I Am Christ

[Aegrus]

Now, as for Stalin- Stalin was Catholic. Pol Pot was Buddhist.

Pol Pot said he didn't believe in god- but he did believe in guiding powers of fate that wanted him to act on their behalf. He also attacked science as much as organized religion.

I would also add from Aegrus's source:

Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge were composed of Buddhists and Pol Pot was a Theravada Buddhist. He studied at a Buddhist monastery and then at a Catholic school for 8 years. Cambodia's communism was influenced by Theravada Buddhism.

As a Buddhist follower myself I find Pol Pot's history disgusting and sad. Buddhism being one of the most peaceful and non-violent religions ever along with Jainism, I wonder how much evil influence his 8 years of Catholic schooling had on his ego-mania. Perhaps that planted bad seeds more so then Cambodia's native religion. I would imagine so.

Just goes to show that no religion can be used as proof of morality. Even a predominantly peaceful one like Buddhism. Even religions/magical world views with legitimately good messages can be unjustly corrupted by the biases of bigots. People rule their faith, not the other way around, and that can be both good and bad. Good when Christians decide not to kill homosexuals and atheists. Bad when they choose not to be generous, bad when they choose to steal or kill.

This supports what I've thought for a long time- religion does not make believers better than atheists. It doesn't make them worse, either. Religion doesn't change who you are- you choose what you believe based on what you already are, or who you want to become.

Honestly, if history had ever had many atheist leaders, I'm sure we'd see that they can be just as crazy as Christians. Mao approaches that. But what makes religion more dangerous than atheism is that it encourages absolute faith without proof or reason- and that makes it very easy for insane demagogues to gain power, as has been witnessed countless time throughout history.

Should religion be banned? Of course not. The many should not be punished for the crimes of the few, no matter how terrible the crimes. Plenty of perfectly good people are religious. But we can't allow religion to rule politics or undermine scientific method. The worst people will always take power when you start accepting absolute truths without demanding evidence for positive claims.

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I don't have any proof to support this last rant, though. Consider it my personal opinion.