Originally Posted by zen_tom

No, the history of nations, governments, tribes, and power is one of persecution, genocide, superstition, civil war and oppression. Religion is a side issue - the Crusades were not about Christianity vs Islam - they were about political control of an important and economically important asset. The people sent there were told it was for religious reasons, and may not have gone otherwise. This is an example of religion being bent to political purposes, but it was not religion, or faith itself that was at fault.

The same thing is happening today, but the ideology being used to justify the action is 'National Security', 'War or Terrorism', 'Axis of Evil', 'Weapons of Mass Destruction'. Which do you prefer? Nationalism, or Religiosity? Both are irrational, both lead people to their deaths, and irrationality will continue to exist. If you remove religion, then the same irrationality will express itself somewhere else somehow.