But then you might argue that those impulses may have been seeded by organisations, and you would be at least partially right. Which is why I’m saying “Christianity”, and not “the church” or “Christians” because at some point things become part of the culture, and then everyone, including leadership, stops questioning them (or doesn’t even start).

Every human has contradictions in their ethical/moral view of the world. It’s unavoidable. Any system of belief that tells you that you can be free of those contradictions is actually just helping you mask them, which creates space for bad things. Even independent of religion — there is no culture which doesn’t have some questionable things in its past and/or present. It’s the old in-group/out-group problem, and it’s not going to go away.

All of which is of course also *not* to say there weren’t some cultures/groups/organizations/whatever which I consider a lot more/less ethical than others, and that there weren’t Christian groups of which I have a good opinion.

But: Whether your particular group is Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or Pastafarian — all that does it provide a reference frame for speaking and thinking about things, and within each of those religions, there are (groups of) aimless idiots, blind followers, dangerous zealots, haters, as well as heroes and humans which genuinely make the world a better place for everyone. Some are even several of these simultaneously.
To me, that means that, despite all the rhetoric about good and evil, religion is effectively value-neutral. What ultimately matters is what you make of it.

In reality, though, the reasons for wars is almost always political. And by political, I mean economic.
Same with crime.
Religion is sometimes sprinkled on top, but the motivation is something else, and religion tends to be just sprinkles on top.

Some people need religion. I don’t, but I recognize that they do.
Some people need community. Everybody does.
There’s nothing inherently bad about combining those two… it’s grasping for political power from that basis that is harmful.

Ah, found a link : http://pandius.com/gnllmyst.html