MaxPowers666 said:
I just find it strange that we always see dictators like stalin and hitler as these extremely evil people but the christian church which killed far far more is perfectly acceptable. The only way I can see that this works is simply because our countries are mostly christian or at least have a large christian base. Its not just them its most religions that have done this before.
First of all, Hitler was religious, but not in the same way as nearly anyone you or I would know. He blended his (Christian) upbringing with the acceptable (at the time) 'Aryan Race' focused cults of the time. Stalin was quite obviously atheist, and to be religious under his regime was pretty much to sign your death warrant. Somewhere between 10 and 30 million people died under his rule. As Chevy235 said, the Crusades probably couldn't have killed that many. And it doesn't matter, because people don't kill each other over religion, they kill each other over control of what matters to them.
Religion and Natural Philosophy was what mattered before society got us to the point where we don't think we might die on a daily basis. Religion no longer calls the shots - many people are 'religious' but most people have a faith-based or spirituality-based belief system more than religious-based belief system. The holdouts who think we should base our governmental systems off of religious beliefs are a dying breed, and they are fighting it very vocally, but they aren't in any way a majority.
All this means one day (which I think has already passed, you may disagree) you won't have religion to blame when people are still killing each other for no fucking reason other than that they think they should.
I actually anticipate a repression or marginalization of religion in the future. I come from a religious background (Catholic of all things), but I am not particularly religious myself, so such a thing doesn't directly affect me, but it would go against my libertarian beliefs, so I tend to defend religious people (not necessarily religion) where I see the need.