scrumpyjack wrote:Yes there are undoubtedly a high proportion of excellent people in the churches with deep moral values but the problem is once you have a creed based on faith – I’m right and everyone who believes differently is going to hell / God is on my side / the unbelievers must be exterminated etc etc you give a cover to the extremists – hence regimes like that in Iran or in many instances in Christian history.
So on balance looking at human history, I have to agree with Snorvey that religion has overall been a very malign influence. Obviously that is not going to stop bad people doing awful things but its absence is one less excuse.
It is often said that if God didn't exist man would have to invent him. Well anybody with the briefest knowledge of the last 4000 years knows that he has, many times over, unless you can reconcile the myriad mono and polytheistic belief systems which have emerged around the globe in to a single coherent Pantheon. Religion hasn't been an influence on human development, it doesn't exist outside humanity, it is the expression of a number of the fundamental aspects of human psychology.
It should come as a surprise to no one that power structures attract people who wish to wield power, and whilst you can use almost any difference you like to differentiate us and them nothing gives you quite the latitude that a handwritten note from the Creator of the Universe gives you. Kings are a somewhat distant second, and anyway they are generally appointed by the Creator so something of a letter from the Almighty's secretary.
Then you are down to more problematic baseis for your right to whatever you like, such as nationality, race... none of which lead to prettier conflicts than religion, but if religion hadn't been such a convenient and culturally acceptable way to express your desire to capture your neighbour's town, sleep with his wife and eat his cattle over the history of mankind there wouldn't have been fewer wars, there would have been different pretexts.