All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth. And that's where it turns demonic. Because that's when you get religious wars and persecutions and burning heretics at the stake.

Rachael Kohn's book 'The New Believers' provides a mirror into which every organized religious tradition should be compelled to look. She points to hope not fear, to openness not repression. The spiritual side of human life is far from dead in this 21st century but many forms of institutional religious life are so clearly in the last stages of rigor mortis. Rachael Kohn offers to those who have the eyes to see a new pathway into a religious future that is real. It might be religion's last chance.

Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance... the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.

I'm not a follower of this or that religious leader. More wars are started because of religious leaders, and people are following and they don't know why... That is religiosity. That is what turns people into robots.

In the long term we can hope that religion will change the nature of man and reduce conflict. But history is not encouraging in this respect. The bloodiest wars in history have been religious wars.

The fruits of Christianity were religious wars, butcheries, crusades, inquisitions, extermination of the natives of America and the introduction of African slaves in their place