is religion the root of all evil?

I don't think it's religion in and of itself which is evil, but rather it's the power-mongering empirical attitude of the monotheistic organised religions. The polythesiastic and atheist religions which existed before monotheism was invented just accepted others rights to worship whatever gods they chose, and didn't try to impose their local gods on others, or go around with the bullying "our god's the best/the real god, and your god is just imaginary/weak" mentality or the passive-agressive marketing techniques nowadays of "I'm so worried about you because you don't believe what I do so therefore as I think you're going to burn in hell, and that gives me the right to harrass you, and make you feel guilty for making me worry about your soul". Religion has made people believe that they need it in order to have ethics and morals, whereas in fact religion tries to destroy people's moral centre (which all humans have), and replace it with the religious leader's will and directives superceding all basic human moral decency. Monotheistic religion is about control and power, and makes its subjects as controllable as can be, to the point where they'll believe anything they're told, even if they know it to be false and just propoganda, because it's in their mindset that if they don't believe what they're told, it's because they "don't understand" or are having their "faith tested". It's sick, and it's mind-control, and it really is the "opiate of the masses". It's what religion has become which is so sick and evil, as it follows the same trends as the Empires which spawned them, working hand-in-glove with religious leaders to control the people as much as possible. Monotheistic organised religion is a very different thing to spirituality, and isn't at all the same thing as other religious practices, such as Buddhism for example, whose philosophies are the exact opposite of monotheist Western religious leaders' teachings.

very much true

religion is bad, but there would still be violence