Jesus Say, Monkey Do

Religion causes behavior. You have the religion, it tells you to to do things, and so you go out and do them. Jesus say, monkey do, or, that's the theory at least.

I don't buy it, simply because there's a difference between a cult leader demanding such sacrifice and sitting alone in a candle-lit basement believing that a stack of thin, leather bound sheafs of paper is demanding it. In one case, there's an actual cult leader, and in the second, well, that guy is batshit crazy and it wouldn't matter the focus of his insanity was a bible, 'religion', or a plastic bear filled with honey.