The New Social Evil?

From Religion is ‘the new social evil’ by Robert Watts:

A Charity set up by an ardent Christian to fight slavery and the opium trade has identified a new social evil of the 21st century - religion.

A poll by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation uncovered a widespread belief that faith - not just in its extreme form - was intolerant, irrational and used to justify persecution.

Pollsters asked 3,500 people what they considered to be the worst blights on modern society, updating a list drawn up by Rowntree, a Quaker, 104 years ago.

The responses may well have dismayed him. The researchers found that the “dominant opinion” was that religion was a “social evil”.

Many participants said religion divided society, fueled intolerance and spawned “irrational” educational and other policies.

One said: “Faith in supernatural phenomena inspires hatred and prejudice throughout the world, and is commonly used as justification for persecution of women, gays and people who do not have faith.”

For something that has been around for what seems like forever, calling religion “new” seems rather strange. Hasn’t religion been a social evil since it’s inception? A way to separate people into “us” and “them?” The same way that countries do. Someone should write a blog about countries and religion, and how they separate people into groups that don’t get along with one another.