[NICKG]

the sad truth about all of this is that religion...in any form has been the worst plague on mankind since existence....more have suffered, died or given life over to these various religions than any and all wars put together and multipied a thousand times over.

Religion is not all bad because it brings people togethjer in a common bond, it makes communities. But to blindly follow it makes others beleive that it takes advantage of people who otherwise should think for themselves.
PERSONALLY, I think that if there was a god..I find it hard that he/she would allow this kind of stuff to happen in his or here name. The fact that most religions are basically the same when brokendown to their cores, indicates to me that the big major religions are much more related than people think.
consider this,
Judaism was likely the first monotheiastic religion but was likely based on earlier religions that have died away.
Unhappy Jews later form a cult called christianity after following a disgruntled (or visionary) man called Jesus. This becomes the christian church in it's basic core.
Follow this up a few hundred years later when a salesman claims to have the word of god and visons and talks with God. His name is Mohammed, he at first follows many of the judiao/christian beleifs and actually initially aligns his religion/cult in a way that was to draw fringe Jews/christians in. He even goes as far as to sanctify the same holy sites of Jeruselem, Bethlahem as holy sites and recognize prohets such as Jesus, and Abraham to recruit people. His claim ids that they are god's chosen people, the third chosen to replace the formers (jews>christians then muslim) Later without success he realigns this to make Mecca the holy city as opposed to Jeruselem. His anger ate the Jews and christians for shunning his preachings becomes legendary....

all of these major religions fool people by making them think that they are the only "true" religion
all of these claim to be great, but really they are all derivatives of age old tales. it is nice to think that God is with us, but hard to see exactly who god is and why he/she would chose one over another if he is truely a benevolant being.
So essentially religion, as long as man exists, will be a plague amongst us because you cannot easily change people's beleif systems