Someone earlier suggested that kindness to enemies was a original Christian thought. It was not. Philosophers and moralists had given that speech for many hundreds of years before Christians began giving it lip service. And yes, the world would (and I believe will) be a better place if this ideal were endorsed by the world's leaders as the first and wisest course in times of conflict. Unfortunately this requires progressive humanist ideals be accepted much more widely than at present.
Education and tolerance are the steps to peace. To the extent that religions (or an ideology) endorse and support these two things, they represent a force for good. To the extent they foster dogma, superstition, and elitism, they are a force for bad. Religion is a facilitater and an enabler. Religion as a noun is neither helpful nor harmful.
I have come recently to accept that the world is not going to change dramatically in my lifetime. It never has changed in the short term but over the course of centuries we have seen great progress in knowledge and recognition of humnan rights. Better men with more talent will take up the cause long after I'm gone. For me I have to be at peace with human nature. This includes the billions who refuse to see reality thru the eyes of a skeptic. They do this in part as products of history and in part as frustrated students of life. I can no more change nor condemn that than condemn people for loyally buying Fords or enjoying Rap music. Especially is this reasonable seeing as how I spent half my life as a believer in things I knew were not true, doing so because I was convinced it was the only thing holding back a tide of evil within me and everyone else. I can however be a kind tolerant person who happens to not believe in Gods and maybe others will see that it is not religion that is holding the world from chaos it is innate human kindness shaped by natural forces for our survival directed and inhanced by human intelligence.
