I’m 100% against faith schools. I’d also like RE replaced with moral philosophy. Instead of teaching Bronze Age myths, we should be passing on the works of Dickens, Bertrand Russell, Gandhi, Mark Twain, etc. There is more moral beauty in a Dickens novel than in the whole of the Bible. In fact, there is more moral beauty in P. G. Wodehouse. And I don’t say that lightly. The warm, kind, forgiving, all-embracing humour of Wodehouse is vastly more moral than the Old Testament, with its slavery and genocide.
I used to think religion was on its last legs in the U.K. I’m not so sure now. Many of the churches near me are full of African immigrants, and Africa has the highest birth rate in the world. In fact, their birth rate is so high the African population is going to double. Europe, on the other hand, has a very low birth rate. Mass immigration from Africa and the Middle East could lead to a religious revival in Europe. On top of that, highly educated people tend to be the least religious, but they also have fewer children.
I should think both the Catholic Church and Islam dread the modernisation of Africa. Imagine a continent in which women have control over their own bodies! God forbid. Then they might only have one or two kids. That would mean they’d have the time and money to educate themselves and their children, which would mean they’d start thinking for themselves. Then what would happen? No, no, much better to keep African women poor and ignorant and constantly pregnant.