This Is What Saudi Arabia's First PSA For Violence Against Women Looks Like

[BainsBane]

46. The cult of personality is not religious

Stalin and Pol Pot came from ideologies that condemned religion. Hitler's ideology was clearly secular. While you may see aspects that are similar to religious devotion, they were all secular regimes. In fact, under Soviet-style communism, religion was deligitimated so that those who openly worshiped had no hope of advancing in the Communist party and hence society.

My point is that human beings have committed atrocities while evoking any number of justifications. For the 20th century, most of the justifications were secular. In earlier eras, particularly pre-Enlightenment, those atrocities were justified through religion. Religious justification is no more deadly than secular ideologies. Actually the latter have been more deadly, but that I attribute to the greater mortality of 20th century technologies of death.

Erasing religion from the planet will do nothing to curb human rights abuses and oppression. People simply evoke different ideologies of justification. The problem is violent acts and oppressive policies. The Particular ideological justifications are merely window dressing.