Hello! I am an athiest but I feel that religion is a wholesome and overall extremely beneficial organization within society, especially when compared to the state, which is a parasitic, coercive and oppressive organization.

In Canada, over the last 50 years of modern secularization and 'liberalism' (in the modern sense, not the classic sense of freedom) the state has waged war on the church. It has done so in any number of ways, two of which I will examine at this moment.

The first is through the seperation of church and state. I believe strongly in the original intent of the seperation of church and state, which was to protect the church from being controlled by the state. This is a good thing; in fact we should have a rule in our constitution that says "the government must make no laws concerning religion". Religion should be a wholely private affair; what people want to believe, for whatever reason, is their choice.

Now the role of the state, in Canada especially, has been evolving over the last 50 years. With material prosperity and wealth abundantly circulating, the state has grown and grown unabated. Today, in the name of helping the poor, the state has expanded to a point where most people work half time for the government (taxes). As a response to the large amounts of money availible to it, the state has spread throughout our society. It dominates business with oppressive regulations that harm small businesses and favour large, souless corporations and it controls completely the education system. Seperation of church and state is not a problem when the state is small, but when the state is ubiquitous as it is today, you are left with Godless society. No one can speak of, teach, or mention their religion in public schools for fear they may 'corrupt' people into believing 'thou shalt not kill' or 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. Heavens forbid someone taught our youngsters morality! By providing "free", monopolistic education, we have crushed most of the religions, except Catholicism which is granted special status as the baby religion to the new state religion, which is secular liberalism.

The second, and more disgusting assault of the state on religion is in the matter of charity. Throughout history, the Church has usually (not always :P) come to the aid of the poor, in large part negating the harm that the state inflicts upon the poor. This has provoked the harshest and most severe response from the state and to see this one simply has to look at Latin America, where priests have been struggling with the most disenfranchised members of society to battle the poverty and oppression in that society. In response, the state has exectuted dozens if not hundreds of priests and nuns and of course countless peasents.

In Canada, the government monopolizes charity, by stealing from the citizens through tax and providing it free. Like everything the government does, it's wasteful and inefficient, especially compared with the systems the church has set in place. This drives, in part, donations to continue as people in society see the government programs, put in place to benefit the poor only ever seem to benefit the rich and powerful in special interests. This is not something we can change! It is the nature of the state to take and take and take and never give, except to those who fund their pocketbooks. We cannot change this! Everyone in the world will tend to act in their own self interest... it is counter productive to posit scenarios that rely on benevolance. Certainly there are examples of the opposite... and indeed the church is so often the best example of this, but over all it is the case and it is especially true in the case of politicians, who are by neccessity the hungriest for power and money. So by monopolizing charity the state further and further drives the church towards extinction.