That's quite a catalogue of hate. I suppose it belongs in this thread if you are saying that the Catholic church do the conspiracy stuff as well as other powers that be. Histrically this is absolutely undeniable. Of course they wanted to maintain their power over people and prevent them from learning the truth. And no doubt the Vatican is as secretive as any government on earth. They do not, however, have the power over people's lives that they used to. There have been times when to be anything other than Catholic meant execution. There have also been times when to be anything other than Protestant meant execution. People here in Europe have long memories and most are rather tired of sectarian disputes leading to war and strife.

I sense more here than just a desire to discuss past wrongs of the Catholic church though. These links contain some pretty extreme statements. Whether or not you wanted to study them in depth, I guess my question is, why is the implication here that the Catholic church is the bad guy (i.e. not even "Christian") and all other Christians the good guys? Protestants just haven't had the time, or quite the opprotunity yet, to catch up. But they are trying. Case in point, the rise of the religious right in the US and its continual forays into the politics of power. If they had their way they would ban abortion, make homosexuality a crime or a mental illness (as it once was seen), teach creationism in every school, and suffuse the whole government with Christian fundamentalist dogma, getting rid of what little there is left of separation between church and state. Maybe you would like to see this and would call it good. Plenty of other people feel their blood run cold at the thought.

I'm not quite sure about the point you want to make regarding symbols. Every religion has symbols. Protestant religions like Calvinism attempted to strip these symbols away, no doubt in pursuit of an ideal that is closer to the plain and simple truth. I find imagery and icons rich and spiritually stimulating. So what if many Christian symbols have their roots elsewhere. Maybe this would only bother you if you were trying to "prove" that Christian sects that use symbology (i.e. almost all of them to some degree) are blasphemous because they are tainted with paganism. My point of view is that cultures influence each other and they always borrow ideas from each other. I don't see a division bewteen paganism-bad/Christianity-good. To me they are all religions.

Why isn't there this depth of feeling about truly harmful cults? I read the biography of L. Ron Hubbard. Now there's a really whacko way of life, and it's got a number of celebrities endorsing it. Other cults induce people to give up their families, their money, their very lives. If you're going to dig around for religions that harm people, why not start there?