mikk "KEEP IT TO YOURSELF!"

They do.

Students only attend the class chosen by their *parents*.

They can also not attend at all.

It's optional.

I never attended (Not because my parents weren't religious. Unfortunately, there were. My father was a Jehovah's Witness minister. But there were too few students or no available mentor for our own class.)
Non-attendees can use the time to catch up on schoolwork. Win-win.

Schools are places of learning essential and verifiable facts; along with the most plausible hypothesis?

Churches are places that promulgate and inculcate entirely unprovable myth and often contradictory legend?

And like East and West. Never the twain should meet.

Incidentally, some folks, (a significant portion/around 40%?) still believe that the sun revolves around the earth; as part of so called faith based conviction! (Dr Carl and ABC fact check.)

And underlines the need to exclude all faith based conviction from our educational institutions; particularly those with their hand out for some public funding!
Rhrosty.

Rhrosty "And like East and West. Never the twain should meet."

Racist!

Dear Rhrosty,

So you find it acceptable for religious people to be taxed in order to provide funds for YOUR educational institutions, so that YOUR children can be brainwashed with whatever ideas your state wishes to imprint on their minds (including, but not limited to, your personal preference for verifiable facts)?

This has nothing even to do with social welfare: by your ideas it seems, even poor (but religious) parents should be made to pay for the schooling of wealthy (but secular) children - to have their children go hungry so that your children can enjoy every luxury in their schools, that as a punishment for refusing to have their children indoctrinated by your secular state.

What an interesting sense of justice...

Yuyutsu
Churches have often been the state. As they are in Muslim countries today.
They are often not elected though, but appointed by the imans.

There for they are not chosen by the people. They are dictatorships, whereas
Democratic states are elected by the people. Democracy itself is not perfect, but
It is the only system in the world where the people have any say at all.

Priests and imans live off the monies collected by the church, therefore they
Have a monetary self interest in allowing no scientific questioning that might weaken
the number of their followers and thus cut off their income.
Believe in a god if you must but do not trust in or give any power to the church and the men who run it.
Most of them are far from holy and have no idea how to make just laws for the people whom they have power over.
Much like politicians really.

Dear Cherful,

What you write is sadly true.

Such churches have become part of the state and a "religion" in name only.

What I repeatedly urge on this forum, is that people stop blaming religion for the crimes of organisations which are (either to begin with or have become over the centuries) religious in name only. Instead, you should point your finger at those organisations, churches and mosques and tell them in their face: "YOU ARE NOT RELIGIOUS!"