Religious instruction, ..., breaks all those rules. It is damaging and abusive, it is teaching children not to question, and is highly immoral, and leads the planet into all sorts of needless difficulties

Maybe that's how you were taught religion. It's not how my mine went.

I can honestly say that I have never met a good teacher who would deny that the best way of showing children how to acquire knowledge is to give them the skills to learn

... in fact it was very much like that, especially in senior school   For primary school, I agree it was presented in a much more black and white way. As was history, and maths, and science, and geography and all the rest. But when we got a bit older, all the subjects became more sophisticated, including religious instruction.

I would however like to point out that potential weasel word 'good'. I hope it was accidental, but I am sure you are not requiring thinking in that way being a necessary condition of being a 'good' teacher, otherwise it makes things a bit circular.