runner wrote: "being totally illogical and hyprocrisy goes hand in hand with the atheiest religion."

Dear runner,

Does bad spelling, poor logic and grammatical error go hand in hand with irrational religious belief?

Organised Atheism is basically a sect of Christianity, they resemble nothing so much as an extreme form of protestant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hegXAo8IdUs

Funny, Jay, I was also going to point out that as long as Christians go on claiming that atheism is 'just another faith', they should be happy for it to get the same tax exemptions as any other faith. Thank you for proving my point.

Well indeed Jon J, what's good for the Goose is good for the Gander, as Aurini points out the discussion between Christians and Atheists is ideological, they both believe in the same basic doctrine of liberty, equality and fraternity and they're both part of the PC mainstream.

*If we are to further discuss these questions, all the issues, including the tax avoidance of the non-religious*

Well in that case, start taxing the religious too. The Vatican is
the world's largest owner of real estate and the Vatican Bank is
hardly empty. Why should they not pay tax like all the rest?

Thanks for covering a much-contemplated topic with a light touch.

It should surprise nobody that those who construct belief systems which are without factual basis (ie religions) are happy to shelter within tax systems which, at their core, irrationally offer support to these same belief systems.

Long it has been argued that tax exemption for religion should be wound back, but the comparison of the annual gross costs of religion per capita for USA ($200) and Australia ($1500) is interesting.

Perhaps it is Australian currency which should carry the phrase "In God We Trust". They pay 7 times as much as we do for the privilege.