Atheists & Agnostics

onager

(9,356 posts)

7. Ben Franklin...

Sun Jul 19, 2015, 07:04 AM

Jul 2015

When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, ‘tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one. - Letter to Richard Price. October 9, 1790.

Thanks, this was interesting. I'd always heard about the German church tax and this makes it a little clearer. Probably some believers, as noted, will keep worshipping after taking themselves off the official tax rolls.

That does seem like cheating. Sort of like sneaking into a strip club without paying the cover charge.

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Mass exodus continues from German Catholic Church [View all] deucemagnet Jul 2015 OP

looks like you are officially enrolled at some stage uriel1972 Jul 2015 #1

Yes, you must have been posting as I was editing. deucemagnet Jul 2015 #3

Apparently one tells the church to cancel registration Warpy Jul 2015 #2

I think that you hit the nail on the head. Curmudgeoness Jul 2015 #4

so the ones who drop the registration could still go to church. AlbertCat Jul 2015 #6

I don't know...would it be a sin? Curmudgeoness Jul 2015 #8

I wouldn't have thought there were that many Catholic Germans RussBLib Jul 2015 #5

Ben Franklin... onager Jul 2015 #7

Don't make it sound like so much fun Curmudgeoness Jul 2015 #9

Sort of like sneaking into a strip club without paying the cover charge. AlbertCat Jul 2015 #10

Since the church tax is fully deductible it seems to me that government is subsidizing the churches LiberalAndProud Jul 2015 #11

And of course the catholic church will lie cheat and steal to get that money too. AtheistCrusader Jul 2015 #12