Agree with you there BOTN, all religions are evil and nothing more than a method for controlling the masses. Religious education should be just that. Educating children about aspects of all religions. What we do need to ban is faith based schools and faith based lessons. Schools should be secular.
Precisely. Religion really came into being when we didn't have enough knowledge of the world and needed to explain things that we didn't understand. From there it evolved into something far more sinister; in an archaic world without police forces or any real form of social control, what was there to stop people doing whatever they wanted and getting away with it? Simple, sell them an all seeing God and an afterlife and tell them you might get away with it in this life, but God has seen what you've done and will punish you for eternity....
I get why it started, but it frightens the hell out of me that in this age of science people still live by the same rules and beliefs.