General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Dear Religion, While you were debating what chicken sandwiches were okay to eat,... [View all]hifiguy
(33,688 posts)as are power lust, desire for conquest and plain old craziness. That religion has been responsible for an enormous number of needless deaths is, however, undeniable. Meso-American populations were exterminated by the conquistadors by the millions in the name of Catholicism. Tens of thousands were tortured and slaughtered in actual witch-hunts. Historical facts cannot be denied. To this day Muslim sects happily slaughter each other in great numbers because they disagree about interpretations of their "holy book."
Millions died in the Crusades, which were purely religious wars. A staggering percentage of the population for that time. Another 3 millon+ were killed in the Thirty Years War, a religious war.
Two to four million were killed in the French religious wars of the late 16th century.
At least a million died in the 1980s-1990s religious war in the Sudan.
Source: http://necrometrics.com/pre1700a.htm
The total casualties, both civilian and military, in WW II, were approximately 60 million, not 250 million. That figure includes deaths in the Holocaust. Give Uncle Joe credit for another 6-10 million in the USSR (purges, starvation, gulags, etc) and you still don't get anywhere near a quarter-billion; the actual figures are quite horrifying enough.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties#Third_Reich
The hands of religion, particularly the Abrahamic religions, are soaked in the blood of tens of millions.