That religion should be taught in schools

My side will be arguing that Religion should be taught in Schools. We won't be specifying a specific religion - that will likely vary from school to school, country to country. Our preference would be that Schools would cover several Major Religions, with a special focus on ones practiced in their countries.
Likewise, we won't be arguing that Religion MUST be taught in schools, or that it would be a compulsory subject in schools that do elect to teach it - no doubt there would be several schools and families which would object to this for various sound and logical reasons. 

We will be arguing that Religion is a relevant subject matter in 2018, and that students, and by extension, Society, would benefit from an increased awareness of it. Our focus will be on Students at a Primary and/or Secondary level, as we feel that Tertiary Schools were not really in the spirit of the resolution. 
If we can show that Religion is relevant in 2018, OR that Society would benefit from an increased understanding of Religion - then we will have won this debate. 


Is Religion relevant in 2018?

Pleasingly for the affirmative side, the answer is YES! Phew.

In 2010, the number of Religious adherents was around 5.8 BILLION people, out of a global population of about 6.9 billion people. 
According to this study, organised Religion is not only NOT dying, it is flourishing. The conclusion of this study was that between 2010 and 2050, the number of people affiliated with an Organised Religion was expected to grow by 2.3 BILLION. 

So we know that Religion forms an important part of most people's lives. 

Religion has major economic impacts as well. In 2016, this study found that faith-based organisations contributed $378 billion dollars directly into the US Economy. To put that in perspective, that's more than Facebook, Apple, and Google combined.

On the less pleasing side, in 2015, the FBI found that Religion was the second highest motivation behind hate crimes in the USA. Even worse, this figure had risen by almost 23% from the 2014 statistic! Hate crimes perpetrated against Muslim Americans rose a crazy 67%!
In Canada, another study concluded that ignorance and misinformation about the religion was a major contributor to the fact that hate crimes against Muslims rose 60% between 2014 and 2015.

So religion is extremely relevant to the world in 2018. The numbers of adherents are high and growing, the economic impact is huge, and critically, we find that Religion is a major factor in violence committed from one person to another, from individual incidents, to all out war. 

 

Studies have shown several benefits from studying Religion, at an individual level, but also extrapolated out to wider society.

This extensive study of Religious Education at a Primary School level concluded with this statement:

 
"[Religious Education] has helped students to make articulate and knowledgeable decisions on religious and moral issues;