The intrusions religion is making into secular democratic institutions...

Recent articles in the press have been concentrating on issues of belief rather than that of the substantive intrusion of religion into our secular state. Attempts to convert the indoctrinated to rational secularism should not be our priority. It is a debate that will be won by the evidence as it slowly permeates our cerebral traditions. So far, this evidence is wholly consistent with the idea that religion is a fairy tale. However, the topic is becoming a diversion and wastes our opportunity to deal with more urgent, earthly matters.

Atheists do need to be more concerned by the intrusions religion is making into secular democratic institutions. I refer to the continuation of the privileged places for Bishops in the Lords, the millions leached from the exchequer for the upkeep of religious properties and the salaries of chaplains in the NHS and armed forces, the loss to the public purse through tax exemptions and divisive faith schools where children are indoctrinated into a worldview based on risible medieval myths.

Furthermore, both our major political parties have declared that they will hand over more public services to voluntary and charitable organisations which will, in many cases, be run by religious groups. They will be funded by the taxpayer so it is not their charity it is ours. As a taxpayer it will be my charity that is being gifted via the prejudices and dogma of religious factions who believe in supernatural doctrines I despise. Moreover I have no confidence in the competence of gullible people with superstitious, backward, outdated ideas.

Whilst we are winning the argument against religious fairy tales, traditional, self serving religious groups have managed to place an unrepresentative number of their supporters in influential positions within the main political parties. This is why we need to stop wasting our efforts on conversion and concentrate more on convincing passive rationalists that there is a concerted effort by the churches to regain their power over our secular institutions. We need to demonstrate that it is in their interests to support an effective political lobby such as the British Humanist Association, the clear front runner for this task, or the National Secular Society.