Re: Unraveling Religion's "DNA"
From the article:
We easily expand that inborn need for protectors to authority figures of any sort, including religious leaders and, more saliently, gods. God becomes a super parent, able to protect us and care for us even when our more corporeal support systems disappear, through death or distance.
I thought the omission of political leaders (of all stripes) was kind of obvious, and when we look at world history it's kind of an important omission. I'll grant any reasonable reader would have assumed they fell under "authority figures," but still.
Seriously, in the past couple of centuries, how much damage have religious leaders done compared to political ones? Granted, this hasn't always been true, but it is now.
"How many divisions does the Pope have?" - Stalin