are all religions dangerous?

When you see news of someone cutting off someone’s head as an act of worship, chanting, “Allah is good!” then you are going to have a problem with religion if you aren’t religious. The chances are you haven’t done enough careful study to know that not all religions are the same. Also, if you aren’t religious there is a reasonable chance you follow “moral equivalency” thinking. You might think morality is cultural and so one religion can’t be considered “better” than another. So your answer to the fact that almost every major conflict in countries around the world has an Islamic connection, is, “All religions are dangerous.”

When you say “all religions are dangerous” then you haven’t thought clearly on many different levels. A few examples.

Jainism- A religion that thinks of living thinks as so sacred that Jaina (followers of Jainism) will watch where they walk so they don’t step on bugs!

Christianity- The relationship between a Christian and a non-Christian is to be loving. “Love,” "to choose actions for the good of the other," is the driving force of the religion. A Christian is only allowed to use force if working in military or law enforcement, in defense of others, or, if conscious permits, in self-defense. Revenge or being the aggressor is forbidden.

Islam- Yes, many Muslims adhere to the Wahabi branch of Islam, or a derivative, which leads to acts of violence as we have seen throughout the world. But the vast, vast majority of Muslims are not part of this thinking. Other branches of Islam, such as Sufi, are beautiful in their principles of compassion and care for the other.

Obviously, the worst atrocities in the last 100 years have been committed in the name of forms of Marxism, in the Soviet Union (under Stalin 30+ million dead) and in China (under Mao 30+ million dead). Marxism does not recognize a god at all. “Religion is the opiate of the people,” and such.

So, what can you say? Bad thinking followed by people unusually willing to do evil is dangerous.