the belief that where you live is the holy land, center of the world, is a scary thing, and a very easy and attractive thing to belive in. when you belive that you and your people are at the center of the world, you become capable of the most horrible things imaginable.
for hundreds of years the church led us to belive that the earth was flat, and was in the middle of the galaxy with all the stars and planets revolving around earth. that has gradually led to the collective subconcious notion which exists even today, that we as earthly humans are superior and dominant to all other life and matter (which is very naive). this has led us to the current state of affairs - the atomic bomb, global warming, terrorism, etc. what do you think happens when one group in power belive they are superior in spirituality or whatever else? crack open your history books. you get nazis, the inquisition, the conquistadors, and the worst wars this planet has seen.
the factor which indicates a well-thought-out ideology versus a shallow and naive one; is in that the well thought out one always understands that it may or may not be right, proven by "science" or not. mormons, and most hardcore cult members and christians belive they are always right, and THEY have the answer, and the answer is written in (insert random bible quote here). because of that, even though they claim to allow others to do and say and belive what they want, they will never allow it.
oddly enough in modern days, the only three religions, the only cultures which still belive "they are right no matter what" is fundamentalist islam, the catholic church, and north american "christians". jews, budhists, hindus, the majority of tribal religions, and the majority of islamic mosques acknowledge and understand that they may not be right, and that the answer may not lie only with them.
