The problem is that its not harmless! Lets be fair, for instance: If Iraqis weren't religious do you think they would listen to either Iran or Saudi? No, they wouldn't. But now, they're are dying simply because of their beliefs, each side is telling their proxy groups that "You are doing the right thing!". Some of these "terrorists" really have potentials, had they used their brains NOT to kill others and instead put their efforts into something useful, the world would have been different.
We might be dead by then, but the least we could do to build its foundation. I don't want to get into science fiction here, and the probability that we might have an encounter with "Aliens" is extremely low, but not NIL. Nonetheless, we need to be united more than ever, otherwise the human race will destroy itself.