Quote Originally Posted by El Kabong View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Gandalf View Post
I would take the word smart out of the equation and replace it with religious. Hitler himself was a Catholic, Blair a Catholic, Bush a Christian Fundamentalist, the Middle East is full of off their rocker type leaders who will stone a women for looking at a man. Religion has been the greatest hindrance to human peace in human history.

Even the people to be protected as advocated by Jesus, was only a 'protect our own' peace. He wanted to protect Jews and Jews alone, the love thy neighbors of the 10 commandments were Jews, it was only ever about another form of worshipping in a cult. Heathens were always acceptable roadkill according to the Bible.

If, and I really doubt most of the evidence proffered in the Bible, is true, Jesus really decided to sacrifice himself in an attempt to cleanse away all past and future sins, then it was surely an act of supreme arrogance, as he clearly wasn't the son of God. More realistic was that he was bugging the Romans, got caught and died. End of. Then later, some blokes get an idea on how to reinterpret that life and it became influence and power.
And Mao & Stalin worshipped what? You would be the expert on arrogance.
Power?

You made the argument that several smart people have been responsible for terrible things, whilst I made the basic observation that many people have used religion as a veil for their misdeeds and cruelty. There are notable world leaders, but that also extends down to ordinary people. Take for instance the centuries liong persecution of the Jews, or the religious divide in Northern Ireland, or the average American Christian loathing of Muslims today. Take religion out of the equation, and much of the hate has to be eradicated from the calculation too. It's not that simple, but religion is the main problem in many parts of the world, it simply doesn't act as a unifier or a solution, it is an inherent divide and ruler.

Your observation that several smart people have been responsible for terrible things was vague and therefore almost bereft of any meaning. You can quntify it far more by adding religion, or unregulated capitalism, or could have instead mentioned Mao or Stalin which you finally did above. Power is another corrupting element and so perhaps instead you could say that many world leaders have initiated terrible acts and the cause was immense arrogance and concentrations of power.

Your good friend Obama is a case in point. He told a truckload of porkies to get his job and has been locking up whistleblowers left, right, and centre. Continues to torture people in Guantanamo, assassinate's people on a weekly basis, has the greatest spying apparatus in world history, locks up truth revealing whistleblowers, does his best to bomb any nation based on made up evidence, etc etc. A very dangerous man with too much power and according to some he is either Christian or Muslim based on the direction of the wind. Incredibly dangerous.