Thank.

If the government survey indicates that 45.8% of us say we’re ‘non-religious’, it follows that the majority [54.2%] consider themselves to be religious (whatever that means!). Yet only 6% of them exhibit their ‘religiousness’ by attending a church each week.

Erroneously, IMO, you use the ‘fact’ that ‘Normal Sunday attendance at churches’ is in decline as an indicator of a decline in ‘religious belief’ but this may not be the case: regular attendance at public houses is in even steeper decline but there’s no evidence to suggest that fewer people ‘believe’ in drinking alcohol! In fact the reverse is true. People are increasingly meeting to worship, discuss, study ‘religious’ matters in places other than churches and attendance levels at the Evangelical Church, in particular, is growing very rapidly in the UK. The (somewhat outdated) Christian Research ‘forecast’ was merely an extrapolation of some old data that was intended to serve as a warning of what ‘might happen’ if the church did nothing to stem attrition and bears little academic scrutiny.

Having said all that, I have sympathy with your argument that education of children is better if they are unsegregated. This argument could, of course, also be extended to attendees of fee paying schools where children are segregated out on the basis of their parents’ wealth!

Another pathetic story of pagans with a persecution complex.

Hell’s bells, surely there are better ways to express contrition for centuries of burning witches, than by discriminating against physically challenged pagans and witches who know how to party and celebrate life?