Religious tyrannies and murder in the name of god
Hitler and the Christian bishops
More crimes have been committed in the name of religion than any other reason
Religion was invented by men (until the twentieth century when women saw the way to make easy money and invented their churches and mythologies) to control others so that they would not have to work. The goal of religion was to intimidate and scare people into working for the new class of tyrants, known as priests, magi, and in time pastors, rabbis, and so forth.
From the earliest days to the present, religion has had one goal: to snuff out opposition. To this end, religion created an elaborate hoax of rituals, rites, passwords, and even spiritual murders so that the leaders (and in some cases the faithful) could feast upon the flesh and blood of others who symbolized a god or goddess or group of gods and goddesses. Cannibalism was invented with the apologia that by feasting on the body and blood of god, the strengths an wisdom of that god became a part of the one consuming the flesh and blood. Cronus of old ate his own children and grew large. Brahma (later Abraham) was instructed to kill his beloved son, paving the way for the myth of Jesus being sacrificed for the sins of man by a loving father. Rather than using the word loving, the text should have written schizophrenic, for the god of Jesus was as much a tyrant as the god of Moses: both demanding blind obedience to the point of dying.
Purification of the congregations of faithful have been a daily event throughout history: from the rape of Europa by Zeus in the form of a bull (a nice way of speaking of how the people of Carthage entered Spain and crossed the Alps to invade Italy) to the purges of early Christians, including the tale of Stephen the Witness, by the Romans (although there is no historical account of this, nor of Stephen), to Hitler's "cleansing the German [Aryan] race" of Jews, Gypsies [Egyptians], homosexuals, White Russians, and so forth, to the most nefarious and evil nation since the Third Reich, the Fourth Reich of George W. Bush and his ordering torture and death to Iraqis at Abu Gharib prison. This opened the floodgates of religious assassinations between Shiites and Sunnites although both claim to be follower of the mythological Muhammad who, although all sources note that he was illiterate, received the text of the Koran/Qu'ran from the archangel Gabriel demanding submission (Islam) of all people.
The fantasy of receiving divine instructions goes back to ancient Egypt and formulates the tale of Moses. It would also be the foundation for the fabrication of the angel Moroni visiting Joseph Smith to give him not only golden glasses but tablets bearing divine inscriptions to be preached throughout the world: the Book of Mormon. Today Protestants, Roman Catholics, Mormons, and Muslims compete with one another in "flock stealing"--promising eternal life as long as the individual surrenders to the dictates of the clergy of the faith proselytizing. All that happens is the elevation of misery, as the faiths require the absurdity of tithing (giving one-tenth of what one has or earns to the church/mosque/synagogue/etc)--for as the nefarious Jerry Falwell has been recorded preaching, "unless you give back to God one-tenth of what you earn, you will forever be poor and in debt." While many followed his message (echoed by televangelist Pat Robertson), they remain poor, many have lost their homes to foreclosure by the greatest criminals in USA history: Wells Fargo Bank, Bank of America, and so forth, so that the neo-Nazis can wax fat while destroying the rights of laborers (Scott Walker in Wisconsin, Terry Branstadt in Iowa, Craig Christie in New Jersey, and so forth), growing in number and power in the name of a sleeping god. To this end we find women against women (as with Legislator Annette Sweeney of Iowa, lawyer Phyllis Schlafly of Missouri, etc), who deny other women the right to determine the destiny of their own bodies--as did Hitler who forbade, under severe penalties, any Aryan woman obtaining an abortion, although permitting and in time exacting the abortion of fetus in the uterus of non-Aryan women (especially female Jews).
Religion has caused more damage and harm than all the world's wars, and in many cases was responsible for the wars. It is religion that brought about the crusades (Christian and Arab), slaughtering millions of women, children, the elderly, and others. It was religion that speared the Thirty Years War and led to the deaths of thousands during the Saint Bartholemew Day Massacre in France, the hanging of Catholics in Germany (with Martin Luther invoking the German nobility to "kill in darkness and in day light ... the German peasants", to the fires at Smithfield both under the Roman Catholic Queen Mary and the Protestant King Edward. Tabulated carefully, religion has cost over 65% of all those who died in battle, with the government of the USA actually buying weapons and weapon accessories with religious (Christian) messages, and the draconian US Air Force Academy requiring all recruits and students to attend Christian evangelical indoctrination classes while prohibiting nonevangelicals and secularists from presenting their perspectives. The military of the USA, like that of the UK, is among the chief protagonists of religious violence and deceit..