Does Religion Create/promote Violence ?

Does Religion Create/Promote Violence ? Explain?
 
 
I found this lil article on line that may pertain to this question...
 
 
 
 
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http://www.examiner.com/article/nine-reasons-there-is-religious-violence
 
*Nine reasons there is religious violence 
 
Religious violence is a reality that kills. A quick look at the Middle East shows the damage and misery religious violence causes. But what causes religious violence? If we are serious about trying to make a better world by eliminating religious violence we must understand why it is a reality in the first place.
 
 
The best place to start is religion. The two largest religions in the world are Christianity (33%) and Islam (21%). Both of these "revealed"/hearsay religions sprang out of Judaism. Judaism is one of the world's smallest religions in numbers (0.22%), but one of the most powerful when it comes to political influence and raw military power. The Jewish state of Israel not only has a growing number of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, they also have a growing fleet of submarines capable of delivering their WMD anywhere in the world.(It's great to see the number of "nonreligious"/nones has grown to 16%! The bulk of these millions of people hold Deistic beliefs but probably have never heard of Deism. It's our job to educate them about Deism.)
Looking at the "holy" scriptures of these three very powerful and influential "revealed"/hearsay religions we quickly see these scriptures go a very long way in promoting religious violence.
 
 
The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament which the state of Israel is based upon (Israel does not have a constitution because no man-made laws can be above "God's laws") is overflowing with religious violence producing scriptures and teachings. For example, Numbers 31:17-18 has Moses ordering the Israeli army to commit genocide and rape. It reads, "Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." Verse 35 tells us the number of "women children" they kept alive for themselves was 32,000!
Psalm 137:9 is another Biblical attack against innocent children. It states, "Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." Could teachings like this be a catalyst for religious violence?
Isaiah 60:12 has God saying that any nation that will not serve the Jewish state of Israel "shall perish, yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." Is this scripture more likely to bring about peace or religious violence?
Christianity claims Jesus is the son of God and came to Earth to save mankind and to bring peace on Earth. However, the Bible says that Jesus said this is not true. Matthew 10:34 has Jesus saying, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." Is this type of teaching more likely to bring about religious violence?
Another teaching attributed to Jesus that is much more likely to inspire religious violence than it is peace is found at Luke 22:36 which is, ". . . he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, andbuy one."
The Book of Revelation is in and of itself violence promoting. It claims to foretell the violent end of the world (which, as the story goes, was supposed to have happened shortly after the Book of Revelation was written which was about 2,000 years ago, according to 1:1, although modern Christians tend to ignore this fact) and Revelation 19:11 openly states that Jesus "makes war." (The Deist Thomas Jefferson thought the Book of Revelation was "merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams.")
Looking at the Quran, the "holy" book of Islam, we see it also promotes religious violence as its fellow Abrahamic "revealed"/hearsay religions of Judaism and Christianity do.
Surah 9:5 directly instructs Muslims to "slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush." There is no logical way that will align with our God-given reason to look at this Quran teaching as anything other than a religious violence promoting teaching.
When the Islamic terror group the Taliban shot the 14-year-old girl Malala Yousafzai in the head they used the Quran to justify shooting a child. In particular, they used the sick and twisted story found at Surah 18:74-81 in which Moses is traveling with Khidr (a respected and revered figure in Islam) and Khidr murders a young boy. This Quranic example of an Islamic "holy" man/mythological creature killing a child was justification for the Taliban in attempting to murder Malala.
Another Quran teaching that does much to promote religious violence is found at Surah 47:4 and teaches, "Now when ye meet in battle those who disbelieve, then it is smiting of the necks until, when ye have routed them, then making fast of bonds; and afterward either grace or ransom till the war lay down its burdens. That (is the ordinance). And if Allah willed He could have punished them (without you) but (thus it is ordained) that He may try some of you by means of others. And those who are slain in the way of Allah, He rendereth not their actions vain." According to this religious violence promoting scripture, God wants Muslims to go to battle against non-Muslims/disbelievers and cut their heads off ("smiting of the necks"). And the Islamic god takes note of those Muslims who die in battle against the disbelievers.
There are many, many more cases of religious violence being promoted by the "holy" scriptures of the various "revealed"/hearsay religions. It's important to point out to sincere people the root cause of religious violence. Once enough people can identify the source of the problem, the problem itself can be removed. What a much more happy, peaceful and progress oriented world we will have then!