Religion, and the fact that it has been able to spread in the first place, is the ultimate embodiment of human ignorance and narrow-mindedness. Let's take a journey into the mind of the average believer (or strawman, whichever you prefer):

- Every other religion is false and makes ridiculous claims, unlike my own.

- Conveniently, I was fortunate enough to be born into a family that believes in the one true religion, unlike everyone else raised under false beliefs.

- Though I was fortunate enough to be born into a family with the one true religion, and thus received extensive knowledge and information about their religion exclusively since I was a child, I chose to follow this religion in particular entirely on my own initiative. No indoctrination or bias involved.

- My interpretation of our holy scriptures makes the most sense. While slavery, rape and mass murder technically is condoned under certain circumstances, I know for a fact that such actions cannot be justified in our modern society, while homosexuality is explicitly wrong.

- I will not stop believing until you show me proof that my God does not exist, which conveniently is not possible since He exists outside of our physical boundaries.

- I don't need to prove that my God exists, because if there were proof then there would be no point in believing. All that matters to me is that I can feel His presence and have seen my prayers come true first hand. Sure, believers of false religions may also claim to have seen their deities or other forms of divine influences in action, but they, unlike me, have been deceived.

- If, by some chance, you can show me parts of my holy scriptures that seem outlandish or even cruel, those parts are obviously the result of human influence through the ages of its existence. All the other parts about love and compassion, on the other hand, obviously needed divine guidance to take form and couldn't possibly have been man-made. Without God, man would have no moral compass, after all.

- Though God knew every action that I would make during my entire life (and therefore knew whether I would end up in heaven or hell) since before the Universe was created the way He desire it to be, I clearly have a free will. It explicitly says so in our holy scriptures, after all.

Everything can be evil when used in evil ways, aside from Ideals and theoretical concepts. Evil is a part of human nature.

Islam endorses and encourages knowledge and science. Case in point, algebra and algrothims! :>

Oh. You know how gravity works? Might want to explain that to NASA. 

http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question30.html

it is. The only country doing religion right is Japan

[quote]Religion has done so much harm and brought so much sorrow to humanity on many different levels that it's hard to hand out a positive verdict for its whole body of work.[/qoute]

Such a wall of text and you did it wrong already in the 2'nd passage, unnecessary to continue reading.

Fix it to:
"Stupid and devil people have done in the name of a religion ..."

so maybe it will be worth reading.

and guess what there are also good people who help others in the name of a religion.

It depends on the person and its intentions.

Example:

The Knife is the devil's work - Knifes have done so much harm and brought so much sorrow to humanity
On the other hand
Knifes can be very helpful in life for good reasons.

It depends on the person who is using it and the persons intension.

Individual religion is fine, a person can hold beliefs that benefit them because they will look for what they need to exist. Organised religion of groups is bad, it twists views and what should be considered good into broken reasons to exploit and manipulate, as people conform to a consensus view and don't decide their own views on the faith.

Wars would exist regardless over land and resources but wars over religion seems odd as it's ideology only, the individual in a religious army does not believe in murder, yet a mass group of them will go out and kill in defence of their religion? A contradiction of personal faith.

Just because a scientific discovery happens to take place in a region where a certain religion is prevalent, that doesn't mean the religion should take credit for it. For example, I'd never say that Christianity is responsible for the first airplane.

Also, I find it hard to believe that a society that encourages knowledge and science would treat women the way that they are treated in countries where Islamic law is in effect.

I agree religion is bad. Religion is also more than just gods.

Religion is powerful. Nothing can bring people of all types together like religion. Likewise it divides them.

Religion DID NOT STOP the science of war, of making weapons of war, or killing, or torture.
Much of modern science is based on making devices related to war, from more powerful computers, to GPS to the Internet, to space exploration. Hell, some of the most evil inventions were conceived in the name of religion.

There is no difference between a priest and a scientist. Both ask me to believe things that is beyond my capability of proving without a doubt. When religious people come to me with their religion I politely send them away.
Saying that, I do not judge a person by the god they believe in, but by their character.

About religion I know this. Christianity is dying and Islam is rising in the west. For one to grow another must succumb. Nothing stays the same.

History is all about the rises and falls of peoples and religions. History dictates the west will fall and its people become someone else's .. you know the word. Maybe not in our lifetime but the world doesn't stop.

Just to add one more thing. I don't remember who said it (maybe Reagan but don't qoute me on that, Google isn't helping).
"The way to destroy a country or a people is to destroy their culture, namely their religion. You make them believe this is a good thing".

The countries on the move like China, India (becoming more militant Hindu) and the rest of them sees religion as vitally important. It is estimated China will soon be the largest Christian populated country in world. Their government encourages this (in a controlled way). They have the benefit of hindsight.

As much as I want no part of religion or gods, I look at an America of old who believed that God was on their side and made them the greatest nation on the planet and saw where it got them. Their very constitution is based on many of these beliefs. Did this belief help them achieve so much? Many believe it did but that can be argued.

Religion is culture. You really cant separate the two.