Here's why I think religion poses the biggest threat to man-kind's survival over the next 100 years. The 21st century fundamentalist now have access to nuclear weapons.
The fact that people do some great things in the name of faith does not mean that these things are best done, or can only be done, in the name of faith. There is nothing to suggest that acts of kindness, or beauty, or virtue, would not occur without religious dogma.
In a world where believers think their book is the book, whether you're talking about the Old Testament, New Testament, Koran or others, it goes to reason that those that do not believe in that book are consigned to eternal damnation.
Imagine if we thought the same way about a movie? Or software? "Windows XP is the almighty source code, all that don't follow it - OSX, Linux are forever doomed." Ludicrous.
According to a Gallop poll, 35% of Americans believe the bible to be the literal word of God. Take a look at the book of Deuteronomy 13:7-11 and you'll see that those that believe in other religions should be "stoned to death" A literal reading of the Old Testament requires heretics to be put to death. John 15:6 says "If a man abide not in me,he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."
On almost every page of the Koran, observant Muslims are taught to despise non-believers.
What is the difference between a man who believes that God will reward him with 72 virgins if he blows himself up and in the process kills scores of Jewish teenagers, and someone who thinks that creatures from Alpha Centauri are beaming messages of world peace through their blow dryer or that raindrops are tapping Morse code to him on his window seal?
Clearly there is sanity in numbers. Do you believe that if all of mankind's knowledge was wiped out, we would once again come to the place where we believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, cheated death, rose into heaven, and his bodily form can now be eaten in the form of a cracker and some burgundy?
How can anyone in the 21st century believe that! We have been lulled into ignoring how strange many religious beliefs are. Remember that when the bible was written, a wheelbarrow was a major invention, people believe that the earth was flat and doctors drilled holes in our heads to let the demons out when we were sick.
Look at the current war against AIDS in developing nations: 1/3 of our budget is based on the Christian premise of abstinence, rather than passing out as many condoms as possible. This is an insane misuse of Christian morality sending millions of people needlessly to an early grave.
In the last 10 years religion has been the main cause for literally millions of deaths in the world:
Look at some of the following world conflicts:
War on Terror - Islam v. Western Imperialism (Christianity)
Palestine : Jews v. Muslims
Balkans: Orthodox Serbs v. Catholic Croations, Orthodox Serbs v. Muslims
Kashmir: Muslim v. Hindu
Northern Ireland: Protestant v. Catholic
Indonesia: Muslim v. Christian
Even moderates that ignore or gloss over barbaric passages in religious texts, lose touch with how dangerous these passages are when taken literally. And you can see, that when 35% of America believes that the Bible is the literal word of God, that is a very dangerous belief system.
