics, music, food, hobbies... children aren't raised in a vacuum. Their parents heavily influence them in many areas of their life.

I wonder if the OP would have the police raid informal house churches, you know, like Iran and China.

We're not really a Christian country now.
Our morals and ways of living are based on a Christian ethos, but how many of us say grace before a meal, prayers before bed, go to church regularly or really understand the significance of eg Good Friday/Easter?

Even if the op was theoretically correct about religion, the actual implementation of lots of these ideas would lead to a really terrifying police state.

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?

When it comes to women there's an argument to be made that they nearly all discriminate, but overall this is the sort of thing I meant about religion not being allowed to stand above the law, far less be involved in making it

Unfortunately far too many lobby for their "special case", and all this for something which is fundamentally a personal choice

@OhHelloMiss It's Sunday. She's at church.

I have to say, I'm leaning heavily in this direction myself. Religion seems to be the root of a huge percentage of problems in the world. That and grossly disproportionate wealth (the 1% versus everyone else).

Yes I would agree. There is no need for a school to have to teach or promote a person's preferred choice of sky pixie. Teaching philosophy and how religions have influenced human thought would be useful.

I 100% agree. Religion causes way more problems than it solves.

Yes people can believe what they want. But it should have zero place in law or in schools.

I'm an atheist and disagree with points 4 and 5. I have no problem with religious symbols or whatever people choose to wear, provided all people adhere to basic 'decency' rules e.g. their sexual parts are covered, and their faces are uncovered.

I would like to see faith schools phased out, and education become secular.
If religion was banned altogether, it would go underground making it even more dangerous. Also, the distinction between recognized religions, extreme religions, cults and other groups is very hard to define.

As much as I have issues with faith schools given that in most cases the land is owned by the church and the church funds part of the school. If that was suddenly stopped from happening then it would cause a lot more problems than it solves!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13330939/Jewish-eruv-Golders-Green-Sabbath-religions-division-fears.html
Just came across this which I found interesting. So I knew some of the Shabbat rules but the not being able to push a wheelchair must have been one I missed. One one hand I applaud the religious leaders for finding a way to support the disabled and elderly in their community by finding a compromise, but on the other hand surely finding a loophole in the rules just shows the rules are daft in the first place. If religions are able to tweak their rules to align more with wider society that's better than expecting society to try and accommodate the daft rules they have.

My children are well loved and well cared for. The fact that we have been to church this morning and they will attend their faith schools tomorrow does not make me an abusive child monster.

you might not agree with my beliefs, and that’s fine, but you don’t have the right to remove mine.

1-3 fine. 4 and 5? Erm, no.

PotteringAlonggotkickedoutandhadtoreregister, I don't know which church you're in but as a Christian can you justify why in modern Britain the RC church is allowed to discriminate against women and gay people?

How are the RC church discriminating?

You are going too far. A secular country should still allow for adults to express their religion in public.

1-3 are good policy. With regards to 3 you could not prevent independent faith schools, but they should not be government funded.

the rest are impossible. what constitutes a religious belief and what constitutes simply a philosophy or an association. If I wear Star Wars clothing, is that a fandom or a religion? Who gets to decide?

I agree with no charity status and no faith schools. The rest is horrific, especially the issue around religious symbols and dress. I'm an atheist and I strongly believe people like me should have freedom from religion, but I also believe everyone should have the freedom to express their religion. If they want to wear crosses, veils, skullcaps, whatever, I am fine with that.

The RC church doesn't allow female priests or allow gay marriage. I'd call that discrimination.

I agree, but France have tried it and it causes too many problems because of Islam.

It just isn't worth the hassle of trying to do it.

You’re right, it is, and it shouldn’t be acceptable in today’s world.

so you’re going to ban Catholicism. And Islam. And Judaism.

and then you’re going to stop people having the freedom to believe what they want. Or wear what they want. Or to being their children up how they want.

and that, to me, seems even worse in terms of intolerance and discrimination.

I think that's quite dangerous actually, it's keeping children in ignorance. Not a good idea. Non denoms/multi denoms are a much better idea. Exposure to all so as to promote understanding and tolerance.

Religion will survive so long as people are afraid of death.

I've at no point said ban religion I've just highlighted some steps that would help lessen it's influence on society. Why should organisations that promote discrimination and division be protected? If they can't modernise then they have no place in a system that is moving towards better equality.

This.
@titbumwillypoo OP, you are being evangelical about this, no?