Is “organized religion” the cause of wars, hatred, and other evils?

In his book Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis traces his journey from his early atheism to the Christian faith. One of the phenomena that influenced his thinking is the fact that all over the world, in every age, people have sought to make their behaviors consistent with some external measure of what is good, just, and true. Sometimes that means changing our actions to fit a higher standard. All to often that means seeking ways to amend or reinterpret the standard so our current actions can be justified. But Lewis reflected that in every place in every time, the need to be "right" with something transcendent is a core aspect of what it means to be human.

Lewis is not the only person to recognize this basic aspect of humanity. In fact, I have read reports of recent psychological research seeking to define and quantify this human quality.
In the context of this understanding of human nature, religious expressions of all sorts are seen to flow from the human need to be closer to and more in tune with God, however that concept is understood. Properly expressed by healthy people who are blessed with good leadership, this wonderful element of our humanity emerges in people like Mother Theresa, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King, and Saint Francis of Assisi and in movements like Habitat for Humanity and Oxfam. It shows up in good families, good friendships, and healthy churches. But like other powerful drives such as sex and the need for safety, the urge to faith can drive us in terrible directions. One sees "Christian" white supremacists and "Muslim" jihadists violating the most basic standards of human decency because they have let their urge to faith be turned in truly bizarre directions.

So to condemn "organized religion" misses the point entirely. There is a powerful drive within each human being to do what is right and to be right with God. When we allow this drive to become deformed, misdirected, and perverted we see terrible outcomes. The answer to the problem is not to ignore or suppress this aspect of our humanity – witness the result of trying to do that with our sexuality – but to understand and appreciate it in a way that allows it to blossom into the truth, holiness, and beauty that it calls us to.

Chuck