The only time I remember getting serious RE lessons (all teh ones at secondary school were a joke) was from one teacher in middle school (it was a CofE school afterall). But even that was just one year out of four there. I don't remember being taught it at all in the other years.

I remember my RE teacher writing the following in my exercise book after my (rather sci-fin) interpretation of what I thought Jesus was: "does what you have written fit the facts?"

Now, I had been known to respond to comments from teachers in my books!and getting in trouble for it. In Primary school in wrong "all in good time" (something Annie and Clarabell used to say to Thomas the Tank Engine) when the comment "see me" was put under some half-arsed attempt at writing something. Suffice to say parents were summoned, conversations had, and they left on first name terms. I got a telling off. Later in life, my dad told me that the head liked my attitude and felt that it was actually a good sign that I was willing to answer back.

Anyway, I decided that given the prominent dog collar and the fact that I may get my parents summoned to the head teacher (again) for such transgressions, I decided to let it lie. I was really wanting to add "Show me some facts, and we'll talk". I regret not doing it now.

By this time, I was 14, and was ploughing my way through the Dune books, so the whole messianic desert people story was being mirrored by another messianic desert story, and to be brutally frank, I didn't see much difference in the two. I figured out that the majority of Dune readers knew it was just a story.

Muad'Dib "The One Who Points the Way" is a story! :cry::cry::cry:

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Being of an older generation, my religious "education" came from all quarters.

First, my parents tried to do the usual CofE thing, so off I trotted to Sunday School in best bib and tucker. I remember enjoying playing with the modelling clay.

My godparents did their best, dragging me along to midnight services around Christmas time. I couldn't see the point, being more interested in what Father Christmas had brought me the following morning.

My CofE primary school dragged us to the draughty parish church on high days and holy days. It didn't make much impression on me, aside from being cold and dusty.

Middle school didn't do much at all outside the usual assembly stuff, droning along to hymns.

Secondary school is where it all kicked off. The head master was a bit of a religious bod, and we all had to do the assembly stuff again, as well as singing the naffest of naff Victorian hymns. Immortal Invisible sticks in my memory as one particularly dull one. RI - for some reason it was still referred to as Religious Instruction in my day - covered the Old Testament, so we learned a lot about the Jews and some nasty, vengeful creator being. We were given a Gideon's pocket New Testament each by some proselytising twonk, and I used to read it in the dinner queue, much to the amusement of my friends! I found it a good read, with some interesting stories. We began to briefly touch on the New Testament in the 4th year, but by then I'd discovered Erich von Däniken in the school library…

At no time were religions beyond Judaism and Christianity covered. I knew of such things, being of a questioning mind, but the Powers That Be obviously felt it was not thought worth the time to educate anyone about them.

I like to think my parents encouraged me to be sceptical, and to make up my own mind. I am now an atheist and humanist.

I like the idea that kids are taught about many religions. It may open their minds. My own opinion is that organised religion is more often a force for bad in our world, and letting young people learn about other kinds of worship may eventually lead to more enlightened and tolerant people.

My parents took my sister and I to church. At one point, I had to go to Sunday, but I remember kicking up a stink. School was a weekday activity - I just didn't like the idea of going to one on Sunday.

Eventually, we stopped going to church. It never connected with me, and at about 10 or so, I was finding my voice and I just said I didn't want to go any more.

RE at primary school was a few religious mutterings in assembly, and you'd get told off if you weren't praying. I got the idea that they had no way to know that you were actually praying as long as it looked as if you were, so I and (I suspect) many others just went through the motions.

In secondary school, RE was handled by a CofE vicar, so there was a definite bias there. We did all the usual Abrahamic stuff, as well as the New Testament stories too. It was always put over as genuinely true and factual, instead of the notion of it being the result of a form of Chinese Whispers that all legends are. What was interesting was the way mother religions were taught. Always slightly off hand, as if there was no real basis for them. Certainly primitive religions were not given much credence. It was dreadfully biased.

As I said before! I'd expect all RE to be taught dispassionately - by this I mean that you are aware of the religions of the world, but none is placed any higher shelf than others.

But I expect that the is some legal requirement for the CofE to win here, so you have to have some kind of worship in schools that everyone is exposed to. I do wonder if there is a legal scope for a Free School to be totally atheist in approach and delivery.

Free school seem to be exempt from many rules, including ones regarding educational, food etc. It's wouldn't surprise me if they were exempt from that too.

What I found compelling was his reaction to religions in general and the sceptical look at how they were organised and manipulated, especially Children and God Emperor. Although it was interesting in Heretics, that the 'Great Belief' had survived millennia completely unchanged (Islam), then in Chapter House he reveals 'Little Israel' also survived unchanged...

Interestingly, both my nephews went to CofE primary and junior schools, they were the best in the area in terms of education and experience (they had an archaeology club that both boys really enjoyed) and they also taught a wide range of religions, they had calendars on the classroom walls with each religions major celebrations on and when one came around they spent the day learning about the celebration, it's importance in the religion and they both got a pretty well-rounded education in the majority of religions, I remember once being quite taken aback at being given a run down of the fertility and fire aspects of Beltane in the Pagan religion.

I had six terms over two years at secondary school with RE, basically covering one major/large religion each term. At no point did this education include worship or attempts to convert. Gave it up asap because religion doesn't interest me.

I think that kids should be taught about as many religions as possible, hopefully so they'll lose interest as well.