The trouble is that it's PC RE these days. Learning to tolerate other peoples intolerance of you.
I don't blame other religions for that, just pen pushes whose scared to death of bad PR.

You do realise don't you the inherent absurdity of your position? Regardless of your personal opinions on the subject, organised religion has had probably had a more profound effect on the course of humanity than almost the entire cannon of scientific endeavour. To simply state that it should not be in any form of education system means you immediately have to stop teaching the following subjects, as religion has been a huge influence on them:

History
Scientific development
Psychology
Sociology
Art
History of Art
etc.

It is an inescapable fact that due to the way religion has permeated society (rightly or wrongly) over the last 1500 years that it is well nigh impossible to put a scalpel between the two.

Not forgetting music, and to a less obvious (but no less important extent) language.

Our RE lessons were almost exclusively focussed on Judaism, to the best of my recollection. I remember drawing pictures of Moses and other such productive activities. It was only 30 minutes a week, and everyone dropped it at options.

Personally, I would have enjoyed studying a larger array of religions. I find it fascinating, and has been said already religion formed a hugely significant role in world history. It's impossible to have any real understanding of the world today without understanding religion.

Yes. Religion has always fascinated me, but I was never tempted to do it as a subject, as it was way too narrow and stifling. I think in many ways it would be better to move it onto a subject level on a par with Lifeskills or PSE, making it much more open ended (without exams), and have the emphasis on exploring religions, maybe in coming to, in year 9, a project where each person can choose a religion or cult to research, and then presenting it to the rest of the class. And that way you might at least have someone talking to you about a religion who is at least vaguely interested in it, rather than a disinterested teacher foisted from the drama department...

You misunderstand. Teaching about the history of a religion and its role in science (or rather halting the advance of) is one thing, but teaching children dogma, religious scripture and/or about "God" in a secular public building shouldn't happen.

Why?

Because it exacerbates schizophrenic tendencies.

I'll see your and raise you a

What a lot of people tend to forget is that religion really boils down to a guide on 'How to be nice to each other: A collection of simple rules for all ages'.
Everything else is more or less window dressing.

History lessons should cover the bad things, both scientific and religious. Science lessons teach us one perspective on the world, so does RE. Both are valid, IMHO.

It would be nice if that were true. Well I guess it is true if you consider the centuries of mass slaughter of innocents the definition of being 'nice'.

Funny if religions were people they would be nice, helpful, aggressive, violent and paranoid individuals...

Ah, I'd argue that religion's the stalking horse for the most basic of human cravings - the lust for power and wealth.
Thanks to science, thousands of innocents have been slaughtered with far greater efficiency than previously.
Most wars start because someone's sitting on land or money that other people want. Religion's rarely the root.

I've often stated that religion is merely an excuse for the corrupt to yield their power. Take away religion and all that happens is the 'innocent' are affected. The corrupt will find new vehicles to utilise.

Religion never hindered science. It was because of religion that science was born - to find out and study nature in order to try and understand God. The Church never opposed evolution per se. It wasn't the fact that man had descended from apes that angered them; rather it was that evolution meant that there were side-branches that died out. Or at least that's what QI taught me

Not surprising though when you are taught about the 'power and glory' and the 'wrath of God'.