Religion is not the root of all evil, at least, not in my point of view. Somehow all the religions must have been based on respect, honesty, and tolerance, because otherwise no one would have accepted them back in the old days when they were "founded". I mean, a religion changes something in your life, and if you want to accept that change, the only possibility is that it was a good change, a positive change.
So basically, I think that religion is nothing but a way of giving voice to things people didn't really understand when they didn't have knowledge of (for example) the seasons of the year, or whatever.. They thought of stories that answered those things (Think of the ancient greeks, for example, the way the people in Africa were brown, was just because some boy, a son of some god, took the sun, and putted it too close to the earth, so the earth burned, and some people turned brown.. See? Just a way to explain things people did not understand)
And people didn't understand what happened after they died, or where they were, before they were born. Hell, we don't understand that now either.. We can't *see* that.. We can't *understand* it.. But we want to.. So we make up "stories" (I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings! Please don't feel mad towards me..) like the Bible and the Koran, just to give reason and meaning to the things around us.. Like "There is a heaven and a hell, and if you live your life good, you'll go to heaven, and if you are bad, you'll go to hell".
But well, since there were many people on the world, and they didn't travel as much as we do, or didn't have internet or tv, those stories were different all over the world (though there are some things that are the same. For example: Scandinavian and Greekish myths about gods tell stories about the sun, the rain, etc etc.. Thor, for example, the god of thunder, who could control the rain and thunder, and Zeus, for example, who was the ultimate god in Greek history, and lived on mount Olympus.. They were both extremely powerful)
But, let's continue my rambling
Like I said, there are many different people and they hardly ever met. So the stories developed in different ways, and people mirrored their gods to the people they are.. (For example: 3000 years ago in Africa, there were no "white" people, so I can imagine that their Gods must have been "black" too, since they didn't know there were "white" people too.. It must have been a crazy idea for them to think someone could have a different skin colour)
But when people meet, different cultures meet. Luckily, some of us see that those different cultures, this mix of everything, is a great way to learn new things, and are genuinely interested in what other people have to say, what other ancient *stories* can tell them.
But, unfortunately, other people feel like their stories are the only stories that are true.. So they feel as if the entire world should listen to *their* stories, and that all the other stories are bullshit.. These are the people that turn religion and a way of living, into evil..
Religion isn't evil, in my opinion. The people who give it way too much value, and want other people to think the same thing, those are the ones who are evil. You can never force anyone to belief in your stories, when you use violence and fear. I just wish someone could see that..