Great post, Sophocles.

Alex, you seemed to be saying there was little religious influence in your education (a long way back up the thread - sorry if I've got it wrong). But in that case how could the school nearly be closed down by the baptists, for teaching non-Cristian religions? How could the baptists have any say at all in what a school teaches? Also this doesn't square with another thread we had, where it was fairly widely agreed that some US schools teach creation rather than evolution under pressure from religious factions.

John Gray in Australia, when are all you like-minded people finally going to get your act together, bury the minor differences, and finally sort out that wretched constitution?

The UK's (unwritten) constitution isn't great either. Contrary to what Bald Eagle said, the continuing "established" status of the C of E does still exert a baleful influence. For instance, why the hell should bishops be able to vote in parliament on issues like the age of consent, or anything else? The UK is nothing like as secular as he thinks. France and Sweden are far ahead of us.