Regarding to claim that bible is not read to children at school.
That might be true in USA, but in UK they not only read it in school, but it is COMPULSARY for them to teach children to be Christians. It is in the curriculum. Schools must force children to pray daily to the Christian god. I had to endure daily assemblies where prayers were recited and songs sung in praise of the Christian god. Also the bible must be taught in class.
I'm not sure how schools are told to teach it but in practise the children from age 4 onwards are taught this as facts. My children are being told in a matter of fact way about Jesus and the Christmas story, Easter, Noah and the flood and genesis as if it is all true, without even hint that it may just be fiction or that any other explanation is possible. They are being taught this as if it is as much a certainty as 2+2=4.
Note this is not a religious school, but a state publicly funded school that does not officially support any one religion. In practise it forces daily religious indoctrination on very young children. I would change school but any other school near by would be same or worse. (And as I live in Northern Ireland, the others can be so so much worse.) The opt out clause is no use, I heard of one kid who opted out, the only child in the school to do so. He got to stand by himself against the wall outside the assembly every day while the other kids being lead to their daily brainwashing session stared asking "what's wrong with him" leading to him being social pariah at school and being bullied. Not a good option if you want your child to be happy. Anyway religion should always be opt in not opt out.
I have done as much to prepare my children by explaining ideas of fact and fiction, so they know most stuff they read or see on TV is just pretend and not truth. It is an uphill battle though as they seem to have one exercise book for religious lessons, and second book for everything else. When they encounter something they are not familiar with they ask me if it real or made up. I also read various other mythologies to them so they are familiar with the concept of myths and legends to help them recognise Christian stories as just another mythology. (An aside: they really like the Greek legends, which is nice as those are my favourite as well. If only people would view Christian myths the way they view Greek myths.)
So far they accept the god stuff at school is just a fiction but the delusion that it is true is all around them. Most people at school, friends, relatives and neighbours are religious. (I regularly hear "god bless you" "I'll pray for you" "Jesus loves you") Social events all seem to have god theme with, the street theatre at the market was the Noah story. Pamphlets through the door promoting religions and nearby churches come most weeks. Most kid clubs are overtly religious. Already at six my kid is getting peer pressure to go to church like all the other kids. For now my kids just think people believing in religions are silly, but how long before all the delusion around them overwhelm my attempts to keep them rational.
Many people say, why oppose religion, just let people believe what they want, what harm is it to you? If they kept their beliefs to themselves that might be a valid point. But they don't, they try to impose their beliefs on the rest of us, they try to make all of us live our lives according to their beliefs. For the most part I can avoid them and I am intelligent and rational enough resist their arguments. However the forcing of religious beliefs on children in a manner they cannot avoid is much more serious . Trusting young children believe anything they are told especially from adults in authority positions. So they need our protection from those who abuse their position of power to poison and cripple their minds with religious nonsense.
Why oppose religion? The above is just one of many reasons religion harms society, I think the benefits of religion can be obtained by other means that avoid the negatives of religion and society would be better if all religions faded to myths that no one believes in any more. Religion is too powerful a meme to go away of its own accord so we need to actively educate people against it.
