Not true. Faith is merely an excuse to kill other people.
The fundamental problem is that there are some people who just want to tell other people how to live their lives.
In some cases, it's "Worship my god, or I'll kill you".
In other cases, it's "Worship me, or I'll kill you".
In other cases, it's "Don't eat/smoke that plant, or I'll kill you".
And so on.
If it wasn't Faith used as an excuse to kill, it would be something else.
The real question, then, cannot be Whether the world would be better off without "religion."
Flawed Article.
He needs to prove that the examples he cited are religious conflicts. Are they really religious conflicts, or simply conflicts between people of different religions.
He needs to prove his dichotomy of all religions vs no religions. No devote member of a religion would consider all religions equal. Nor would they defend the actions of the other religions, in order to justifiy their own.
He needs to compare religious wars vs all wars. Is religion a major cause of war, or a rare cause.
and finally
He needs to examine all the good that religion has done vs the harm. How does the good compare to the evil.
Personal relationships with God are productive. But that would mean individual decisions, based on personal, independant thought. Not for the faint of heart. It's a lot easier to just follow your book, and priest (rabbi, whatever), and be part of the "accepted" crowd. We want to belong, to not think, to not question, to not be ostracized. That hurts.
Organized religion leads to "us against them."
"WE are the true believers, and those that oppose us oppose God. Everyone else is wrong, and are going to hell."
Sound familier?
Would the world be better without TV, the Internet, or politicians?
Not a question of religion, but of faith. The world would not be better without faith, because of belief in tomorrow we can get through today. Faith that things will get better requires hope and love. Faith that things will get worse is not faith at all, but depression and despair, which require a faith that things will get better to keep on living.
"Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow. You're only a day away."
This has been my precise conclusion as well. To be accurate, it simply depends on the religion or creed.
Creeds that hold genuine peace, good will for all, and respect for life at the core of their teachings ("love others; do unto others as you would have them do unto you") tend to restrain violence and build peaceful society.
Creeds that enshrine violence ("the perfect society will be achieved by a violent revolution which will sweep away the capitalist pigs"; "fight and slay the infidels until OUR religion reigns supreme") "contribute" nothing to society but terror, violence and hell.
Organized religion has had some problems, including Christianity.
You include athiest regimes that have been a thousand times more murderous and ugly than the worst times of Christian wrongdoing. Communist regimes including Russia, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, etc. have murdered over one hundred milion of their own citizens for not believing the official dogma. The Catholic Church at the worst of its horrible slide (no excuses...they screwed up) killed less than five thousand during the Inquisition...that's "The Inquisition"...the one that atheists point to as the worst example of intolerance in the known time/space continuum. The Salem witch trials...the other worst example of intolerance (no excuses this was not right) in the space/time continuum killed 18 (some of whom deserved it from what I understand).
Russia killed between 60 and one hundred million
China only about 20 million ...or maybe 30...
the killing fields of Cambodia...only about 2 million.
So please grow up and realize this is an example of straining at gnats and swallowing camels. Good luck with your atheist regimes. Please ask your liberal atheist friends (or even your so-called conservative ones) not to murder or torture you and your family when they gain total power. Like I said...good luck.
BTW Hitler did not have a religious regime either.