Here is a great article on the Independent asking the British government to stop forcing kids to engage in prayer. Since I’m not from the UK, the fact this is mandatory is new to me. I suppose it makes sense; there was a time not so long ago where the majority of Britain was pretty religious. That time has now passed, however, and it’s time for a change:

I can understand why the unelected, faltering religious institutions cling to this law so tightly. When it comes to “faith”, if you don’t get people young, you probably won’t ever get them. Very few people are, as adults, persuaded of the idea that (say) a Messiah was born to a virgin and managed to bend the laws of physics, or that we should revere a man who at the age of 53 had sex with a nine-year-old girl. You can usually only persuade people of this when they are very young – a time when their critical and rational faculties have not yet been developed – and hope it becomes a rock in their psychological make-up they dare not pull out.

I also find the majority of comments are hilariously abusive; the writer is accused by one fellow of being a left wing ‘tosser’. You Brits are too funny.