Religious Education an Advantage?

It is one supposed advantage of British state education over US state ed. that religious education is compulsory in the former and forbidden in the latter. The argument for this is that in the UK, creationist type theories can be taught in an appropriate setting, ie: in a religious education class rather than a science class, as is the problem in the US.

But is it such a big advantage for UK children? At least in the States there is debate about how two sets of entirely different kinds of knowledge can co-exist. Children here in the UK are, on the other hand, supposed to swallow the situation whole, without ever directly addressing the issue of how they are meant to be making their whole world view stand up.