Religion is an interesting topic.

It seems to be made up of many ideas, stories and beliefs. Mix in a large dose of power control and a certain amount of arrogance, in declaring there is only one true religion, and it is easy to understand why religion has been at the bottom of a large number of conflicts, over the years.

Religion is full of scary stories about damnation, hell, apocalypse and so on. In ages past people with limited experience and little understanding of how the world works were kept in order by such frightening stories and also by the hope and extraordinary benefits of believing.

Believing seems to me to have been more about believing in the religious leader and doing as you were told rather than believing in any supernatural being. Not believing, in times past, was an offence punishable by all sorts of horrific tortures.

So we run the clock forward.

We have faith schools run by religious leaders. I can remember reading about the brutality given out by Catholic nuns in the past. On a regular basis we hear of Priests abusing children. It now seems that non faith schools in Birmingham are being taken over by religious extremists.

Now, just to be clear, many good, kind and dedicated people work in faith based schools as they do in all schools.

But, I think it is time that schools should be focused on education, including religious education, without the control of any religious organisation to prevent a conflict of interest.