[Archon_Wing]

There's always the fact that not all religion came from the Middle East (though I admit these are probaly what shows up the most), and some might not have the "follow us or die" theme.

Though I must wonder how much intolerance and violence comes from the religion itself. I mean people will fight over any reason. I suppose there are violent and hateful ideas in a number of religion, but not of their followers necessarily adhere to it. The reason how I can take the Old Testament in the Bible seriously even though I do believe in it, is that the context of the times was harsh with a lot of uncertainty going on and thus the tone of everything sounds really harsh, and God is harsh as well.

But I wonder:
Would the Crusades have happened if there wasn't Christianity or Islam?
Would Al Queda exist without Islam?
I'm quite sure there would still be conflict in the same places just because of people having clashing agendas, although the degree of the conflict might be diffrent.

Also Taraz:
How has religion gotten more tolerant? Have they gotten more tolerant towards other religions? What about atheists/ nonreligious people? Yes, there is a difference here.