Taxpayers stump up millions to reinforce religious fantasies

. . .– that theology is a con-trick, a means by which grown men can spend their whole lives trying to convince themselves that fairy tales are true. One wise owl once opined that if science disappeared from the world, we would be returned instantly to the Stone Age. But if theology disappeared from the world, nobody would notice.
Now we learn that the taxpayer is stumping up millions of pounds to fund “theological colleges” around the country. It was announced last week that St Mary’s University College in west London has been awarded £1.2 million over the next four years from the Higher Education Funding Council for its “research”. Michael Hayes, vice principal of St Mary’s, was, of course, delighted. He said it represented a 269 per cent increase on its previous funding from the HEFCE. “The biggest growth in research has been in theology,” he said, adding that a significant proportion of the new funding would go towards enhancing that research. Research into theology? Research into nothing.
Extract from Terry Sanderson's editorial in the NSS Newsletter.