I particularly like the concept here of ‘truth claims’ and the suggestion to evaluate competing truth claims for logical coherence and factual basis.
“As such, it is important to avoid the secular/religious distinction and instead focus upon factual debate and discussion over the coherence of particular views.” ~ J.W. Wartick.
The myth of religious violence should finally be seen for what it is: an important part of the folklore of Western societies. It does not identify any facts about the world, but rather authorizes certain arrangements of power in the modern West… The myth also helps identify Others and enemies, both internal and external, who threaten the social order and who provide the requisite villains against which the nation-state is said to protect us. (William Cavanaugh, 226, cited below)
I recently discussed a phenomenal work by William Cavanaugh, The Myth of Religious Violence
The Myth Played Out
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Right Angles 
Certainly there are other causes of violence than religion, religion is way up there on the list of causes. “With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil—that takes religion.” Steven Weinberg, Nobel Laureate in Physics 1979
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