It should be noted that those places are not simply bad because of GOD, but because of MAN. All of which we have caused (the Holocaust, countless wars, apartheid, raping, murdering, pillaging of innocents) has been done by HUMANS. Humanity is to be blamed, not God.
The question of if God/Religion is a good thing is not seemingly (to me) that difficult. Humanity is to blame for everything bad happening, and if we want to unload our guilt and blame into a supreme being NOT intervening to stop us, shame on us as a species.
And people are seemingly trying to throw me in with the whole "you believe every NON comforming Christian goes to hell". I struggle with this concept. IE, a Buddhist monk, a kind man who has lived his ENTIRE life for the betterment of others around him, including the random slug he would never kill, is sent to hell, by an omni benevolent (all caring) God, simply because he didn't believe in him? How is that in any way justified?
Furthermore, Ockam's Razor is a tough idea to get around with ID put into the equation. Yes, it can be construed as impossible to be mixed. Oil and water. However, here is how I view it.
1 Solution - God/Supreme being exists, and created EVERYTHING we see. All powerful, etc etc.
10,000,000,000,000 etc Solutions all combining perfectly- Everything came about in the exact right way to create the exact right circumstances, which then created us.
It's all personal I suppose.