They all think that their religion is the "right" one and it causes them to think they are better than everyone else!

Everyone likes to believe they are right.

I don't know but the evangelists are acting like the catholic church many years ago by trying to convert people. I guess it's better because they don't kill you if you don't convert, right?! And using one book as a source for all problems and situations--how narrow minded.

there are always going to be people who are going to feel that they are "holier than thou." The fact that they act in this manner means that they are not!

Because they think without religious teaching we would all be killing raping and robbing. But statistics show that most convicts are believers in one of the main religions. So what can we learn from that ?

Because they have the definitive word of god.

Religions serve, in part, to help people feel special, set apart from the common folk. If you follow a religion, how tempting and expected to believe it to be divinely revealed "Truth" with a capital T. That obviously makes other belief systems "false" religions. "How convenient." So easy to feel "Just a Leeeetle bit Superior!" in the words of Church Lady. lol

Well, each religion claims that they possess the "absolute truth", so it would stand to reason that they would believe they have the monopoly on moral and ethical posturing

Believers tend to think they're better than everyone else. Their religions teach them that they are. Morals and ethics have very little to do with religion. It's part of the hypocrisy of delusion.
It's like saying, "I'm a very stable genius", when everyone knows you're a complete mentally defective idiot.

One very important part of religion and or many groups is the teaching of exclusivity. That is we are special because we are a part of this particular team, club etc. It's just a part of social psychology. All religions do in fact teach exclusivity. Their God becomes their identifier. It is not like being part of a local softball team, it is much more intense and the identifier becomes associated with one's identity. People play softball they do not think of themselves as softball players or randomly walk up and identify themselves as such.
They also have a lot of time and money invested into their religion. The more someone invest into something the more attached they become to an idea. This builds on the psychological aspect thinking. People are far less likely to give up on something even if it's a bad investment or idea if they have put a lot of energy into it. Con artist take advantage of this all the time.
The God factor..... a person with great charisma can convince many people to do many things. If they can convince them that God wants them to do it they might do anything.

Once we throw the God concept into the lot everything becomes much more intense. It is believed by many that man has no authority over God. So whatever man thinks does not matter at all. Once humans have been dehumanized, humans become completely unimportant, it is only gods will that matters, it does not matter if humans are hurt if it is God's will. So in order to build up the God the entire culture is about minimizing the importance of humans and stressing the importance of God.

Special knowledge.... every religion has its own "special knowledge". This is vital for any religion and sets it apart from others. If there was no special teachings the religion itself would not be special. This is one of the major factors that feeds into the idea of exclusivity. Morals and ethics tend to be the core of this "special knowledge". Added to this is special teachings on how to conduct ones lives. This does two things first it makes people more dependent on the religion, second it ties people together that practice it making them feel closer together as a group. Religion is about feeding into people's psychological and sociological tendencies thus making them "feel" special and thus making them more dependent on the given religion.

Religion is all about teaching that they do have a monopoly on morals and ethics. If they did not, it would not then be a religion as it would lack the previously stated factors.

That makes a very interesting point. It's also one of the reasons why I feel comfortable with the Unitarian universalists. It is the belief of the U.U 's that all religions have a positive side, and we can learn a thing or two. We study the positive in all religions, But many of us are still atheists and agnostics

To paraphrase George Carlin, they think there is an invisible man in the sky with a list of things they can't do, or he'll put them in a hole where they'll burn in torment for eternity... But he loves them. There is no sound reason for any of what they think regarding their faith.

They have been a force for so long, they have gotten very good at brainwashing people. Until I started actually looking at my religion, I actually thought that's where morality came from. I had been taught that from the time I was a baby. When someone suggested to me that the Bible was just another book it made me think. Indoctrination is a very powerful tool. The people in the religion for the most part, really believe the crazy things they say.

Because they have been taught that their religion is the absolute basis for all morality.