12 Horrible ideas Religion has unleashed on the world. War us inevitable with these.

http://www.alternet.org/belief/12-worst-ideas-religion-has-unleashed-world?akid=12713.294211.6lT-93&rd=1&src=newsletter1030727&t=6

1. Chosen People 

2. Heretics – Heretics, kafir, or infidels (to use the medieval Catholic term) are not just outsiders, they are morally suspect and often seen as less than fully human. 

3. Holy War – If war can be holy, anything goes

4. Blasphemy – Blasphemy is the notion that some ideas are inviolable, off limits to criticism, satire, debate, or even question.

5. Glorified suffering – Picture secret societies of monks flogging their own backs.  

6. Genital mutilation 

8. Hell  

9. Karma – Like hell, the concept of karma offers a selfish incentive for good behavior—it’ll come back at you later—but it has enormous costs. Chief among these is a tremendous weight of cultural passivity in the face of harm and suffering.

10. Heaven – To our weary and unwashed ancestors, the idea of gem encrusted walls, streets of gold, the fountain of youth, or an eternity of angelic chorus (or sex with virgins) may have seemed like sheer bliss.

11. Male Ownership of Female Fertility