...and given an 'age-rating' , similar to alcohol, tobacco and Gambling. We all know that many drugs make people go nuts and get violent. Making otherwise innocuous harmless types into dangerous people.

Motorbikes are dangerous. And not accessible to kids. And even then, we must to pass a driving test and to follow the Rules of the Road.

The death of Thomas A'Beckett, in 1170 AD, represents a fight between Church & State. Allegedly there were murdering rapist paedo priests running amok. And the King was not having it anymore.

Gibbon argued that Christianity brought Western Rome to its knees. And yet it was the self same Christianity that forged the beginnings of medieval Europe, with all its Kings & kingdoms.

Then you have both sides of the Northern Ireland Troubles.....all getting goaded by their respective men of the cloth. Fighters kill and die, or get locked in jail for a lifetime. Meanwhile these same men of the cloth get to enjoy a nice Sunday lunch with impunity.

WWI, priests on both sides....blessing the Troops and telling them their cause was a just cause. A holy War against the infidel.

Which has killed more people ? Cocaine, Heroin, or Religion ?

Israel/Palestine.

Sunni vs Shia

Kashmir

Caesar's genocidal Crusade in Gaul can easily be understood on Theological grounds. Enlightening the Druid Followers of the one true Roman Pantheon, Jupiter, Saturn and certainly Mars.

From the Rape of Nanjing to the swings of a playground in Croydon. Religion allows one person to perceive another person as less than deserving of equal respect. Certainly in many religious flashpoints, the insults begin at creche and continue thereafter.

The Nazi's need to be understood as a pseudo-religious cult that certainly had all the trappings of an organised religion. Secular they were not.

Different religions are mostly intolerant of each other. Even when they are nominally the same. The first thing William the Conqueror did in England was to replace the old christian order with his own christian men. Shrewd politics.

Is the BBC today fulfilling the same role as the CofE in previous centuries ?

And so, should we control the dissemination & terms of Religious instruction ? to help create a better society ? The French have tried to make a secular State. It has only highlighted just how difficult this herculean task has been.....and it has probably failed. But is it still worthy of the struggle ? Or, like the Caesars inside the Constantinople-Castle walls of Byzantium......do you ignore what is happening in all your faraway villages until it bites you in the ass in 1453 ?

Can there ever be a true Secular State or religious harmony ? or is it like Palace v Brighton ? a never-ending fight with much enthusiasm on all sides ?

I can walk into a religious bookshop today and buy a text with verses that are a call to murder, genocide, homophobia and various other monstrocities. You wear a wool jumper over a cotton shirt ? well, the book of Leviticus has just condemned you as a sinner for mixing your fabrics.

From Christians in the Coliseum in Rome to shouty fellas at Speakers-Corner today....we have people with zero regard for the legitimacy of the State. People who will happily kill or martyr themselves for their beliefs.

Should Religion be a controlled substance ? like Heroin, Alcohol & Hardcore p0.*n. To be seen as something dangerous that corrupts the mind ?

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Edited by PalazioVecchio (12 Nov 2023 1.46pm)

Eze Peasy at Anfield....

what you say is correct. Everytime a pop song is banned it shoots to Number One.

I guess that instead of banning something, you out-preach it. A bit like the Catholic Counter-reformation. They realized they couldnt out-military the Protestant reformation. So they tried to out-preach them.

Stalin tried to de-Nazify Germany after he took over. Replace one ideology with another.

The French Revolution has been trying to bang the secular drum for hundreds of years. And it is still only a work-in-progress.

Eze Peasy at Anfield....

The only way to defeat bad arguments is with better arguments.

That’s why I want all religious influences removed from all schools and all children to be taught religion as a history subject, covering all the major religions in an informed but neutral way, showing both the positive and negative aspects. No parental right to withdraw their child.

I think, in time, this would yield a better outcome.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

Anti-Christian “hate crimes” increased by 44% in Europe last year, according to a newly-released report, with arson attacks on Christian churches increasing by 75% between 2021 and 2022.

That's exactly how the communists in Russia started in their drive against religion - of course they soon went on to have priests of any religion arrested, shot, or sent to labour camps (including many adherents to their own religion of 'scientific marxism').

Apologies for coming in late to this discussion. In the writings of the Baha'i Faith, 'Abdu'l-Baha says: "If religion becomes a cause of dislike, hatred and division, it were better to be without it, and to withdraw from such a religion would be a truly religious act. For it is clear that the purpose of a remedy is to cure; but if the remedy should only aggravate the complaint it had better be left alone. Any religion which is not a cause of love and unity is no religion." But religion is created and run by man, not God. We need to separate God from a lot of what is done in His name and not give up on spiritual search.