As an atheist, I approve! :P

The whole issue (of the existence of God) is at the end of the day just a question of fact: does God exist, or doesn't he? It's very much like the question "do we have free will?"

But of course politics and other things enter into it later. How could it not, given that the Church claims to have authority from God, and then things like Betrayal happen. Or when feminists or the poor classes correctly read religion as partly a tool for subjugation. Or when anti-abortionists use theistic arguments to defend their theses. Or when we very clearly know that the higher one's level of educational attainment, the more irreligious one becomes, and the more religious one is the more likely he is to reject scientific facts, not fringe facts but universally accepted ones, like evolution.

And so the two communities separate quite distinctly when it should just be a question of fact.

But I've been into atheism and against religion my whole life, too much to encapsulate here!

If there is a "good" kind of religion, that aims at overcoming selfishness, that has values and goals and oughts, then these ought to be liberated from religion if we are to be able to back them up rationally. Otherwise their morality is built on shaky ground, much like saying that promiscuous sex is bad cos it gives you STDs, and then the condom is invented and your whole morality is circumvented.