[watchin]

A popular but untrue sentiment. Check your history book again. Far more people have suffered at the hands of atheist regimes than religious, primarily in this century. While the number of incidents might lead one to believe that religion has caused the most deaths, a focus on the actual numbers will prove my point.

[f.Christian]

Ideology/religion promotes hate--self righteousness/hypocrisy...Truth promotes love-sacrifice!

Two opposite--different things!

[colorado tanker]

Right you are. All the world wars of the 18th Century were fought over nationalist issues. The Napoleonic Wars were caused by French nationalism seeking world domination. There was no world war from 1815 to 1914, a time of great religious revival in the Christian world. WWI was caused by nationalism and authoritarianism. WWII was caused by fascist regimes for nationalist goals. Germany was hostile to all Judeo-Christian religions. The Black Book of Communism estimates 80-100 million dead due to efforts to establish communist states.

Tribalism and nationalism are often mistaken for religion because different ethnicisities often have different religions. Example: during the "troubles" in Northern Ireland the flags flown by the two sides were not the banners of the Catholic Church and the protestant churches, but were the secular flags of Ireland and the U.K. It was a fight between the Irish and Scotch-Irish for domination and wealth in the north - nobody tried to convert anybody.

The main exception to my argument is Islam. Many muslims believe the Sharia requires that any "apostate," i.e. any muslim converting to another religion, be executed. Many madrassas teach that the meaning of "jihad" is the killing of non-muslims. I think nationalistic and economic reasons underly much of this, but the way many muslims speak of "jihad" and "martyrdom" is frightening.

[weikel]

I consider Marxism a religion because it requires blind faith and is intolerant of other beliefs its just the worst religion of all( yes Marxism is even worse than evil religion #2 Islam).

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"a focus on the actual numbers will prove my point. "

Ok, I'll spot you 6 million right off the bat for all the people that were killed because of their Jewish faith.