"So, Pete, how do all these sincere believers who kill, torture, maim, steal and break round about every one of the above in the name of their god measure up then?"

Well, of course, Dave, you, and I (and Steve and Musket) know that religion has never really ever been about peace, love and a big, beardy (immaterial) bloke in the sky creating stuff - it's really about social control. Centuries ago, some genius realised that you could manipulate people's fear of death and the uncertainties of life by convincing them that you could intervene on their behalf with some big, beardy bloke (or blokes) in the sky who controls everything. The genius realised that he was on the right path when people started respecting him, awarding him social status, giving him stuff and even allowing him to bugger their children - just for intoning mumbo-jumbo and spouting pious platitudes - a nice little earner!

As human history progressed, and society became a bit more rational, it got harder and harder for the church to hang on to its power so it had to start torturing people and burning them at the stake etc. Now, of course, science has shown the invented religious world view to be complete balderdash and so the church is losing even more of that power. Most established religions have realised that their day is done but the fundamentalist fascists refuse to be beaten and a few of their more deluded followers, like pete, keep on rooting for them. Still, could be worse, pete could be a follower of Islamo-fascism and spend his time blowing people up rather than just spouting nonsense on here!