Seig!!!!

Odd that Ben Stein is running around trying to convince people that secular humanism lead to the atrocities of the Nazis.

Clearly, a fundamental requirement for deep religious faith is a blind loyalty to authority. That's why the right wing insists, for example, that if you criticize a war (any war), then by definition you "don't support the troops". I've actually seen people argue that point, and you know who you are.

This is why religious people insist that "our nation was founded on Christianity", without actually substantiating it - at all. They never, ever, define what that means.. It's just a wedge, to drive between people, pitting one group against another. The right is particularly good at this.. attacking gays.. attacking "illegal" immigrants.. attacking secular ideology, or people of different faiths.. Over and over again we see the same tactics.

History does have a way of repeating itself. We find ourselves in a war of choice.... with all rhetoric that goes along with it. The language is exactly the same.. the torture and brutality.. the piles and piles of dead bodies.. repeated over and over and over again... all the while, most of us have no idea what has been done in our name.

“Naturally the common people don’t want war. But after all, it is the
leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it’s always a
simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy or a
fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of
the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are
being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and
for exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every
country.”
--- Hermann Goering, Hitler’s Reich Marshall, at the Nuremberg
Trials after World War II.

And the quote from Hitler is nearly word for word those that you hear from Christians today. Is it possible to end the cycle without destroying organized religion?

I think not.