I wokred with Cartr in the 90's and he became - abnd still is - one of my heros. I hope he alsways has the mocrophone

Neurobiologists have determiened that between 88% - 92% of the world's peopel have the "God gene" - a dna makeup that generates feelings of pleasure and satisfaction when they engage in religious ceremony and practice (http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101041025/). For thousands of years, ambitious individuals - some with heartfelt dedication to what they see as a higher power, and some just greedy - have taken advantage of this to form religious organizations (including all the major religions of the world) whose stated purpose is worship and do good deeds but which actually function to generate wealth, power and access to sex for its leaders. In some cases, these religions do good works, but historicaly the evil of religion far outweighs its good works. Almost all of the war, torture, raciscm, abuse of women, sexism, homphobia and general evil things we do to one another has a direct or indirect religious connection.

This is not to say all religion and religious leaders are bad. It is just that the purpose of organized religion is not to help humanity or individual humans, it is to feed the religious bureaucracies and enhance their power and wealth. The last place you will find God is in a Church. If you are Christian, keep in mind that the only people Christ condemned were the Pharasees - religious leaders full of themselves- and temple money changers - those who would use religion to make money.

Once way that religions do this is to demonize non-belivers and exclude them and blame them for their misfortune and even help cause that misfortune.

So why are the major faiths not calling the conferences and lining up to stop the torture and killing Dafur? Same reason nations are not: it does serve their ends. The Dafurians are not "one of us" and there is no money to be made or power to be gained. So why spend resources on Dafur when there is more power and fame and wealth to be gained by sending our direct mail fund appeals urging the faithful to keep gays from getting married and hate liberals.

I know this sounds terribly cynical, but Ihave read history. Relegious individuals do come to the aid of their fellow humans, but historically, there are only a handful of cases where religious organizations have come to the aid of suffering people (usually the are causing the suffering). I exclude missionaries from the aid side because for the most part, the "mission" to accumulate power by making converts - the good works are a marketing device, although the missionaries themselves may be very genuine and concerned people.