Sqad, if religion wasn�t taught in the first place, there would be no motive to teach the reasons for the absence of belief - if you see what I mean. See ��.. it causes confusion. :o)
The influence of those stories is what worries me the most - and that influence depends upon the genre in which they are taught. Including the bible among the works of Shakespeare et al, would be fine, so long as it was very firmly confined, along with the rest, to the realms of fiction - or more appropriately, to the mythology section in the school library together with, say, the works of Homer.
The problem with teaching religion with a view to providing the choice in later life is that, often, by the time a child is grown the indoctrination has become so entrenched that he suffers unwarranted guilt, the burden of perceived sin, and the terrors of the promised retribution, and he is therefore incapable of making a free choice - and to answer the original question, it is for this reason that I dislike religion intensely. Religion demands - and achieves - the total surrender of the human intellect.