I know I may offend some hardcore religious, spiritual people (so please don't be offended
) with this but here's my take.
Religion comes from stories and teachings passed down through the ages. There's no direct, substantial proof of anything it teaches or purports to be true. This is true of any religion. Everything is based on faith in the stories and teachings of whatever texts the religion is bassed on. There is no and can be no absolute fact checking to verify anything as being true within them. Therefore, the theories derived from them about the nature and creation of the universe is forever safe to the faithful because it cannot be proved that it is there, yet cannot be disproved either.
Science on the other hand is based on testing, and reproducable results. Scientific theories can usually be proven by preponderance of experimental evidence. Religions don't have that. All they tend to have is a lot of hear-say. Stories that have been passed down through the centuries and translated so many times and with so many different version that it's impossible to even tell if the current texts and beliefs even partially match what the original texts and beliefs are.
Does this mean that we should totally give up on religion ? Heck no. I believe that there is a lot to learn from studying various religions. There's a lot of wisdom and interesting things to think about in their texts. Are they true, factual documentations of actual events ? Probably not. While including the names of actual places and occasionally real events did filter in, these stories were often embellished by those who wrote them. Also, not to mention the centuries of versions of these books being copied, re-copied, and copied more, probably embellished them further.
Before I get jumped on by the hardcore religious, I'd like to mention that I'm a member of a Unitarian Universalist church. We are tolerant of all religions. We have in our congregations Christians, Jews, Muslems, Aitheists, Bhuddists...and the list goes on. I share the Unitarian belief that if studying and following a particular religion betters you as a person, by all means I will support you and aid you regardless of your religious (or non-religious) choice. So as I may not be religious of the spiritual kind, I do support those who are.
As for teaching creation and religious doctrine in public schools ? That's a big no-no. Religion belongs being taught by a church, mosque, etc...