After recently reading a short piece about the (alleged) separation of church and state in this country (yes, I'm smirking) I found myself reading a few court decisions.  I've had legalistic (though I’m not a lawyer) as well as philosophical (aren’t we all philosophers?) discussions on the subject, and I'm always appalled (disgusted, frustrated, intellectually insulted and just plain annoyed) when someone breaks out with, "atheism is a religion," or the even more hilarious, "science is a religion."

No they're not. 

Whether one believes the earth is round is irrelevant.  It is.  Whether one believes dinosaurs existed is irrelevant.  They did.  Whether or not one believes that species change over time is irrelevant.  They do.  (I know that the flock will argue the same point inserting 'Christ' as the subject of each argument.  The (all-too) obvious answer is proof.

According to the Supreme Court (and common sense and logic):

[T]he Supreme Court has held unequivocally that while the belief in a divine creator of the universe is a religious belief, the scientific theory that higher forms of life evolved from lower forms is not. Edwards v Aquillard, 482 U.S. 578 107, S. Ct. 2573, 96 L.Ed2d 510 (1987)

The most interesting aspect of this decision (besides the word 'unequivocally') is that it took place in 1987.  22 years have passed since this undeniably clear legal precedent was set by the highest court in the land, and still we have to tolerate the intrusion of magical thinking into the realm of secular education.  

The last time I checked no one was attempting legislation or litigation to include Darwinian concepts into Sunday school curriculums.   

With these two facts so firmly in place the only logical question is, again, why?

You get your tax exempt status, you get to meddle in politics (see the Mormons and Prop 8) even though you’re expressly forbidden to by law, you get to pay off your sins (see the Catholic church’s entire history), what else do you want?

You want to teach your children the earth took six days to make?  Good luck on the playground, kid.  You want to home"school" your kids to protect them from the big bad world?  Good luck in the job market.  You want to believe that we're all descended from a pair of incestual nudists?  Whatever.

Just don't tell me it should be taught to my kids.