I dunno. I think the premise of the thread is a pretty broad generalization. Some good people join a religion because they want to follow the dictates of a demagogue. If the demagogue tells people to do bad things, then I suppose the followers may follow. I think these people are what might be termed "religious fundamentalists," and I guess I'd agree that they can be dangerous. In my religion (Roman Catholic), they're a pain in the ass to the rest of us.

Other good people join a religion because they share religious ideas with other people. They belong to the religion because of shared ideas or a shared heritage, not because of obedience to a leader or an ideology. For these people, I don't really think that their membership in a religion is any worse than their belonging to any other organization or group where people band together because of shared ideas or goals or values or heritage.

-Joe Offer-