Comment 1 by paulmcuk :

If his claim that "people who want to drive religion underground are much more active, much more vocal" contained a jot of truth...

To be fair to Trev (who I do not hold in very high regard), if he means that atheists are more vocal than they used to be, there IS a jot of truth in it. And a good thing too in the face of resurgent religious fundementalism. The problem is that the ECHR's remit - originally intended to protect people from being discriminated against on the grounds of their race, sex etc - has been warped to include protecting people who want to believe in magic elves from having their beliefs challenged.

But we don't want to drive it underground do we? I just want it treated like other non-evidenced fringe beliefs like alien abductions, astrology, etc. People who believe in these things don't have to go underground they can hold their congresses, run their websites, write letters to the paper etc. They just get treated by the majority of us with a healthy does of scepticism and a mild contempt because their beliefs aren't supported by evidence and appear to be widely implausible. They don't get a special privileged input to public policy or seats in parliament or tax exemptions or the right to hold special classes in schools.

Michael