Additionally, have you looked at the statistics that show that more faithful societies have higher levels of immorality?

Point being: Patriotism, heroism, and bravery are not the unique domain of the religious. While *immorality* isn’t the unique domain of the religious, it seems to correlate and that alone should give you pause in defending faith as a virtue before you inform yourself of the details.

If people aren’t willing to look at what they believe and how they actually *ACT* as opposed to the lip service they give, then I’m not impressed with requests that special considerations be carved out for them. After all, I don’t see many Christians in the USA working against turning the USA into a Christian Taliban theocratic state.

If I did see more Christians working in a positive manner, I’d be encouraged that speaking out against the nonsense I do see is not necessary. Since that is not the case … well … here we are.

that is absolute rubbish.

let’s apply this to a faith outside your own bubble of delusion. here a a couple of examples.
I have a friend who has complete faith that she will win the lottery if she buys 50 tickets every day. Now she can hardly pay her rent, her children are eating scraps and of course she has yet to win big.
Now is it murder to explain to her the basic facts of reality? that her chances of winning are next to none? I consider it a service.
Would it be such a horrible thing to help suicide bombers out of their delusion? They are exemplars of true belief. They believe that they will be rewarded for their actions. Consider your own sentiments toward *somebody else’s* belief.
I know you will be inclined to argue that some beliefs are more benign than others, but I would argue that there is no way other than intense dialogue or (more often) intense violence to settle disagreements of beliefs. The simple fact of the matter is that beliefs are not based in measurable reality. So when one person says “I believe this bread is the flesh of christ” and another says “I believe in Santa Clause”*** and another says “I believe I am the reincarnation of Jimi Hendrix” the thing they all have in common is that all these beliefs are devoid of evidence as a foundation. They are equal from an objective standpoint. Yet people will die for (and kill for) their beliefs.

***the question comes to mind: is it murder to shatter a child’s belief in santa as they reach an age where the belief is no longer cute?
well, we as a people need to make these same decisions for ourselves. are these myths damaging, are we ready to admit the big santa in the sky is not real?

the reason we are here is because we know that faith leads to greater violence. we can all think of gruesome examples of people defending their ‘faith’ – I don’t think I need to start listing examples.