Firstly, freedom of religion should be a civil liberty in as much as it does not influence government. That's why the constitution is in place. It's supposed to be there to appease a civil liberty without becoming intrusive.
Secondly, removing religious references from state legislation definitely helps to get rid of associations that are harmful to society. I wouldn't have a doubt that atheists are the most concerned about religion being tied to any nation's culture. They are probably the best judges of the corruption that religion has brought since the dawn of man and wouldn't want to replicate that. And even if they are exhibiting some sort of influence, they are doing it the right way - by simply removing that association without tying atheism into state culture.
Former civil rights movements like feminism had to actually spar in the opposite direction to actually achieve some sincere equality. They have their work cut out for them as we become more egalitarian. But this movement to make a state more secular is an important neutral move that doesn't necessitate any sparring to get the right message across.
So, I wouldn't get too antsy about atheists here. Even if they were plotting devilishly in the background, making a state secular would be counterproductive to any agenda they had to begin with.
You have no idea what you are talking about.
The reason you live in a free society, one in which individual rights are respected, is largely due to the religious philosophers of the seventeenth century.
John Locke, the father of modern democracy, was a Deist.........a follower of Judeao-Christian beliefs, but a dissenter in that he did not believe in the Trinity, that Christ was God.....
His philosophy on the rights of man was based on the idea that if man was valued equally in the eyes of God, why would it not be so in the eyes of man? And if all men are created equal, if all men are of equal value in God's eye, then all men must share the same rights....
This was a very radical idea, and one that caught fire in the English Christian world.....
Now, if you want to talk about misery, how about discussing the 100 million murdered in the twentieth century in an attempt to create the perfect godless world of communism?