Yearning for the good old days - the middle ages

Well if we didn't know it before we certainly know now that Pope Benedict XVI was not the best politician in the kennel of potential Popes. He made it clear that he longed for the middle ages, when the church was all powerful, making and breaking kings. To criticize the violence of Islam he quoted Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologos who's reign was sandwiched the bloody Crusades and the equally bloody Inquisition. The reality is all of the Abrahamic religions, Jewish, Christian and Islamic, are violent and bloody as is their ultimate source the Old Testament. Of course Pope Benedict said he was sorry, not for what he said but that people took offense.

Organized religion is a dangerous plague on humanity, the Abrahamic religions being the most dangerous.

Update
Head over to Norwegianity and read Mark Gisleson's excellent post. A snip or two:

Nine million people died because of evil and corrupt Popes. Bear in mind that at most there were only 350 million people in the world at that time. The Crusades killed two percent of all the people in the world. By comparison, you have to credit Hitler with ALL WWII fatalities (Europe AND Asia), to match that horrific toll. Let me repeat that: percentage-wise, the Crusades killed as many people as WWII did.

On the other hand, I'm not a huge fan of Islam. On a personal level I find most manifestations of Islam to be as profoundly retarded as your typical Christian sect. Those who live their lives by truly Christian or Islamic teachings are, however, superior examples of homo sapiens. But since we're talking about no more than a few thousand people worldwide, we're really talking about anthropological curiosities more than any kind of coherent religious movement.

Be sure and go read the rest.