I respect religions. I also understand that religions spread all over the western society, affecting almost every one in daily life. But what I can not accept is that we have connived at our religions hindering the progress of society, the development of science and the prosperity of academia even peace of life. Here I am calling, let the religious mysticism leaves the schools alone!
Of course, the initiation of religions usually connects to spiritual prop and purity of soul, such as confession in Catholic. People gain strength from religions to overcome difficulties, to survive, to achieve success and to resist lure of evil. As to this, we may say religions become source of potentiality for human, which not only helps to push the history to roll forth but also keeps us morally and ethically right, however, only if man does not rely on religions too much and even fanaticized to it.
The best example, also the most obvious victim of overwhelming religions is, no doubt, academia, which decides our education, our children, and most important—human’s future. I still remember the story of an innocent biography teacher prosecuted for propagating Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, the most significant scientific achievement in man’s history and the permanent truth existing long before human was born. He was convicted guilty because of respecting academia, because of telling the students the truth, which against Fundamentalists’ faith. You may argue that it’s an old story happening in 1925, and now it is 2005 and every student in the U.S knows that human evolutes from the ape. And what religions bring to our children is just purity soul and beautiful mind. But the fact is that, when we talk about organ transplantation research, which gives tens of thousands of patients the only hope to continue their lives, sitting in the church and enjoying the , the fist one standing up to oppose must be the most pious devotee.
Another fact is that, religions are still much too powerful in education. A most suitable candidate for the minister of education, the one who was most trusted by the president, can be easily struck off without any hesitation and replaced by some one not that capable only because she opposes prayers publicly in schools and punishes the students who force others to pray. Indeed, it is just a drama, but it’s also a reflection of our real society, it may happen any time.
Manipulating the operation of the education institution is just the tip of the iceberg. Religions invade and stretch to every corner of schools, not just academia, not just administration, but also students’ daily life. “The medical director at Albion, Martin Holmes, has cited moral reasons for choosing not to distribute the (morning-after) pill on campus” because it “can block pregnancy even after fertilization”. He “views use of the morning-after pill as abortion”. The decision is described as “hindering the ability of students to exercise a personal right” by the students. To me, it is really an astonishment that some religious bigots just bully on campus and publicly force our students to accept and comply with their radical views. Yet, what shocked me is that such violation gain strong support from the college authority as “the dean of Albion issued a statement in support of the doctor’s right to make this critical decision”,
And what worries me more is how religions shape the students’ morality and perception. I am sure the bitterness of “9.11” terrorism attack still hovers in everyone’s memory. But you know what, one of the identified terrorists, Atta, is a university student “who headed the university religious association to which they are all thought to have belonged”. People describe that Atta was “devout, peaceful, and religiously conservative” Muslims except he was too abandon into his religious faith and resort to some extreme solution to help the poor. However, what’s ironic is just in the same America, now, a religious institute “is taking aim at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for requiring all incoming freshmen this fall to read a book about the Quran” It’s really infuriate that a university will try to control the students’ ideology by religions. The consequence such measures may bring reminds me Atta’s pious face. And a famous graduate commented that "the entire university system in North Carolina should be ashamed of itself for forcing a religion on students that many will find not only offensive, but totally opposed to their own religious views."
"The academy, the Church of Reason, is concerned exclusively with those things that can be defined, and if one wants to be a mystic, his place is in a monastery, not a University." Robert Pirsig is right, partly, in my opinion. I won’t argue that whether something indefinable worth academic study or not, also, I will never deny the effort religions contribute into education such as weekend schools, Sunday schools and Chautauqua. But I will appeal that religions should retreat its power from our academic temple of god, at least, it should not interfere students’ life and study, even their ideology. As an atheist and a high quality product under China’s “pure-academic” education system, I doubt whether I have the authority to make such judgment. But as a student, I sincerely hope the school is just a of academia, without any culture or racial affection.

Reference
1. John Scopes. “The trail that rocked the world.” Advanced English. Ed. Zhang hanxi, Wang lili. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press: Lehigh U P,1995
2. The West Wing. Season 2 Episode . Martin Sheen .John Spencer .Etc.[Drama] NBC, 2002
3. John Hooper, Hamburg. “The shy, caring, deadly fanatic” The observer. September 23, 2001 < http://observer.guardian.co.uk/waronterrorism/story/0,1373,556630,00.html>
4. “From the daily: no time to decide.” Editorial. The Michigan Daily. April 05, 2005
5. Michael Y. Park. “University's Quran Reading Stirs Controversy.” Fox News. July 06, 2002
6. Robert Pirsig “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle” Ch 19

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