A disappointng exercise

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One of my colleagues had a little foible. If you earned an A-, and he liked you and thought you were capable of an A+, he would mark your grade Incomplete and have yhou redo the exam or the entire course. Students would prostrate themselves outside his office door moasning, ""For the love of God, Professor Montresor!" [Not his real name]. But he was implacable - he really wanted you to do your BEST.

Now, I am not like that, but REALLY. I expected better of an assemblage of atheists involving the likes of MG and AP [not their real initials] and a couple others I might enumerate. Of course there are those among the sophomore crop of atheists who are - I use the term in its kindliest sense - lightweights. But the seniors and grad students include some I would - honestly - have been proud to have in one ofmy classes had they been there and inclined towards a spot of Linguistics. A couple trouble makers, but that adds spice to a class, I am not my other colleague who would get into shouting matches.

Can we try it again?

We are looking for quality, not quantity. Social and psychological problems that result unassailably from theism. Not those tied to a particular set of doctrines, not those that can be shown to be the outcome of the structure of organizations, not those that are found in human societies across the board. Not those which are the outcome of having an ideology whether that be theistic or not.

Do have a go. Even if you do not actually come up with anything, the mental exercise is valuable and edison would approve.

Well, that is a start. Not a lot of raised hands, but I can always count on the guys in the back row.

AG:

The issue, you say, is religion, not theism per se. The mindset common to organized religions such as Catholicism, Neo-Orthodoxy, "Evangelical" Christianity, some subsets of Lutheranism, at least Sunni and Shiite Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Hare Krishna - the list is not intended to be exhaustive. I assume we are not really discussing those religions not into the proselyte thing. Not going to worry about the ones that look to recruit but are really low pressure.

And, looking at the previous list, I would say we are focussing on manifestations of the drive to recruit, the drive to conform [transitive and intransitive], the drive to attain and use power, the drive to defeat a perceived enemy. Am I missing anything? I think everything can fit into one category or another.

So:

Please demonstrate how these features of religious organizations can be distinguished from the traits and actions of recruiting / activist organizations united by a different focus:

a political party, an environmentalist group, health fooders, advocates of X's rights, a labor union; other examples will spring to your mind.

Is there, in other words, a reason to see "religions" as more problematic than other proselytizing organizations?