Problem: Religion

It is said by many that religion is as old as humanity.  It isn’t, but if it was it has been a problem for all of human history.  There are many problematic aspects of religion not the least being its undermining of Truth, critical thinking, and the ability to decipher and search out meaningful truth, the scientific method.  Other problematic aspects include the justification of human weaknesses, greediness, arrogance, selfishness, its stubborn and insistent anti-progressive stance, and the propagation of ignorance in general.

People turn to religion for many reasons, most of them bad, but for whatever reason people turn to it society pays.  Churches are subsidized in several ways by the government (i.e society).  They pay little to no taxes and in turn add little to no advantage to society other than to those who attend this or that particular church.  Furthermore, religion has held societies in its grip for eons, standing in the way of social, economic, scientific and cultural progress.  Religion is a problem, but so is the legislation of morality. The theocratic tendencies of religions continue to be a dangerous issue to most societies.  People may have the right to believe what they want, false or not.  However, all of society should not have to pay for that right.

Solution: taxation and education

The ultimate solution is for humanity to turn its back upon the crutch of religious belief by educating itself (especially regarding critical thinking).  However, this is unlikely.  So, the education of children should be limited to non-religious public education systems and private educational institutions should be limited to secular only.  In short, religious belief has no place in any educational institution and has no business calling itself (or being established as) an educational institution (i.e. “Bible College” etc…). 

Secondly, religions should be stripped of their nonprofit and/or not-for-profit status entirely.  The multi-million-dollar monstrosities that dot most cityscapes should not exist if its members do not want to pay for it themselves.  Public coffers and policy-making need to be off-limits to religious organizations, including the ability for religions to lobby the government.  If a religious organization of any kind desires to do more, become public, build, or create an institution for public use, it should be held to the same tax laws as any other business.

However, religion is and ought to be a private affair alone.  The division of church and state should be absolute.  The Christian figure Jesus, perhaps said it best:

“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men … but when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen.”