Let's get a bit deeper into this.
The danger of a religious person in a powerful position is that many religions have a call for action against others of a wrong religion or denomination. That is the reasons why extremists take it upon themselves to commit violent actions of those who are not of their faith, or those who 'break the rules'. Like the muslims who flew themselves into a building.
A religious person with much power might feel the need to force his rules down upon the other people, and put up horrible punishments against those who break the rules. When you look at certain countries you see how it works. Saudi Arabia is a good example, where the smallest break of rule warrants horrible physical punishments like chopping off hands and many strikes with a leash...and even stoning people.
Another example: In one town the police went on a strike for a day. That day many crimes were commited, mostly thievery. The population were Christians...appareantly, the thought of hell didn't stop them, but the thought of an earthly commanding force (police) did.
Does the thought of hell really stop people? No, sadly, no. The point is that the bible is very unclear on a great deal of rules. So what happens is that a lot of people 'pick and choose'. Killing is not allowed in the bible, but yet a lot of commands for killing are given by god himself. We shall live our neighboor, but at the same time the bible calls for hatred for children who disobey, people who cheat, or people who love someone from their own gender. People tend to be confirmisist; they will look for whatever confirms their ideas and believes and continue acting upon those. They will do the most horrible things while truly believing that they are doing the right thing and won't go to hell.
So in reality, religious man is no better then atheists...And it could even be argued they are worse, because their moral base is a BAD one.
The danger of a religious person in a powerful position is that many religions have a call for action against others of a wrong religion or denomination. That is the reasons why extremists take it upon themselves to commit violent actions of those who are not of their faith, or those who 'break the rules'. Like the muslims who flew themselves into a building.
A religious person with much power might feel the need to force his rules down upon the other people, and put up horrible punishments against those who break the rules. When you look at certain countries you see how it works. Saudi Arabia is a good example, where the smallest break of rule warrants horrible physical punishments like chopping off hands and many strikes with a leash...and even stoning people.
Another example: In one town the police went on a strike for a day. That day many crimes were commited, mostly thievery. The population were Christians...appareantly, the thought of hell didn't stop them, but the thought of an earthly commanding force (police) did.
Does the thought of hell really stop people? No, sadly, no. The point is that the bible is very unclear on a great deal of rules. So what happens is that a lot of people 'pick and choose'. Killing is not allowed in the bible, but yet a lot of commands for killing are given by god himself. We shall live our neighboor, but at the same time the bible calls for hatred for children who disobey, people who cheat, or people who love someone from their own gender. People tend to be confirmisist; they will look for whatever confirms their ideas and believes and continue acting upon those. They will do the most horrible things while truly believing that they are doing the right thing and won't go to hell.
So in reality, religious man is no better then atheists...And it could even be argued they are worse, because their moral base is a BAD one.
When I was a Christian, I was annoyed with dogmatic condescending Christians. Now that I'm an atheist, I'm annoyed with dogmatic condescending atheists. Just goes to prove that people are the same, regardless of what they do or don't believe.
