Talk politics.

There's a difference between sharing stories and raising someone within a religion - mainly because the latter tends to be done with claims that those stories represent some absolute metaphysical truth. Dawkins is complaining about indoctrination, not just sharing cultural myths.

Most Christians are going to disagree with you on the 'Noah's Ark didn't happen' part for instance.

I remember mommy telling me the story about Cinderella, but I don't remember her requiring me to recite it as a gospel to the point that I'd pray to Cinderella every night.

The Christian faith gave us a lot, yes. It both gave us a lot and took a lot, but that's past. The question is, what do we do from here.

There is a difference between teaching the impact of Christianity on European and US history, where it is inseparable from both, and mandating state propaganda to support a particular religion.

I don't support Dawkins because he is being a douche.

But let's leave most of religious education to families and clerics.

A fully secular and pluralistic study in the role that religion has played in human history and civilization is a good things to have in curriculum. Beyond that, and you go well beyond the rightful domain of public education and into parochial school.

Children can be told the story of Noah's ark, but when they get to be old enough to ask serious questions, we can tell them the facts as we know them, that it never really happened.

The same could be said for Aesop's Fables.

I don't support Dawkins because of his ridiculous British accent.

One of the things we've lost is the way stories used to be told - stories that taught morality and the reason the universe is the way it is. Science has eaten up the old stories and we have yet to replace them.

But there's no reason that stories have to be true, or have to be believed to be true to be effective. "A Christmas Story" holds moral truths and everyone knows it's fiction. LOTR and Harry Potter have a universal moral lesson - the need to fight against evil in the face of overwhelming personal danger.

The thing that the Bible gives us that science doesn't is a human centered history and an anthropomorphic deity that expresses everything in simple emotional terms. The idea that god placed his bow in the sky as a sign that the world would never be flooded again makes a much better story than the diffraction of light through water droplets.

And I think there's a value in being told "wrong" stories. I still remember trying to ride my bike to find the end of a rainbow (there's not one) and trying to dig a hole to China (you can't do it).

When I was a tiny child I noticed that the sun set behind a hill. I reasoned that there must be a pool of water on the other side for the sun to set in. When I was old enough to climb the hill I ran up to the top so I could see where the sun set - when I got to the top there was nothing there but the other side of the hill. My universe became much larger that day.

The stories I heard and believed as a child also made my universe larger, and when I discovered that they were not true, even larger still.

I firmly believe that parents have the right to raise their children to believe whatever stupid things they want. Just as I believe that every adult has the right to believe whatever stupid thing they want. That's what happens in a society that values free thinking.

Dawkins makes us decent, hard-working godless heathens look bad.

I was raised without any religious teaching in the home whatsoever. At all. Part of that was being born in the USSR, however we moved to the USA when I was nine and my parents didn't see fit to provide me with any religion. Actually the stories I was told were... The Three Musketeers and Ivanhoe. (My father is kind of strange.)

I'm not necessarily denigrating religion. I think it's important to learn about everything. But I'm not sure it's necessary. Nor do I think that religion teaches critical thought - generally the goal was the opposite result.

Just as I can agree with the spirit behind the ten commandments or certain aspects of other religions I can agree with a lot of what Dawkins writes while disagreeing with his child abuse ideas.

The Bible to me is like Aesop's Fables. And yes, I am a Christian. However, every Christian knows that the Bible was written by men who allegedly had some connection with God. It wasn't written directly by God, so how can any logical person take it as absolute?

In my eyes, there's nothing wrong with teaching your children about faith and religion, and letting them make their own decisions on what to believe as they grow older.