I agree totally that MPs should be allowed a free vote in the upcoming Embryology debate. The fact I believe every vote should be a free one based on an MPs individual conscience and what they think their constituents would want them to vote for. They are, after all, elected to represent their constituents.
I do have a problem with people's opinions being based on their religion. Of course, if someone has been brought up within a particular faith (children and religion is another entry entirely) then this will influence their opinion. So many things affect people opinion that it can never be broken down for bits to be eliminated. The way in which it bothers me is people picking their religion first and from that they decide their opinions. When I was growing up, I think asked questions about the world around me, I had RE lessons telling me of all the different world faiths(not atheism) My father was a scientist and my mother ran the local Brownie Unit with whom I went to church on the odd occasion. Many aspects of religion and belief bothered me and I finally worked out I was an atheist(I went through non-defined spiritualist - there is something out there but I don't know what, and agnostic we can never know) But to do this I worked out how I thought the world worked and then picked a category that best fit. I do not use my atheism to define me, however passionate I am about. I do disagree with Richard Dawkins somethimes, and if the atheism community urged me to vote a particular way that I did agree with I would say well as an atheist I think this.
When it comes to having faith the world would be a better place. People would question how they thought the word got here, how many gods they think there are, whether Jesus was the son of God or just prophet and other such questions. When they had there answers they would see which of the major religions was closet to them and align themselves with that for reasons of census and weekly worship. Every particular time a matter of opinion came up they would decide what they thought and then see if they could still align themselves with that particular religion or if they now differ too much.
Cynical thought - Maybe it is because this kind of critical thought would send people rushing away from God and weekly donations that the world religions spend so much time saying " as a X you think this".
What is the difference between Gordon Brown and the Pope being the Whip????