It doesn't take religion to make "good" people do "bad" things. It just takes an authority figure.
Exactly (see my other comment in response to yours).
If you're a wannabe authority figure with grand ambitions but no sound arguments, what's your next step? You either invent a God, claim the favor of an existing one, or (in the case of the Communist personality cultists) become one yourself.
When someone like me says that they "hate religion", what we are really saying is that we hate this process, and wish it would stop working so well.
Exactly (see my other comment in response to yours).
If you're a wannabe authority figure with grand ambitions but no sound arguments, what's your next step? You either invent a God, claim the favor of an existing one, or (in the case of the Communist personality cultists) become one yourself.
When someone like me says that they "hate religion", what we are really saying is that we hate this process, and wish it would stop working so well.