A great point MontyB, how much power do religious leaders wield & how do they use it? I presonally find it disturbing that virtually every religious sect preaches poverty and abstinence of some kind - at the lower levels. Yet these religious organisations are amongst the most wealthy concerns in the world - is this not a contradiction? How was this wealth accumulated - not by staying within their own borders & performing collections in their churches, synagogues, temples or mosques! It was raised through exploitation of belief and demonisation of other religions & races; why? Because they were a threat to the stability of the status quo, thus the religious orders & their comfortable life. So it was on with the rhetoric, off with pacifism & away we go!!
OK - here we go. Of course the belief in religions has caused conflict in the past, because the believers are made up of men; there lies the rub.
Darwin has shown us that survival of the fittest and natural selection expresses nature red in tooth and claw. Apply this to humans and you see a very ugly picture.
This AIDS question has been introduced, a red herring in my opinion and I have tried to avoid it, but as you insist, please allow me to remind you that The Pope did not cause AIDS, neither did religion; if their tenets had been maintained, we would never have have brought it down on us; millions will die from AIDS, and all warnings have been ignored ; the irresponsible practices continue; never mind that, just use a condom and carry on! All the Pope was advising is stop the irresponsible practices, now; abstain from such practices. That is how he sees it and feels he has a responsibility to not shy away from saying so. Many of us may feel that even so, condoms will help stem the tide.
However, millions lost to AIDS, many greater and continuing millions lost to abortion, none of them through religion; but nature red in tooth and claw, natural selection; the lack of any reflection of the spirit of man-kind thst raises him up to greater potential. Religions strive to search out and try to explain the meaning of life; but tooth and claw continually crop up in man.
So, back to Religion and War, where I tried to keep the issues; Yes, Christianity has a very blotted copybook, but religions live and grow and those days are now old history. Today there is only one religious war; that of Militant Islam v. The World; reason - religious and cultural domination at any cost. This is the challenge we face, like it or not, we have no choice, they are not interested in our 'by your leave'.
So in the 21st century, we do not see such from any other religion, but in answer to your question, are there any purely religious wars, I responded Yes, the one we face now.
For the record, I personally have the utmost respect for ALL the great religions ; a man chooses his own way to his God, in my opinion.
I believe in secular government, which is why I oppose the current Islamist approach, and trying to ignore it, to sweep it under the counter, does not put things right. Once you have paid the Danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane.
As far as recent post responses are concerned, I will get back to them as soon as I have time.