The world would be better off without religion.

My opinion is that that the world would be better off without religion. But why?1) Violence & powerAs you probably know, religion has quite a reputation over the millenia for inciting wars, crusades, and persecutions of people because they had a different religion, or a different version of the same religion. Religion isn't necessarily the direct cause of violence (even though it has been), but it can be the excuse for violence, and it can be quite persuasive when it comes to encouraging troops to pillage and ransack cities even though their holy book specifically instructs them that killing is immoral. When it comes to the numerous crusades for example, the aim of which is generally to kill, ransack, and conquer religious territory, entire cities are sacked and laid to waste in the name of religion. The instigators of these events were the Roman Catholic Church, which was one of the dominant religions at the time, a religion that continuously boasts the ten commandments (In which you must not kill). This is a clear demonstration of the power that the self-proclaimed "leaders" of the respective religion have. Their word is law and you must follow it on pain of death and going to hell. They can use it for conquering territories, claiming taxes from the poor and the rich, and keeping the people at bay or on their side. . http://en.wikipedia.org...http://en.wikipedia.org...(1204)While Christians were killing Muslims, Christians had a more internal problem to deal with. Protestants against Catholics caused prosecutions and mass beheadings everywhere. Let's take a fitting example; Queen Mary I of England, was named bloody Mary for her numerous executions of protestants. Ironically, her father Henry VIII played a large part in the separation of the church when he didn't get what he want. Another example would be the Catharsis movement. This was a movement that started in a large portion of Europe, especially southern France. It consisted of heretical Catholics, who were called "The church of Satan" by the Roman Catholic Church. And of course violent battles took place between the two. . http://en.wikipedia.org...http://en.wikipedia.org...2) Ignorance and influence The majority (if not all) of religions have a tendency to dumb down the population. It's been happening for millenia and is still happening now (Especially in America if I may add). Socrates was sentenced to death for questioning the gods and Evolution, a solid theory backed by mountains of evidence is challenged by ignorant religious fundamentalists who don't seem to know what evidence is. The ignorance that religion imposes on the population is so prominent that it delays scientific advancements and labels completely reasonable and helpful practices as "immoral", using its falsely claimed monopoly on morality. For example, abortion is largely frowned upon if not illegal in a lot of countries. I've come across numerous stories where a doctor simply refused to abort someone based on his religious beliefs, after which he was praised by the church for saving a child with fatal defects that died shortly after the birth that he knew perfectly well about. Or even cases where doctors refuse an abortion which could and did cost a life. . http://www.dailymail.co.uk...http://en.wikipedia.org...The whole point of dumbing down the population is to control it. An in-educated population that blindly agrees to the religion's views can be easily controlled by the religion's leader(s). A striking and extreme example would be Saudi Arabia, where it's citizens are entirely controlled by the Islamic religious fundamentalists. To conclude, in my opinion religion has been the cause of many wars, and has been the tool of an extremely large number of wars, deaths, and control and we would be better off without it.