and toss in nuclear weapons, the belief in paradise via martyrdom, contested "holy" lands, and things get combustible really quickly!

I have long shared your horror of organized religion, David, for many reasons. It allows us to live with comfortable illusions, it blinds us to the true beauty which is the natural world, and it retards our curiosity about matters of real importance related to human flourishing. Thank god the Enlightenment finally took hold, but we should be mindful that its lessons can be obliterated, if they aren't robustly defended.

In America, a small minority of Christians have disproportionate political power, with a truly sinister stranglehold in the GOP.   You can hear it in their fervent, biblically-ordained support for Israel. The Second Coming requires a lot of bizarre conditions including getting all Jews into certain real estate, rebuilding a temple, etc. etc. This batshit crazy story is akin to a Marvel Comics for religious lunatics, complete with the return of Super Jesus, all ready to kick major league ass! And it is powerfully animating millions of the truly, truly faithful! I don't think secular minded folks can in any way relate to the all consuming grip this has on the psyche of the believers. Check out John Hagee if you'd like to see the embodiment of this mass delusion. Also in America, the far right's intertwining of right-wing politics and conservative Christianity into the dangerously malignant form, Christian Nationalism. It's obviously hugely consequential here and also abroad in Russia, Hungry, and it is spreading to other continents.

 And of course there is the obvious oceans of blood spilled over the centuries,  and today's most pressing concern, and there are many, the prospect of Iran getting nuclear weapons. There is no way that Israel will allow that! The imams and mullahs will joyously trade this life for the next one if it means they can demolish Israel.

Hindu Nationalism under Modi discriminates against India's 200 million Muslims, and many of Islam's 1.6 million Muslims hold views that range from mildly disturbing to downright dangerously consequential. How long can they and Pakistan continue to abstain from an exchange.

And let's not forget those Messianic religious settlers on the West Bank who build settlements on occupied lands, steal thousands of Palestinian homes, and commit violence against Palestinians all in the hopes of ushering in their own Messiah.

I'd be remiss in not acknowledging the absolute scum which are Hamas and more broadly, jihadists. These death cult miscreants truly do love death more than we love life and the beyond comprehension horrors that they perpetrated on Israeli citizens are as sick as anything I can imagine. 

Hello Secular Humanism! But good luck getting SHs together as they are by nature, non-conformists, and we don't have the music, traditions, social cohesion, false consolation, majestic architecture, etc. so the SH enterprise may well be obliterated by any or all of the aforementioned groups. But at least for a few shining moments, we didn't live under illusions, and we tried our best to establish a reality-based community, and live with some dignity in an indifferent and meaningless universe. The only meaning we are going to arrive at is the meaning that we ourselves create!

Peter T.