"You actually need a Saviour just like I do," Runner pontificates.

Sorry, Runner, but I don't need a saviour in my life. And I don't need a god in my life either. And I don't need religion in my life and neither do I need the absolute deceit that all religion peddles.

I gave up believing in Santa when I was very young.

Some people, even in adulthood, can't!

runner,
I am secular and an a non theist yet I will back my ethics and decency against any church supporter.

No non theist ever murdered another human being because of the others belief in a different god or religious theory. Non-theists have never forced an inquisition on other people or behaved as one of the leading protestant leaders of old did when he said, "Kill them all, God will know his own."

In about 1630 the Bishop of Bamberg had 900 so called witches executed The Bishop of Wurtzburg despatched about 1200 witches via the stake. The youngest ever victim recorded was 4 years old.

No wonder people are sending their children to church schools.
The SMH reports today that Australia ranks 26th out of 28 in government funding of public or state schools but 4th in government funding of non government (mainly religious) schools.

There are two great evils, blind faith and the indoctrination of children. I subscribe to neither.

Foyle your selected passages of history might ease your conscience and justify to yourself your unbelief. The reality is that secularism has shown itself as corrupt as the Catholic church.

Funding has very little to do with parents choosing private schooling and I suspect you know that. It has everything to do with failed secular dogma which leads to more bullying, more drugs, more teen pregnancies, more intolerance. While private schools are by no means exempt from this the rates of these things are considerably lower as shown by the way people vote with their feet and money.

If you think more money improves failed dogma just look at the billions spent on trying to fix aboriginal issues. Time to face the truth and stop being in denial.

David G - "Steven Hawking has just proved that God does not exist."

Hawking did not prove that God does not exist. It impossible to do so. He has a scientific theory like many others and he has weighed into the debate about the existence of God, which is always welcomed. You can have theories and reasons for the existence or non-existence of God, but to declare that someone has proved it is just getting a little excited.

Glen's article, like Arthur N commented, is written to an audience and is a bore. Just look at the pedantic list of suggestions as to how the new building should be used. And read the titles of Glen's other articles. He obviously has a chip on his shoulder about the teaching of religion in schools.

When you teach, you teach with a philosophy one way or the other. A Christian philosophy is as good as anything else and much better than many other ways of teaching. You are kidding yourself if you think that a secular approach is free from all shackles of prejudice.

We all have dogmas, no matter what our background is, and Glen's dogmas are fairly obvious.

We all have our dogmas: some of them are based on demonstrable facts and some aren't. Guess which group Christianity falls into.

As for the existence of the traditionalist Christian God, that can easily be disproved to the highest standards required by any court of law or scientific laboratory in this country. If anyone wants to insist on a higher standard, then it's up to them to explain why.

This realy is further proof that Queensland and NSW are increasingly very different from the rest of the country. Can the rest of us ceed from these guys. Look at the last election the only people who counted were thoses in the two northern feedlots.

Religion is a private matter and has no place in public school.