I'm an (outspoken at times) atheist. Even "anti-theist" depending on mood. I have no love for any religion I know of (I remain agnostic on deism and those religions I am know nothing about since how could I know?).
All that said, I think it's fair to look at what empirical data we have on societies and what they have accomplished and given the world because of—or IN SPITE OF—religion.
The entirety of western civilization came out of a Judeo-Christian religious background. Could it have gone further (or faster) under secularism? Sure, quite possibly. None the lest, even taking the "devil's advocate" position that religion harmed enlightened thought, we got there in spite of Christianity and Judaism. The Islamic world is given loads of credit for not destroying all ancient knowledge during the middle ages, but that was in fact the Islamic world's last valuable contribution to the world. They've give us nothing since (except a number of really excellent carpets I have in my home (since the non-representational patterns actually own something to their religion, otherwise it would be merely cultural)).
Has Christianity informed violence? Absolutely. The Holocaust can draw an unbroken line through Catholic (and later Protestant) history. When there was a good, theological choice that might have mitigated anti-semitism, it was almost invariably not chosen. That said, we are now past that in the West. This is not the same world it was in 1930—unless you are a Muslim. The trouble with Islam is that unlike Christianity, it is not "hijacking" to make it violent.
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"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." — Thomas Paine
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