ABSTRACT
This chapter argues mainly from the legal position in Europe and particularly that in England. The situation in other parts of the world, including the United States, is of course often different. The laws and public policies in question mainly relate to the predominant concerns of religion: the beginning and end of life, sex and gender, heresy and blasphemy. The argument for a right to freedom from religion that the author wishes to examine is that such a right would remove the burdens imposed on the non-religious in the course of delivering freedom of religion for the 'true believers'. There is sometimes an assumption that freedom of religion and belief means that religious sensibilities must in every case be accommodated – that religion carries all before it. Even legitimate delivery of freedom to manifest a religious belief can require some incidental compromise of the rights or freedoms of other people.
