Atheism Central for Secondary Schools

"If two things don't fit, but you believe both of them, thinking that somewhere, hidden, there must be a third thing that connects them, that's credulity."

Umberto Eco

"Faith is believing something you know ain’t true."

Samuel Clemens "Mark Twain", American author and humourist

"I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it."

Benjamin Franklin

"If the biblical account of creation in Genesis isn't true, how can we trust the rest of the Bible?"

Beverly LaHaye, a biblical literalist and president of Concerned Women for America

More than 1.7m pupils are educated in 6,947 church schools, according to Department for Education statistics for 2000.

The Church of England and the Catholic Church run a quarter of all secondary schools.
About 935,104 pupils attend 4,703 Church of England schools and 732,273 attend 2,105 Catholic schools.

There are a further 12,760 pupils in schools where the Church of England has combined with another denomination, including Christian, Free Church, Methodist, Catholic and United Reform Church.

About 12,100 youngsters attend 31 Jewish schools, and 5,400 attend 28 Methodist schools and one combined Methodist/Church of England school. There are 28 Christian schools, with a total of more than 16,500 pupils.

Other faiths which run their own schools are the Congregational Church (one school), Muslim (two schools), Quaker (one school), Seventh Day Adventist (one school), Sikh (two schools), Greek Orthodox (one school) and the United Reformed Church, which also has one school.

Besides these schools - many schools which are technically non-denominational describe themsoves as having a 'Christian ethos'.

At present, religious organisations have to contribute 15% to the capital costs of their schools - all other costs are paid for by the governement. The current government (Labour, 2001) proposes to cut that to 10%. The government also proposes to increase the number of church schools and religious schools run by other faith groups.