Maybe a perspective you haven’t heard before:

Separation of church and state was not to keep church out of government, but to keep government out of the church.

That is not a new perspective and I half believe it. I do believe that separation of church and state exists to protect the religion from the state, but I also believe it is to protect the state from religion. When the two become intertwined both become corrupt.

Religion when it is good is ones person statement of faith made of ones free will and encompasses what one considers moral. When the that religion is instead pushed or backed by state power religion becomes a vehicle of fear and immorality. It becomes a vehicle of physical and temporal power. When that happens those who seek position within religion don’t do it to do good they do it to seek control. Neither the church nor the state can survive such an environment.

Just as true when the church threatens politicians with ex-communication or eternity in hell if they don’t toe the church line. Or threatens the congregation with the same if they don’t vote for a certain candidate our political process has become corrupted and greatly harmed. Once supernatural threats are held over people they are no longer free to make informed decisions in accord with their conscience. At that point our government becomes unresponsive to the people and essentially a form of dictatorship with power held by the religious institution. Currently the vast completion in the religious space keeps that from happening, but if the state was involved in funneling money and support and state power to a single religious position that would no longer be true.

Also, what are you objections to a loving God that wants to have a relationship with you and hang out in heaven with you for eternity?

You’ve missed the point. I have no objection to such an entity I simply don’t believe it exists. To turn the question around what is your objection to existence of Shiva or the Wiccan Goddess figure? It isn’t that I believe in your god but choose to reject it. I don’t believe in the first place. There is no reason or indication that I’ve found to suggest that the entity exists, and all my research seems to show the whole thing as a man made construct to serve various purposes. Not the least of which is to soften the fear of death.

I realized I was an atheist when I realized that those around me believed in an afterlife. Not as metaphorical statement but in actuality. I was 20 at the time and this was the first time it occurred to me that people actually believed in a literal heaven and hell. Clearly I was not a believer.

–Zafkiel