My own theory about why 'the more religious or idiological you get the more violent and radical you get' is because of the internal conflict within the brains themselves between idiology or religion(unproven stories) and 'reality'! Most religious people are unfortunately 'proud' of having that brain freeze as I call it. The radical (excessive greed for example) and violent are nothing more than a way of your brains to take your mind away from that confilct. And yes most biologists agree I suppose that homo sapiens were tiny cells before they evolved into the (mostly) greedy and hateful killing machines they are now. They were more peaceful when they lived at sea!

Humans are the most successful gene producing machines bigger than a rat. (with the obvious exception of chickens) It can't be easy to get rid of the drives that got us here. Some of us have been trying, and in the last few thousand years there's been progress. Maybe in a few thousand more years there will be enough that whoever is left can look back at history as something truly left behind. Until then we're a bunch of monkeys that get really upset when the other monkeys won't do what we want them to.

The religious people I know seem to rely on it mostly to justify their own immoral behavior. Therefore they are the worst human beings I know. I work at a school run by the most polite old lady who is devoutly Christian. Its a boarding school that is supposed to be on lockdown, but secretly she allows some employees to travel home daily to Phoenix, where most of the COVID 19 cases are in our state. She is putting the entire school at risk as well as our entire county. But she believes her actions are ok because she can't even entertain the slightest thought that she could act immorally, ever. So, what do you do with that?

This is a good commentary. I have an aunt who is retired and has spent most of her life with anxiety over money and it's just gotten worse despite the fact she is well off and was able to retire early. I don't get the obsession over material possessions and money. She's not a religious person but material possessions can become a religion for people, taking a lot of their time and energy.

She's missed out on a lot of life because of the anxiety over it. It's unpleasant for me to be around somebody like that.

Or maybe as it has been theorized we are nothing more than a program on a computer.

Rationally & humanity. Nope, never going to happen.
We're "Killer Apes".

You are noticing the destructiveness of self-rejection.

"The fanatic is not really a stickler to principle. He embraces a cause not primarily because of its justness or holiness but because of his desperate need for something to hold onto." - Eric Hoffer

"Religion is not a matter of God, church, holy cause, etc. These are but accessories. The source of religious preoccupation is in the self, or rather the rejection of the self. Dedication is the obverse side of self-rejection. Man alone is a religious animal because, as Montaigne points out, "it is a malady confined to man, and not seen in any other creature, to hate and despise ourselves.." - Eric Hoffer

I see how many people die for no rational reason.

True

I see how many people die from war, disease, and crime.

>True

I see how people are obsessed with money and hold it dearer than life itself.

I have a son with autism, and it will take approximately $3,000,000 to support him for the rest of his life. I don't care much for material things, but I want my son to be well cared for after I'm gone. Many people have similar concerns.

And yet they tell me they are religious .

What is the logic the concern for money and concern for religion are mutually exclusive? Have you ever heard of Joel Osteen?

And I wonder how it can be that people actually think they are important in a universe which doesn't, and shouldn't, care.

Every organism is important from its own perspective.

Maybe we are a virus; and when viewed in terms of the universe we may well be.

Interesting view

In nature little birds clean the teeth of the hippo and he likes that. For what we are doing to the planet, I'm not sure the planet likes that. Is what we see today simply a reaction, or is the planet fighting back?

Believers are the masters of cognitive dissonance. Having and justifying opposing thoughts is natural for them.

"Sex is nasty, save it for your wife or husband."

"God is omnipotent and loves you more than you can know, but if you don't believe that, he will burn you in hell."

God doesn't tempt or test, okay, maybe he does:
Genesis 2:8-9; Genesis 22:1; and James 1:13

I’d say we’re a plague on this planet. So would it ... if it could speak. The Religious attempt to convince themselves and others they are different, not animals, not even of this planet, but placed here by some ‘omnipotent being’ to consume it.. It is a sick and deadly lie.

Attempt to tell them otherwise - and the full force of their denial will be brought down on you! Often lazy-brained, they follow, assuming, if ever forced to answer for their deeds ..they can simply point to the church hierarchy and ‘let them explain.’ At the core, that Hierarchy is the nucleus of the contagion; their followers are simply the surrounding matter that protects it…

How do we fight it? We unite with reality, defend science, promote education, lead by example and teach - our children well.. And every so often, it appears Nature does some Spring Cleaning - so dodge the broom ~

Animals die, plants die, everything that lives dies.
So what?
We are more like a cancer than a virus, in that like cancer cells, our growth is out of control, and like them we will kill the host body (Earth) if we do not bring this unchecked multiplication back UNDER control.
That's why human beings will perish if the root problems causing this growth are not taken seriously, diagnosed, and confronted head on: competing religions, ideologies, the accompanying distractions preventing cooperation, and perhaps even the resulting war, pestilence, disease,scarcity of resources and economic strains.
It is inevitable.
If we don't deal adequately with this, it will eventually, slowly but surely, overwhelm the human race and destroy us.
This is why a world government, I think, will happen sooner rather than later. It will be the only path to survival. All the technology is now in place to not only make it possible, but inevitable.

People all die for rational reasons, they typically don’t die for a rational purpose. Cause is rational. A bomb exploding under your feet, a knife wound, getting hit by a bus, contracting Ebola.... if we didn’t die for rational reasons, there would be no need for forensic pathology. The real question is how they get there. It’s the very nature of reality that people die without apparent purpose. That’s where the meaning of life comes into play. I think average people need to have some fundamental meaning in their life’s to give them a structural foundation upon which to order their lives. So religion. Of course, existential fear is also fundamental to the reason for religion. And then there’s simple rationalization and human psychology that explains why people are money grubbing. Within a persons life, making a living has fundamental importance, even if that’s inconsistent with their purported religious position.
I just dismissed any desire to give fundamental meaning to anything and just embraced the the importance of peculiar minutia. Existentialism.

Death in the name of religion is the scourge of mankind. Maybe we should all listen to the words of Bob Dylan when he sings "With God on our side"

( I see how many people die from war, disease, and crime. I see how people are obsessed with money and hold it dearer than life itself. And yet they tell me they are religious . )
The ills you describe and religion are well connected, so maybe humans aren't the virus but just the hosts for the virus that comes in many strains but is collectively called religion.
Also, let's not get too grandiose, humans and their religious infection are confined to one small planet as far as we know, the universe seems safe at the moment.

I think you hit it right on the nose for the defination #3 for a virus.

virus

1. an infective agent that typically consists of a nucleic acid molecule in a protein coat, is too small to be seen by light microscopy, and is able to multiply only within the living cells of a host.
   "a virus infection"
2. a piece of code which is capable of copying itself and typically has a detrimental effect, such as corrupting the system or destroying data.
3. an intelligent organism on a planet that is seen as having the highest of intelligence capabilities that is apart of causing people to die from war, disease, and crime while they are obsessed with money and hold it dearer than life itself.

Maybe we are the virus? We, humans, are the virus, the plague, the parasites, whatever you want to call us. We, as a species, are causing loads of damage to this planet. We don't consume only what we need, we waste too much. We are still surviving but for how long? Will this planet make a cleansing and get rid of most of us, humans?