Nationalism a curse or progress

This is my first debate in on this site but is not my first debate and my opponent"s clarification of the rules, however well intentioned, the condescension is neither required nor appreciated. That being said, I believe the primary problem with my opponents arguments start with the fact he is taking two entirely different concepts and attempting to combine them into a single entity to prove a point about human nature. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary: Full Definition of capitalism : an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market Full Definition of nationalism : loyalty and devotion to a nation; especially : a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups Obviously, neither of these concepts are related based on the strict definitions of the words. In his first citation, my opponent is referencing a source from the Acton Institute, a publication based on a religion. Any argument which has and underlying foundation rooted in the belief of a deity, to me, lacks any validation. The entire principle of religion is a demand that you believe without question and that is called faith. No matter how well they attempt to dress it up, by definition faith is the lack of proof. His second citation is based on a translation of a Portuguese document published in 2008. In his opening statement in his abstract; "In this work I show that nationalism, together with liberalism, socialism, efficientism and the environmentalism, is one of the ideologies of the modern societies." the author has clearly is melding four different beliefs into a single thought. Further, the author makes some interesting leaps of logic and he flips between definitions of what he believes nationalism to be. In his third citation, my opponent has reference a publication from Rice University dated 1986 in which there is a partial abstract and a list of five publications where he would like me to go and see whether or not they are relevant. While the title is directly on point to my opponent"s arguments, there is nothing in the body of work to show how it relates. The fourth citation in the list shows and error code 404 and reads "book not available on server". While attempting to read what my opponent explained was the evidence from where he drew his conclusions, I feel I was sent on a chase of the wild goose variety. In future, I would hope he will provide actual citations from actual sources which can be verified. In his final argument, my opponent opted for a parable in much the same way children in Sunday school are taught about the nonsense in the bible. Hardly the kind of discussion about nationalism I was expecting. So much for his rebuttal to my initial statement. Nationalism, as it currently stands is nothing more than a natural extension of the tribes throughout history which have grown to their current states. This evolutionary process is very likely to continue as is evidenced by the European Union, now in its infancy. At some point this union with be thought of as a nation and the subsequent generations will think of this union as its own nation and will have the associated nationalism attached to it in the same way that all of the other countries currently think of the place where they live. When children are growing up, there is an indoctrination which occurs. They are taught to be proud of their families, community, town, state, country, etc. Singling out nationalism as the ultimate form of wrongs in the world makes no more sense than it is to blame pride in the family. Humans are communal animals. Perhaps, at some point in the future, that community will encompass the entire planet. Blaming nationalism for all of the ills in the world just defies logic.