Dear R0bert,

"Your choice to believe in a particular concept of god does not make the consequences of that choice more important than my wish to live by a particular set of values which are not based around the idea of a god."

- I fully agree. Your belief or mine does not matter, what matters is not what we believe or say, but the actual fact (or its absence) that a specific action is made in the service of God. As I just mentioned, no government is able to assess such claims, which is why it is immoral to make laws, which cannot but pigeon-hole the good and the bad alike.

"How far do you take that? I'll leave aside the issue of things like speed limits, etc. Think we've been down that track before."

- In a perfect world there should be no laws, but being imperfect as humans are, the only valid laws should be those needed to protect us from violence and fraud.

"Should there be rules against carrying weapon's (or items easily used as weapons) to school? If you have children at school would you be happy to have the bullies in their school armed with knives?"

- That's up to each school to decide, not the government. Education should not be compulsory in the first place, then if parents do not like the school's policy on knives, they may either plead with the principal to change them, select a different school, or form their own school.

"Some time back there was a debate on the issue of knives in school and the desire of one group to have an exemption due to a religious liking for the wearing of concealed knife (apparently generally ornamental in nature)."

- Again, this would be entirely an internal school policy.

The difference is profound: schools are voluntary while the state is not!