In a nutshell, no. There has always been killing in the name of God. Some of it by command, but most of it man deciding they should do it. It can be hard to tell the difference from the outside looking in.

BELIEF SYSTEMS

However, regardless of who we are, we believe in something. It may not be due to a formal religion or faith. It may be belief in nothing, which is still a belief, and it might be a belief in man's abilities to overcome, or a belief in the State.

EXTREMISM

The problem is, within most religions, there are those who believe the true faith, the purist form, pushes beyond the mainstream practice. Some of those, and one in particular, believes that violence and subjugation is better than wanton disregard for what they believe is God's law. They are God's justice, purging the earth of the unfaithful.

In this case, is it religion's fault, or do we put the blame squarely on those extremist that teach a radicalized, weaponized form of the religion to the point where it's virtually unrecognizable?

Personally, I think you deal with the latter. The problem has been, doing so tends to create a breeding ground for more radicalization. There is, however, much more involved than just the extreme views. Poverty, lack of freedom, hopelessness—all play a part, and go beyond just the religion, since it also permeates the governance. It's not only the faith in many cases, it becomes the law.

ALL RELIGION

To lump every religion, and everyone professing belief in any of them, into the same category is akin to saying that all of one particular ethnicity or country are the same, or that everyone in a certain profession should be done away with. It's simply impossible to judge every religious person equally. Not even God will do that, but according to their works, and the condition of their hearts.

GOOD PEOPLE

I believe that the vast majority of religious people are good. It's the bad or terribly misguided ones that tend to grab the news. There are literally millions of acts of kindness going on all over the world that don't get as much attention.

I also believe there are many people who aren't religious, or who don't believe in a supreme being of any kind who are good, and doing the best they can within their own belief systems. As someone who is a member of an organized religion, and a fairly strict one at that, I still have to recognize that people need to be good in order for even religion to touch their hearts. The desire to do more good than evil has to be present. In most cases, it doesn't just magically appear.

That said, I think religion still has a massively important role to play in the world. I think for most of us who adhere to some kind of faith do so to keep our own base desires and appetites in check, and for the most part, while we can't condone certain beliefs or behaviors, we don't seek to infringe on someone else's ability to believe and act as they will, but we will push back with the laws of man and God if someone should try to infringe on our same right and ability.

MANY REASONS

I think if we were all to sit down and take the time to examine what true belief and true religion offers society, it would far outweigh the bad the fringes do. We all know someone who is kind and generous, not only because that's the way they are, but because of a belief in a higher power, and a desire to be better and better because of that belief. I would hope that we would not overlook the many hours of humanitarian effort and the billions of dollars in resources and humanitarian aid that goes out of churches on a regular basis.

We all have a belief system, call it what you will. Religion is a large, complex system of many varieties and sub-varieties, and even more individuals. I would say the vast majority of believers would say they are much better for it.