What is a good estimate of the lives lost to religious wars, heresy, persecution, etc. since say around 1 CE?

Question

Include Christians tossed to the lions, fighting in Northern Ireland, Middle East fighting with Israel, Holocaust, witch hunts, etc. No religion is exempt.

I am trying to get a perspective on the destructive nature of religion, not blaming a specific religion. I'm not giving any religion the moral high ground here.

I want to compare religion driven deaths to wars for land acquisition or trade or purely political reasons. If you can't separate politics from religion, then it's counted in the religious total.

Answer 1

Well, lets see, the holocaust, including the soldiers, was about 100,000,000, then there was the revolts in the USSR, that was well over a billion.... well, lets just say that the losses were to damn many.