"Aren't Western culture and civilisation distinctly, uniquely and inherently Christian?" I'd say the answer is -"No,it isn't". Most of the institutions that define Western civilisation have origins in Greco-Roman culture,the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution,Modern Christianity is a product of Western culture,it was not the inspiration for it.It took us in the West 1500 years to escape from the suffocating and lethal power of theocracy and superstition,I hope that the inhabitants of Islamic countries manage to do the same.
Christianity has no greater claim on Western civilisation than any other religion,those Christians, who think that it has, should examine their proprietorial claims in the light of history.

“So I often put up with having Christianity rubbed in my face”.
Broaden your horizons – take a more comprehensive view of the world. Then might come the realization that people like Dawkins with his The God Delusion is the result of having – not just Christianity – but religion in general rubbed in his face; gratuitously; continuously: each faith arrogantly ascribing, to itself alone, whatever beneficial aspect of, or civilized advancement made, by human-kind; with little regard to inclusiveness by giving respect to differing views of others.
As has already been posted, progress to civilized behavior was built upon more than a foundation stone of religion

And again our secularist are to blind to see that our first schools and hospitals were built as a result of peoples faith. It was only later the secularist decided to hijack the show and lower the standards.

Section 116 of the Australian Constitution states that "the Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth." As legal commentator Stephen McLeish put it, "the impulse animating s 116 is the preservation of neutrality in the federal government's relations with religion so that full membership of a pluralistic community is not dependent on religious positions and divisions are not created along religious lines."

The above is a much better idea than Christianity or any other religion. Religion in our society should be no business of the government.

I think it is a violation of the spirit of 116 for any aid to be given to religious schools of any sort, to have chaplains in schools or to have Irfan Yusuf feel anything other than a full member of our society.

I wish you could reclaim Christianity from the West and take all the other religious nonsense with you. However, I wish even more that you stay with us and join us in a drink. Two verses from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam are relevant.

LIX
The Grape that can with Logic absolute
The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute:
The sovereign Alchemist that in a trice
Life's leaden metal into Gold transmute:

LV
You know, my Friends, with what a brave Carouse
I made a Second Marriage in my house;
Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed
And took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse.

You can have Christianity, and we can have Khayyam, a superb combination of mathematician, realist, bon vivant and poet expressing the wisdom of the east

Atheists don't have enough children to maintain the population - so their opinions will always be irrelevant. If the non-religious can come up with a Worldview that sustains itself through generations, then they can have a seat at the table and discuss how to organise a society.

TRUTHNOW78 wrote: Atheists don't have enough children to maintain the population - so their opinions will always be irrelevant.

Dear TRUTHNOW78,

The population doesn't need to be maintained. The present human population is destroying the planet. It can either be reduced voluntarily or through catastrophe as humans fight for vanishing resources and suffer.

Wisdom is not generally found in numbers. Hopefully, more people will come to realise the necessity of voluntary population decrease. Pun intended. The truth is unbearable.