Religious people are obviously neither more stupid nor less unselfish than non-religious. And political beliefs, fear, anger, warlust and all sorts of group dynamics can make normal people use violence against each other. So, clearly, religion is
not the Root of All Evil.
However, it is a pretty effective fertilizer for the real roots. For while political beliefs can be argued with, fear and anger can be abated and warlust can be recognized for what it is, the element of UNreason makes religion especially capricious and labile. The same holy book can lead some people to saintly deeds, others to murder.
The particularly dangerous thing about religions is the belief that belief has a value in itself, that it is a virtue to keep believing in spite of any arguments. This makes it a very unpredictable force. A force that is easy to exploit, but which also creates its own social dynamics quite nicely on its own without the help of any masterminding.
So, when discussing faith and belief, I think we should separate two meanings of the word "belief". One is to believe in some cause, that some is right in the normative sense. This we may call moral belief. The other is believing that the world really is working in a certain way. This we may call factual belief. For instance, believing that it is right to kill someone for burning the Quaran is moral belief. Believing that there is a God that made humans in His image and commanded them to keep the Quaran Holy is factual. The latter can be objectively wrong.
I do not believe there is anything supernatural about any holy book. But I do believe in free speech, freedom from oppression and responsibility for fellow humans.These are quite different types of belief. I know there is nothing objective about my moral beliefs. They cannot be proven factually true. But if I base my actions upon counterfactual beliefs (pushing crystals instead of chemo to heal cancer, that the creator of the universe will be pissed off if I don't kill whoever burns the wrong book), I risk doing the morally wrong thing. Like the regret of someone who has pushed worthless medicine or commited holy murders, then realize that the cure was poison and the voices were in his own head.
So, what to do about book-burning, infidel-killing fanatics and their useful idiots in the media? My factual belief is that it is best to ignore them when possible and engage them in serious argument over both facts and morals whenever possible. In short:
(PS:Sorry about the English. Still havent gotten my American keyboard fixed and I believe it looks even worse with ae oe and aa all over the place...)