I feel the love on this thread. There are a lot of angry people. This is why etiquette workshops always tell people never to discuss religion, politics, or sex.
However it makes interesting conversation.
With every religion there are profiteers who take random passages out of context and manipulate them to justify their actions. Even if other parts of the same text condemn it. Take the KKK and white supremists. They took a passage from Genesis interpreted it to mean that white people were superior, thus justifying discrimination, segregation and murder. However, they completely ignored well known verses such as "You shall not kill," "Love your neighbour," and the book of James has an entire chapter devoted to why favouring one type of person, discriminating against another, is wrong.
It's not religion that screws up the world, it's people. People misconstrue passages to justify evil. People take bribes when they should be upholding justice.
All this religious discrimination and racism is just fear mongering, honestly because that's what people do. Instead of trying to fix the problem we try to fix blame.
And in response to imsickofyear12's "religion should be practised in private, not in public," it's impossible to separate the two. Religion is a personal belief, yes, but it is reflected in the way we live our lives, and we live our lives in public, unless you want to live under a rock.
You want to uphold "Australian Values", well one of those values, enshrined in our constitution is freedom of religion.
I agree with shadowfilms- [people]"would use politics or scientific theory as an excuse instead." Thus the conclusion of my argument. People screw things up, because we're not perfect, and some people don't even try to be. That's why God sent Jesus so we could be forgiven. Grace is better than punishment.
In my opinion, if people just forgave each other there'd be a lot less wars. Maybe it's naiive, but it's true.