I think part of the problem with this world is that we’ve forgotten how to be human beings and what humanity actually means – I think religion dehumanises people. At the base of it, it tells you to believe in something that isn’t flesh and blood, that isn’t a solid form, so straight away it’s taking you away from what you are chemically, physically and biologically. For many things I’m quite passive, but in my ideal world there would be no religious schools. You can teach RE at schools in an informative way, that’s fine, but I don’t think you should mix religion with curricula. I think it’s dumbing down kids, it’s feeding them with storybooks that have no basis in fact. And when you widen that out to a civic society that needs to feed its people, religion cannot provide that. If you’re a religious person and want to do good things in the community then fine, that’s not a problem, but you can do those good things without being religious. Soup kitchens are fine, but you shouldn’t bring religion into the soup kitchen either, they shouldn’t be trying to convert those people unlucky enough to need a soup kitchen in the first place.
