After the bloody history with kings who argued their position "came from God" and now islamist politicians in Turkey/Egypt, how about humanity get the message that "Being on a mission from God" is not necessarily a good thing outside of "Blues Brothers"?
Sorry for going OT, I am probably as fanatic on this subject as Erdogan himself. :-)
I'm a christian, and I'll take your statement a step further. Any ruler who publicly claims the support of "god" to justify their actions has given up the right to claim the support of the people. Especially if those actions serve to increase that ruler's power.
With a bunch of billion of people, there are certainly smart and competent people that believe in Santa Claus and can do a wonderful job in some subject areas, because they follow what Santa tells them...
Statistically, some of those guys can also be trusted with more general areas. How can you distinguish those? (Consider that Santa might tell them to lie to you when your hire/vote for them. Or Santa might change his mind.)
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As a hard line atheist:
After the bloody history with kings who argued their position "came from God" and now islamist politicians in Turkey/Egypt, how about humanity get the message that "Being on a mission from God" is not necessarily a good thing outside of "Blues Brothers"?
Sorry for going OT, I am probably as fanatic on this subject as Erdogan himself. :-)
Edit: English grammar.
I'm a christian, and I'll take your statement a step further. Any ruler who publicly claims the support of "god" to justify their actions has given up the right to claim the support of the people. Especially if those actions serve to increase that ruler's power.
Agreed. My formulation also included people that "know" what god's will is.
Not every view of God is the same. There are surely counterexamples (Blues Brothers aside).
Let me put it like this...
With a bunch of billion of people, there are certainly smart and competent people that believe in Santa Claus and can do a wonderful job in some subject areas, because they follow what Santa tells them...
Statistically, some of those guys can also be trusted with more general areas. How can you distinguish those? (Consider that Santa might tell them to lie to you when your hire/vote for them. Or Santa might change his mind.)