>>My point, however, is not that religion in itself incites violence -- rather, it is the politicians or other powerful leaders that use religion for their own purposes, and unfortunately violence is often one of the tools of that trade.
>
>Works both ways. Since one of the axioms of any religion is the ownership of the truth, it almost logically (if we are allowed a bit of a loose use of the term) follows that the others got it wrong, therefore The Word needs to spread... which pretty soon turns into a political game, influence trading, exchanging services, blackmailing, strange bedfellows and whatnot. To spread, a religion becomes organized. Once organized, it becomes a political force because it wants to spread (yeah, it's circular)... and pretty soon you get an emperor annoynted as a saint, because he stopped killing yours and started killing theirs instead.

Amen, brother.