I fully respect anyone's right to belong to a religion. It may be that it provides spiritual fullfillment. Good deeds have certainly been done by religious people.

However, there can be a downside to religion such as self-righteousness, bigotry and intolerance of other beliefs. It can cause guilt. Some organised religions may require strict adherance to doctrines that can be repressive. Countless wars have been fought in the past over religious differences or in the name of religion. Northern Ireland is a prime example of the negative effects of religious education.

It would be an interesting experiment to compare the average EQ of a class of children who have just left a religiously run school against the average EQ of a similar class of children who have just left a secularly run school. It would help to establish whether there was any "value added" with religious education in terms of producing "nicer" people. It may even be that, on average, religious schools have lower EQ ratings. Fran Healy, front man of pop group Travis, is not happy with his Catholic School education dictating his emotions.

Similarly, it would be interesting to compare the EQ of a religious group, for example Christians, against a section of the population with similar background who do not follow a religion.

I believe that one reason why EQ has not yet become mainstream is that the establishment still regards religion as the guardian of moral values. For example, BBC Radio 4 broadcasts Thought For the Day at 7:45am Monday to Saturday. Only a religious person is allowed to present this program. However, they often use themes that echo EQ values such as the need for mutual respect. But you don't have to be religious to have these values. Learning EQ at school would instill a common solid framework of good values and behaviour that does not depend on adherance to any of the competing religious factions.

The church often preaches the idea of selfless devotion, but it may more often be devotion to the doctrines of the religion rather than devotion to doing good for the community. The church does not monitor how empathetic their followers are, collectively or at an individual level.

The argument has been coherently made that teaching religion to children is a form of child abuse and indoctrination. Young children do not have the mental capability to question what they are told. This can however be an important means of survival in life threatening sitituations. If a child is told by an adult that playing with fire is dangerous, and if they chose to question the adult's word by trying to play with fire, they would obviously be risking serious injury. By all means let adults make their own mind up whether to follow a particular religion - but not children. The adult would then be joining of their own free will rather than being brainwashed.

Instead of getting hung up, for example on whether there ought to be gay or women priests, organised religions should crusade against bullying or abuse in any context as top priority.

There have been many appalling cases of abuse and paedophilia caused by clergy (such as Roman Catholic priests).

The Magdelene Sisters is a harrowing film which depicts the true story of girls being abused by nuns at Catholic convents in Ireland in the 1960s. The organised religions were fervently in favour of the slave trade which was one of most the disgusting cases of abuse in history.